Attracting young familes focus of joint meeting
- Published: August 28, 2010
At last night’s joint meeting between the Yellow Springs School Board and Village Council, the first such meeting in five years, board and Council members discussed with the public ways to attract more young families to the village.
Recognized by both groups as vital to the town’s future, young families have been declining in number over the past few decades, according to statistics presented at the meeting, with fewer school-age children and less income tax two major consequences of the decline.
“Young people aren’t going to come here unless there’s a reason,” said school board member Angela Wright in emphasizing the need for more local job creation. “Schools need a stable economic base.”
“Being a magnet for young families by having good schools is one way [to attract them],” said council president Judith Hempfling. “Another issue we know we have is with the cost of housing.”
Meeting participants went on to offer a variety of strategies for increasing affordability in the village, through housing land trusts, zoning changes, economic development and more.
The meeting was also an opportunity for the two elected bodies to communicate about their goals and current activities, with many agreeing that the two groups be more aware of the impact of their decisions on the other.
For a full article on the meeting, including updates from the Council and school board, see the Sept. 2 issue of the Yellow Springs News.
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The incident at Subway the other night can’t just be swept under the rug, either. People who are moving here DO drive around after dark; maybe they have seen all the folks who hang around after dark. Sometimes it’s not a pretty sight, huh? We hang our dirty laundry out for all to see, but the parents are in bed….
I agree that the biggest thing is affordability. Most young families cannot afford the big McMansions that are being built and many want homes that don’t need mega repairs as soon as they are bought, which happens with many of our homes on the market. Along with some of the grants, it would be nice to look into some way to assist young homeowners who try to buy some of the fixer-uppers here in town, or some of the homes that have been left by seniors who have not done anything to them in years so that a new owner HAS to do things right away if more than one person is moving in…