School board approves sale option for LIHTC project
- Published: December 4, 2024
Mirroring a decision made by Village Council earlier the same week, the YS Board of Education voted 3–2 during a special meeting Thursday, Nov. 21, to approve an option to purchase agreement with the Village of Yellow Springs.
As the News reported last week, Council members approved at their Nov. 18 meeting a resolution to enter into a purchase option agreement with the school district for 3.6 acres of the Morgan Fields property. The school district currently owns the acreage, which may be the site of a future 50-unit low-income housing development, known colloquially as the low-income housing tax credit, or LIHTC, project.
With the land now subdivided, rezoned for high-density residential development and cleared of financial encumbrances, it stands ready to help bring in $15 million in low-income housing tax credits that could be applied to the construction of the LIHTC project.
Standing before the board now is the replacement of Morgan Fields, which are used by both the wider community and the schools for soccer and other programs, if the tax credits are received and the LIHTC project moves ahead.
Two items that would have addressed replacement land were on the agenda for the school board’s Nov. 21 meeting — the approval of a property donation and approval of a resolution authorizing land donation — but those agenda items were tabled until the school board’s next meeting.
Superintendent Terri Holden said during the special meeting that a local landowner has come forward to donate 3.6 acres of land to the school district “for rec soccer, high school practice soccer and because this donor believes in affordable housing,” but added that the documents for accepting the property donation are “not ready yet,” prompting the tabling of the agenda items.
“Out of respect to that property owner, who is not yet ready to put the agreement on, I’m not going to mention [their] name or where the property is — but it would work,” Holden said.
She added that the district’s attorneys had communicated that it was appropriate to move ahead with voting on the option to purchase agreement, even though the agenda items regarding donated land were not on the table for discussion that night.
In particular, Holden pointed to contingencies laid out in the option to purchase, which read that the option will be “contingent upon one, an award of low-income housing tax credits by the Ohio Housing Finance Agency for the development on the property, and two, [the district] previously providing written confirmation to [the Village] that [the district] has secured land to replace the property and has funds available to convert the replacement land into athletic fields.”
Noting that the school board has already passed a resolution stating that the athletic fields will not be sold or developed unless they are adequately replaced, Holden added: “I have to put some form of institutional trust in [the option to purchase agreement], like I would hope other organizations would put institutional trust in the resolutions and the whole variety of things we’ve passed here. … My ask of my board, and of everyone else, is that we finish this.”
Before voting, the board entered into a two-hour discussion of the option to purchase agreement. That discussion included comments both from board members and from community members who were present. Though some who spoke were in support of moving ahead with the agreement, others held lingering concerns.
One concern was that any legal fees spent by the school district related to the LIHTC project should come out of the Village’s $339,000 purchase offer for the 3.6 acres. On that point, all board members agreed.
Remaining were worries that the issue of the donated land would not be settled before potentially moving ahead with the option to purchase agreement. There was also uncertainty that the Village’s offer to purchase Morgan Fields for its appraised price of $339,000 would adequately cover the cost of developing any donated land for athletic use.
Board members Amy Bailey, Dorothée Bouquet and Amy Magnus all expressed hesitation about moving ahead without knowing for sure that $339,000 would cover both the cost of developing replacement land and legal fees.
“I do want us to all individually acknowledge that $339,000 is the most amount of money that the school district will spend out of our funds,” Bailey said.
“I think it’s a very realistic thing to ask for the board to reassure the public that there is a set amount that we’re going to live within,” Magnus later added. “But it does seem like we’d be doing so without all the information that we need to really make that decision.”
Board Vice President Rebecca Potter, however, said she felt confident that the district could afford to develop replacement land with the money gained from the sale of the Morgan Fields parcel.
She noted that Village Manager Johnnie Burns reported in October that Leesburg company Fillmore Construction had quoted him a price of around $475,000, including the installation of an access road, to develop the land. However, Potter said she had received lower estimates for land development and access points from Dayton Regional Construction Group and local excavator Bob McLean.
“It’s hard to give an exact bid until [a land survey is completed], but they expressed confidence that it would be considerably less than half a million dollars,” she said. “That has given me the confidence to go forward with this proposal.”
Board member Bouquet countered that any estimates should be “very, very conservative,” and reiterated a concern that no money from the school district’s general fund be spent to develop replacement land, should it not be covered by the sale price of the property.
“I need reassurance from the board that the district will not be left holding the bag of closing that gap,” she said.
Superintendent Holden later pointed out that, because the effort to move the LIHTC project forward has been a collaboration between the school district, the Village and local affordable housing nonprofit YS Home, Inc., all stakeholders involved should be involved in “closing the gap.”
“I see the Village Council contributing; I see the school district contributing,” she said. “There’s a third part to this triangle, and that would be Home, Inc. and the developer. At some point, perhaps there needs to be a contribution there, so that we can all move forward.”
At the meeting’s end, the board voted 3–2 to approve the option to purchase agreement, with Board President Judith Hempfling, Potter and Magnus voting in favor, and Bailey and Bouquet voting against.
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