The Village’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan has included the maintenance of a “greenbelt” — an area of undeveloped land — around the boundaries of Yellow Springs since the late 1960s. (Submitted photo)
Miami Township Trustees commit $113,000 to Tecumseh Land Trust
- Published: August 30, 2024
At its regular meeting Monday, Aug. 5, the Miami Township Board of Trustees voted 2–1 to commit $113,000 to Tecumseh Land Trust, or TLT, for the possible conservation of farmland on the western edge of Miami Township.
As the News reported last week, TLT is currently eyeing land along Dayton Yellow-Springs Road, outside the village’s urban service boundary, that is likely to come up for auction this year. The land has been identified by TLT and the Village as a priority for conservation, and TLT aims to work to protect it against future development through conservation easements.
Krista Magaw, a volunteer with TLT and its former executive director, spoke before the Trustees on Aug. 5, outlining the Township’s long relationship with the nonprofit land trust. She noted that the Township has contributed $488,000 since 2000 to helping fund conservation easements on area farmland.
“There’s been some really good farmland — prime land — that’s protected by the Township funds,” Magaw said.
Magaw added that TLT’s focus on the Dayton-Yellow Springs Road land is motivated by a long-identified goal of Village government to curb development around the boundaries of the village; the Village’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan has included the maintenance of a “greenbelt” — an area of undeveloped land — around the boundaries of Yellow Springs since the late 1960s.
“There’s been targeted lands that the Village wanted to protect to prevent too much growth, and that was really clearly a goal from the beginning, but also to create this feel of nature and a small rural place with an active downtown,” Magaw said.
As yet, no auction date has been set for the land, but she said TLT has been “quietly making contacts” with land-owners and farmers nearby who might be interested in making bids and, later selling conservation easements on the land — a strategy Magaw said has worked for the land trust in the past with securing easements on both Whitehall Farm in 1999 and a portion of Arnovitz Farm, where Agraria is now located, in 2017. She added that TLT and all involved parties in those auctions had to move quickly in order to secure the land.
“It’s all kind of unknown,” she said. “So that’s why I’m here today, because it looks like that’s going to happen pretty fast.”
Much of the Township funding toward conservation easements was made possible through a previous greenspace fund that was replenished by Ohio estate taxes; as of 2013, Ohio no longer levies estate taxes, and the Township no longer maintains a dedicated greenspace fund.
With that in mind, Trustee Marilan Moir pointed out that the only funding the Township might be able to commit to TLT for the purchase of conservation easements would come from the remainder of funds it received through the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, in 2021. The federal funds were disbursed to state and local governments as a response to the widespread economic downturn that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic; the Township received $129,891 from ARPA.
According to emails from Moir and Trustee Chris Mucher this week, the use of ARPA funds was initially regulated by the federal government, those restrictions “were dropped a few years ago” and that there are currently “no restrictions” on the application of ARPA funds.
During the Aug. 5 meeting, prior to Magaw’s outline of TLT’s proposition regarding the Dayton-Yellow Springs Road land, the Trustees unanimously voted to commit $10,000 from the Township’s ARPA funds to the YS Development Corporation, or YSDC, to help fund a part-time director position (see the July 5 issue of the News for more); at press-time, YSDC is in the process of evaluating eight candidates for that position.
Moir said that the remaining ARPA funds have thus far been allocated to be used on the fire department; in a following email with the News, she said Mucher and Trustee Chair Don Hollister passed a resolution in March 2022 to put “almost all of the money into the Fire and EMS Payroll Fund.” The funds must be officially allocated in full by Dec. 31, 2024, and must be spent by the end of 2025.
Following Magaw’s presentation, Mucher said the Township has been aware of the Dayton-Yellow Springs Road land and its allure as a candidate for conservation for several decades. In a follow-up call with the News this week, Hollister agreed with that assessment, stating that the land in question has been a topic of discussion through his time serving on Planning Commission, Village Council and, now, as a Township trustee.
“For 50 years … I’ve considered that strip of land on Dayton-Yellow Springs Road to be the keystone of the greenbelt around the village,” Hollister said.
Mucher also noted that the Township’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan, which was last updated in 2012, contains a commitment to “protect existing prime farmland and environmentally sensitive land by encouraging land owners to apply for conservation easements.”
He went on to say that he was in support of committing the ARPA funds to TLT to direct toward conservation easements. He later added, however, that the funds would only be earmarked for the Dayton-Yellow Springs Road land specifically, and would be allocated elsewhere if TLT is not able to secure agreements with landowners to purchase conservation easements.
Moir laid out concerns about the flexibility of any conservation easements that might be secured for the land, particularly with regard to the possibility of farmers earning revenue by leasing the land for use by solar projects.
“There’s a high transmission [solar] line going down [nearby] Snypp Road, so that would be a really nice place for solar … that’s right there on the line,” Moir said. “And I know in the past, some of your easements have been inflexible about solar.”
Magaw said conservation easements can be flexible, to some degree, in that they are a “negotiation between the land trust and the land owner, with caveats from anyone else whose money goes into it,” adding that amendments can be made to conservation easements.
Beyond solar possibilities, Moir’s largest concern during the meeting was the overall financial health of Miami Township Fire-Rescue. She added that she felt the Trustees needed more time to consider whether it could justify committing the remainder of its ARPA funds to TLT.
“We don’t have a good handle on our long-term capital outlays, and we need a lot for the fire department,” Moir said. “I don’t particularly want to make the decision tonight.”
Mucher, however, said he felt committing the funds to TLT would address the “wants and needs” of Township residents laid out in the Comprehensive Land Use Plan, adding that the remaining ARPA funds are not adequate to fully address the needs of MTFR.
“We’re going to have to put another levy on the ballot specifically for new equipment,” he said. “We cannot do it out of the funding we have now, and this $100,000 is not going to make much of a change in that.”
Mucher made a motion to vote on committing the ARPA funds to TLT for the purchase of conservation easements on the Dayton-Yellow Springs Road land; Hollister seconded the motion, which passed 2–1, with Moir voting against.
Via email this week, Mucher again cited the Township’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan as identifying agriculture as the “number one priority of the Township,” which he said motivated his affirmative vote on the motion.
“As an elected representative of the people of Miami Township, I feel it is my responsibility to act on behalf of how the residents have spoken,” he said.
Also via email, Moir maintained that the decision to divert the ARPA funds from MTFR operations to TLT should not have been made during the meeting.
“A decision that big should not be introduced and voted on all in the same night,” she said. “That leaves no time for informed decision-making or public comment.”
By phone, Hollister told the News that Fred Kauser, a consultant the Township hired in May to advise on organizational development at MTFR, would be delivering his report on the first phase of analysis of MTFR’s operations with regard to its staffing model and overall financial health. The News will report on the results of this analysis in a future issue.
In other Township news:
• During its Aug. 19 regular meeting, Trustees approved a recommendation from the Township’s Zoning Commission for an addition to the zoning code that permits “solar self-generation” — that is, small solar arrays intended to produce energy for personal use on Township properties. The recommendation was first introduced during a July public hearing of the Zoning Commission.
The addition to the zoning code allows roof-mounted solar panels without a zoning permit, provided that they “do not exceed 120% generating capacity of the average yearly personal or property use and do not exceed maximum height permitted in the applicable zoning district.”
Ground-mounted solar panels are allowed with a zoning permit, with the same restriction on generating capacity, and must be located “in the side or rear yard, subject to all setback and height requirements in the applicable zoning district.”
• Interviews are currently underway for a new zoning inspector for the Township, to replace Carrie Smith, who was hired in June to replace Denise Swinger, who was serving as interim zoning inspector.
Smith leaves the position to take on a full-time position as building and zoning manager for Clinton County, but is currently continuing to serve as interim zoning inspector in a limited capacity while Township Trustees interview candidates to fill the position.
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