Present at the most recent Village Council meeting, Monday, Feb. 3, were, from left, Trish Gustafson, Brian Housh, Carmen Brown, Gavin DeVore Leonard, Kevin Stokes and Village Manager Johnnie Burns. (Video still)
Village Council considers repealing economic incentive policy
- Published: February 13, 2025
At the most recent Village Council meeting, Monday, Feb. 3, the group returned to the matter of fostering economic development in Yellow Springs.
To that end, Council members considered a recommendation from Village Solicitor Amy Blankenship to repeal an economic development incentive policy that, according to Blankenship and Planning and Economic Development Director Meg Leatherman, complicates the process of new businesses, developments or nonprofits setting up shop in Yellow Springs.
Adopted in 2018 by way of a resolution, the policy outlines several “incentives” Village government could offer to entice builders or businesses to the village, and retain them for years. Among these incentives are low-interest loans or grants, the potential abatement of income or property taxes, utility easements or extensions, fee waivers and others.
The Village could offer these incentives to a developer or business owner provided they abide by a number of Village values, such as hiring practices with diversity and equity in mind, seeking to reduce the community’s carbon footprint, contributing to a stable tax base, supporting affordability in Yellow Springs and more.
As Blankenship told Council, many of these economic incentives are already offered by the state of Ohio, and having a local policy like ours could make a developer’s application process cumbersome as they seek approval from Village entities.
“It just adds another layer,” Leatherman noted.
Leatherman added that the Village values outlined in the incentive policy mirror many of the values in Yellow Springs’ Comprehensive Land Use Plan — the most recent of which was adopted in 2020 following months of community input and involvement.
“So when someone approaches us,” she said, referring to a new business or developer, “we can simply direct them to that. The plan had a pretty extensive public engagement process, so we know it’s been vetted that way.”
Council members seemed amenable to repealing the incentive policy at a future meeting.
“To the degree that it’s in everyone’s interest to streamline our processes and not be redundant” Council President Kevin Stokes said. “Not that any of these incentives are bad ideas, they’re just duplicative to what [Ohio] law suggests are possibilities.”
Before the next Council meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 18, Village Manager Johnnie Burns and Council member Brian Housh said they plan to speak further with village resident and commercial Realtor Allison Moody about this potential change to how the Village engages with future developers and businesses.
Moody was tapped in late 2023 to spearhead the ongoing sale and marketing of the Village-owned Center for Business and Education, or CBE, on the western edge of Yellow Springs.
Though no new business has joined Cresco Labs and Antioch University Midwest on the CBE since Moody took charge, she wrote to the News recently that “lots of things are in motion.”
Addressing any would-be developer or new business, Housh said: “Yellow Springs is, in fact, open for business, and we’re always willing to collaborate.”
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