Tiller Town core positioning: the Tillywood map page describes Tiller Town as 257.02± contiguous acres, 28 tax lots, nearly one full mile of South Umpqua River and Elk Creek frontage, multiple buildings/houses, a 13-acre pre-platted subdivision, 13 commercial-zoned affiliated tax lots, 4 industrial-zoned affiliated tax lots, the Tiller Store, and the Tiller Elementary School building of 16,588± sq ft on 6.58 acres.
Zoning Designations (CRC/MRC/ME/FF/AW/P)
For context, here is how the specific zones applied across these 31 combined tax lots impact development potential:
- CRC (Commercial Rural Center) & MRC (Mixed Residential-Commercial): These 13 affiliated lots in Tiller Town are vital for your commercial vision, allowing for retail (like the Tiller Store) and mixed-use development.
- ME (Mixed Employment) & Industrial: Applied to the 4 industrial lots, these are high-value zones ($108k+/acre) critical for large-scale operations or distribution hubs.
- FF (Farm Forest) & AW (Agriculture Woodlot): These zones, prominent in the remaining Tiller acreage and Lightning Ranch, support your interest in modular construction materials, sustainable farming, and timber management.
- P (Public): Typically designates land for community use, aligning with the Tiller Elementary School site (6.58 acres) or utility infrastructure.
| Asset cluster | APNs / parcels extracted | Acreage / building notes | Zone / use signal | Broker value driver |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Tiller Town | 28 tax lots | 257.02± acres | Mixed domestic, agricultural, commercial, industrial, public reserve, timber/resource | Rare “whole-town” control position with frontage, highway access, buildings, and multiple use paths |
| Tiller Elementary School | R18186 + R143213 | R18186 = 5.00 acres; R143213 = 1.58 acres; total school land shown as 6.58 acres; building listed as 16,588± sq ft | PR / Public Reserve | Adaptive reuse: institute, vocational campus, wellness academy, retreat, training, community facility |
| Tiller Store | R18162 | 0.38 acres; address discrepancy: map/user show 27598 Tiller Trail Hwy; ranch page shows 27590 | CRC | Existing store identity, equipment, 1-bedroom living quarter, highway-front commercial anchor |
| Cookhouse / Bunkhouse riverfront cluster | R17682, R18146, R18114 | R17682 = 2.97 acres; R18146 = 1.28 acres; R18114 = 0.65 acres | CRC | Restaurant, bunkhouse lodging, retreat housing, riverfront hospitality |
| Post Office leased land | R18170 | 0.35 acres | CRC/FF | Existing civic/service node; stable identity anchor |
| Old Porter House | R18154 | 1.91 acres | CRC/FF | Historic house / lodging / office / manager residence |
| Road House | R18234 | 0.81 acres; 2 bedrooms | CRC / commercial | Residential-commercial mixed-use support asset |
| Blue House | R18298 | 0.76 acres; two stories, 3 bed / 1 bath | Commercial | Staff housing, rental, office, lodging, retreat housing |
| Ranch / White House area | R17842, R17850, R17858, R18282, R18290, R18266 | R17842 listed 5 acres; R17850 1.85 acres; R17858 5.51 acres; small commercial strips 0.08, 0.01, 0.09 acres | Residential / AW/5R / commercial strips | Residential compound, owner/operator housing, gateway frontage |
| Green Shop / White Shop / industrial yard | R18226, R18202, R17650 | R18226 = 1.22 acres; R18202 = 1.29 acres; R17650 = 0.57 acres | MRC / Industrial | Contractor yard, warehousing, fabrication, food/cosmetic processing, rural logistics |
| Rural industrial / resource-industrial land | R17666, R17642 | R17666 = 5.46 acres; R17642 = 54.2 acres | ME and FF/ME | Resource-related industrial, mineral/aggregate exploration/processing potential, equipment/trucking |
| Pre-platted subdivision | R18122 | 13.3 acres | CRC/RR-2 noted as approved RR2 subdivision | Residential lots, workforce housing, wellness village, tiny-home/ADU strategy subject to county approval |
| Timber/resource parcels | R18138, R18058, R18194, R17658, R17826, R17674 | R18138 = 78.72 acres; R18058 = 8.82; R18194 = 14.29; R17658 = 1.64; R17826 = 12.03; R17674 = 31 acres | TR / AW / FF / 5R | Timber, trails, retreat privacy buffer, watershed, conservation, carbon/ecology story |
| Lightning Ranch / Turkey Farm expansion | R17426, M87036, R17442 | Ranch page shows 83 acres and addresses at 3831, 3835, and 4481 S Umpqua Rd; page also shows a combined figure around 339.6 acres, which appears to approximate Tiller Town plus the 83-acre ranch | Ranch / agricultural-resource | Adds ranch-scale food, wellness agriculture, water, retreat, equestrian, and living-water positioning |
The Ranch page separately lists Tiller Town CW Properties Only at 249.64 acres, the Tiller Store at 0.38 acres, Tiller Elementary School at 5.00 acres, R143213 at 1.58 acres, “Total Acres Elementary School” at 6.58, “The Entire Tiller Town 257,” and then the 83-acre ranch/Livingston Ranch group.
Zoning-based value drivers
The strongest monetization zones are CRC, MRC, and ME because they directly support revenue-generating commercial and industrial uses.
CRC — Rural Community Commercial. Douglas County’s CRC classification is intended for commercial uses that improve rural community viability, livability, rural employment, and travel-serving needs. Permitted uses include grocery store, restaurant/café/delicatessen, retail, service station/repair garage, clubs/lodges, public/semi-public buildings, parks/community centers, and single-family dwelling in conjunction with a permitted use.
MRC — Rural Community Industrial. MRC is highly valuable for Tiller because it permits small-scale, low-impact manufacturing and related rural industrial uses up to 40,000 sq ft of floor space. Permitted uses include builder supplies, open commercial storage, wholesale salesrooms, food/cosmetic/drug/perfume/toiletry/soft-drink processing or packaging, warehouses, contractor/logging/excavation yards, freight and truck terminals, lumber yards, welding, and machine shops.
ME — Rural Industrial. ME supports pre-existing rural industrial use and resource-related industrial uses, with small-scale low-impact buildings generally capped at 7,500 sq ft unless special industrial-development standards apply. Permitted uses include resource-related trucking, warehouse/bulk fuel storage, machine/welding shops, industrial equipment storage, resource-related industrial uses, aggregate/mineral processing, and exploration of aggregate/mineral/subsurface resources.
AW / FF / TR / 5R / RR / PR. These zones are not as liquid as pure commercial land, but they create value through timber, agriculture, conservation, riverfront privacy, workforce housing, retreat programming, and institutional uses. AW is designed to conserve marginal agricultural/timber lands for agriculture and forest use, while FF is designed to retain farm/forest land and support watershed, recreation, wildlife, and agricultural/forest management. PR supports schools, public/semi-public buildings, parks, lodges/camps, recreation facilities, and conditionally hydroelectric, solar, wind, or geothermal generation facilities.
4. Water, frontage, timber, and strategic location
The older LoopNet-style PDF shows approximately 4,934.99 feet of combined South Umpqua River and Elk Creek frontage, equal to about 93.47% of a mile. It also shows distance anchors from Tiller: 24 miles to Seven Feathers Casino Resort, 49 miles to Medford airport, 129 miles to Eugene airport, 239 miles to Portland PDX, 348 miles to Sacramento airport, and 412 miles to San Francisco.
The water-rights PDF visually lists Town water-right certificates and uses including irrigation, domestic, commercial uses, fire protection, and sources including Salt Creek, Cole Creek, Elk Creek, and South Umpqua. The visible certificate list includes Cert. 7999, 8991, 26601, 24108, 26485, 43132, 68095, 67989, and 48797.
The Ranch instream-lease water-right PDF references Certificate 37416, irrigation of 49.3 acres, a South Umpqua River source, and priority/rate figures of March 8, 1966 for 0.375 CFS and April 1, 1966 for 0.245 CFS; the same document states the lease term was to terminate on October 31, 2022, so its current status must be confirmed with Oregon Water Resources Department.
Oregon’s no-general-sales-tax status is a real business-positioning advantage for retail, equipment, specialty manufacturing, and product distribution, but Oregon businesses selling into sales-tax states may still need to comply with destination-state sales-tax collection rules.