The Jones family — who owns an 86-acre farm just beyond Village limits in Miami Township — have expressed their willingness to donate 3.6 acres for the conversion into replacement soccer fields. The donation is contingent upon Woda Cooper being awarded $15 million in federal tax credits. (Map data courtesy of Woda Cooper)
With $680k pledged for new soccer fields, LIHTC project advances
- Published: January 27, 2025
After a year of weighing the wheres and hows, the villagewide discourse surrounding the low-income housing tax credit, or LIHTC, project reached its inflection point at the most recent school board and Village Council meetings.
With Council’s unanimous passage of two resolutions Tuesday, Jan. 21 — “the last hurdles,” Village Manager Johnnie Burns said — Woda Cooper Development, Inc. can now move ahead with its application to the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, or OHFA, for $15 million in federal LIHTC money.
Should Woda Cooper be awarded those tax credits — with an application deadline of Feb. 27 — the Columbus-based development company will build a multifamily, low-income housing development comprising 30 to 50 one-, two- and three-bedroom units.
The location of such a development would be on 3.6 acres of land adjacent to the McKinney Middle and Yellow Springs High schools — land currently owned by the district and home to a number of school and recreational soccer programs, and land that scored highly on OHFA’s “opportunity index.”
The school board previously resolved to sell those acres to the Village for $339,000 only if replacement soccer fields of commensurate size were secured. As school board members discussed at their Jan. 17 special meeting, that contingency was essentially satisfied by a promised 3.6-acre land donation from property owners Matthew and Julie Jones, whose farm is directly south of the East Enon Road campus. Their donation is wholly contingent upon Woda Cooper being successfully awarded the $15 million in tax credits from OHFA.
Bearing in mind that donation, the school board voted 3–1 on Friday, Jan. 17, to amend the option to purchase agreement with the Village, removing the replacement contingency from that resolution. Woda Cooper had requested the change to make their LIHTC application to OHFA more competitive.
Until last Friday’s special school board meeting, some questions remained unanswered: How would the school district afford to transform the Joneses’ cornfield into a location suitable for recreational soccer?
After covering $50,000 in legal fees associated with the LIHTC project overall, the district would have $289,000 — not the full, market-value sale price of $339,000 for the Morgan Fields — to spend on replacement fields. Would that be enough?
Village Manager Burns had good news for the school board: They now have a lot more money at their disposal.
He relayed a message from Woda Cooper that stated they would commit an additional $200,000 to improving the Joneses’ donated land. On top of that, Village Council voted affirmatively to draw $100,000 from the Village’s Affordable Housing Fund, and the Yellow Springs Community Foundation announced they will put $100,000 on the table.
That means that, should Woda Cooper successfully be awarded the $15 million in LIHTC from OHFA to build a low-income housing development, the district would have $689,000 to turn the Joneses’ cornfield into playable soccer fields.
“These are going to be better fields than the ones we currently have now,” Council member Brian Housh said at Council’s Tuesday meeting, following the group’s votes to approve the transfer of $100,000 and to amend the option to purchase agreement with the district.
“Especially in terms of accessibility,” Housh added. “Right now, you can not get a mobility device out there. Now, we’ll make sure that can happen.”
As stipulated in Woda Cooper’s $200,000 donation agreement, the company would have “sole discretion” in selecting a contractor to build the new soccer fields — but they “expect” Woda Cooper Construction, Inc. to be selected to do the work.
The proposed site improvements would include:
• Converting the donated land to an athletic field of “equal quality” to the existing athletic fields;
• Build an ADA-compliant walking path from the newly created athletic fields to the existing parking areas on the north side of the middle and high schools;
• Put down a paved pad for portable toilets and a storage shed — one that Woda Cooper would build; and
• Carry out the “initial” removal of brush to ensure pedestrian access to the new fields.
For the Community Foundation’s part, Executive Director Jeannamarie Cox wrote in a memo to Burns that their $100,000 donation to creating new soccer fields has two goals: to continue youth soccer programs in Yellow Springs and to address the village’s need for more affordable housing.
“We are at a moment of opportunity for our vibrant community, a time to come together, to partner and deliver on our shared values,” Cox wrote. “As we each carry the flag of our individual organization’s mission, it is easy to miss the overlapping consistency of our core values.”
The memo also notes that a local donor to the Foundation recently created a fund — dubbed the “Soccer Fields for LIHTC Fund” — with “the hope to inspire a community-wide effort for our thriving youth soccer program, while simultaneously supporting affordable housing in Yellow Springs.” To donate to that fund, go to bit.ly/4jnA3qZ. In an email to the News, Cox added that, as of press time, the fund has received five donations and one pledge.
“In the event that collective funding exceeds the cost of building the new field, we ask that these funds be set aside for future maintenance of the fields through a fund at the Foundation,” Cox concluded in her memo.
Upon agreeing to contribute the $100,000 from the Village’s Affordable Housing Fund, bringing the total amount set aside for making a new soccer field to $689,000, Council members were celebratory. Several thanked Manager Burns for his work in making it happen.
“We have this because of his efforts,” Council member Trish Gustafson said. “He’s been working so diligently to make sure this all comes together.”
Council President Kevin Stokes agreed: “We need to applaud Village Manager Johnnie Burns for shaking out all the bushes and pulling up the couch cushions to find this money.”
Looking ahead to a possible future in which Woda Cooper is awarded the LIHTC credits and successfully creates the low-income housing development, Housh said Yellow Springs could expect a considerable social and economic boon.
“This is a big win for our community,” he said. “Beyond the diversity, the added students, I think about revenues. We’re going to be bringing in more folks paying levies, who can reduce our cost of living by bringing in more income and property taxes.”
In other Village Council business, Jan. 21—
Gateway Overlay District repealed
With the second readings and public hearings on several pieces of legislation, Council unanimously voted to repeal the Gateway Overlay District — three regions on the fringes of municipal boundaries with limitations on what could be built there.
Those Gateway Overlay Districts included a stretch along U.S. 68, between Corry Street and the northern limits of the Village; one on Dayton-Yellow Springs Road, from the western boundary to Kenneth Hamilton Way; and another on U.S. 68, between the southern boundary and Allen Street.
As the News previously reported last month when the Village Planning Commission agreed to recommend to Council the repeal of this section in the Yellow Springs zoning code, the Gateway Overlay District was first envisioned in 2013 when the Village last overhauled the code. Its purpose, as stated in the code, was to “establish and protect the character of the Village at key entry points,” by limiting the kinds and designs of structures in those areas.
The Gateway Overlay District prohibited warehouses, self-storage facilities and “sexually-oriented” businesses — such as those that sell pornographic materials or provide any adult entertainment. Additionally, buildings in those three areas could not be within 100 feet of one another, exceed two stories or 30 feet in height among other structural restrictions.
By a vote of 5–0, Village Council struck any mention of the Gateway Overlay District in the code, thus rendering those three areas subject only to the existing zoning-related provisions and restrictions.
The next Village Council meeting will be held Monday, Feb. 3, at 6 p.m., in the John Bryan Community Center. The News will provide any updates on the LIHTC project as they arise, and plans to publish a full-length article on Woda Cooper in the coming weeks.
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