Pictured are, from left Council members Trish Gustafson, Brian Housh, Carmen Brown, Gavin DeVore Leonard, Kevin Stokes, Village Manager Johnnie Burns and Clerk of Council Judy Kintner. (Video still)
Village Council talks economic development incentives
- Published: September 2, 2025
How can the Village of Yellow Springs encourage the “right” kind of development?
What municipal mechanisms are available to bring in commercial and residential projects that align with the Village’s purported values of equity and sustainability? How can Yellow Springs as a whole benefit from the development of today in the decades to come?
At a work session on Wednesday, Aug. 20, Village Council members pondered these and other questions, when the group heard a presentation regarding economic development tools that the Village has at its disposal, and may soon implement.
Joining Council members and Village staff on Wednesday was public finance attorney Tyler Bridge, of the Dayton-based firm Bricker Graydon, who, in a presentation, outlined the ins and outs of tax increment financing, or TIF, and community reinvestment area, or CRA.
Bridge told Council that both TIF and a CRA have the capacity to create mutually beneficial outcomes for both enterprising developers and municipalities like Yellow Springs.
To varying degrees and through different approaches, Bridge explained, these two tools incentivize local development through agreements that offer temporary tax abatement and diversion — a benefit for both commercial and residential builders — in exchange for the construction of public infrastructure and greater say in where development occurs — a benefit for municipalities.
“The Ohio Revised Code allows the Village to authorize certain types of economic development programs,” Bridge said. “So, we want to help you figure out ways to engage in a symbiotic relationship with developers, like with flowers and bees … to find a way to use these tools in ways that don’t sacrifice your strategic priorities or your values.”
Put into action
How do CRAs and TIFs actually work? And how can Yellow Springs use them for current and future Village development?
Simply, a community reinvestment area (CRA) is a property tax reduction tool overseen by the Ohio Department of Development and administered by county and local governments.
They abate real property taxes on the county auditor’s appraised value of structural improvements — renovations or new construction — made to a parcel, that ultimately reduce the property owner’s overall development costs in exchange for their physical contribution to the community.
They are designated areas within a community — areas as big or small as a municipality chooses — that, as Bridge explained, have housing facilities or structures of historic significance and where remodeling or new housing have been typically discouraged.
In other words, in a designated CRA, the Village could encourage the kind of development it wishes to see by extending property tax abatement for a maximum period of 15 years, and up to 100%.
Most recently, a request for a CRA-oriented tax abatement came before the Village earlier this year from Columbus-based real estate developer Windsor Companies for its plans to build 96 market rate apartments on the site of the former Antioch College Student Union.
Windsor is requesting from the Village a 15-year, 75% property tax abatement on their apartment project.
As it currently stands, the Village has not yet granted that abatement, and is anticipating in the coming months to deliberate on the developer’s final plat plans, having greenlighted the preliminary plans in July.
“But this is not just for Windsor,” Bridge told Council members. “This could be a villagewide tool that, if done correctly and in the spirit of mutualism, could benefit everyone in Yellow Springs.”
In essence, CRAs could lower the barriers for developers’ entry into the village.
Toward the end of last Wednesday’s work session, Council members and staff spoke favorably about soon designating large, but generally unspecified swaths of Yellow Springs, as a CRA.
“It seems perfect for the Antioch surrounding area or the vacant areas they’re selling off,” Planning and Economic Development Director Meg Leatherman said.
Village Manager Johnnie Burns suggested panning the camera out.
“I’m thinking big picture,” Burns said. “We have aging buildings, we have the [Village-owned Center for Business and Education]. I want this to be broad, and if we need to restrict it, we can restrict it later.”
Council members Brian Housh and Carmen Brown were inclined to agree.
“I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t do this, especially given our downtown area, aging infrastructure and historically relevant structures,” Brown said. “This is something we should be proactive with.”
“So, let’s overlay the entire village and see what happens,” Housh said.
Village Council is expected to take its first formal steps toward establishing one all-encompassing CRA — or several — at its forthcoming regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 2, when the group will read a resolution to “authorize the village manager and planning and economic development director to develop” a CRA.
Should that legislation pass, then Bridge and others from Bricker Graydon will conduct a local housing survey, then the Village will determine incentive rates and designate a housing officer to review applications. Council would later vote on an ordinance to officially establish the specifics of a local CRA plan.
“We can craft the CRA program uniquely to your needs and desires and priorities,” Bridge said. “Council has the discretion to choose what the program parameters are and what you want to offer developers.”
What about tax increment financing?
Similar to a CRA, TIF is a taxation-based tool, also overseen by the state, that municipalities can wield to incentivize the kinds of development — housing and commercial — that the Village wishes to encourage or see more of.
TIF is an economic development mechanism that exempts property owners from real property taxes on the increased property value created from new builds or remodels. But unlike CRAs, taxes collected under TIF can be funnelled back into the community to fund public infrastructure improvements.
So, the distinction between CRAs and TIF is that TIF is a property tax diversion mechanism, not a reduction in taxes, Bridge explained.
“The Village can use those PILOTs, or payments in lieu of taxes, for infrastructure improvements like sewer mains, widening the roads, extending roads or even making a public park,” Bridge said.
He added that, also unlike CRAs, the TIF economic development mechanism is typically offered on a parcel-by-parcel basis, and can provide up to 30-year, 100% tax incentives for a developer.
Should those payments to a given municipality derived from the increased assessed value of a newly developed property be used for public infrastructure improvements, those improvements must occur within relative proximity to the property — not on the other side of town, for instance.
It’s possible Windsor could utilize TIF in its 96-unit apartment plans, and to build out the publicly owned infrastructure that would surround it.
Bridge said Bricker Graydon aims to work with the Village and Windsor to “layer” a TIF on top of the developer’s requested 15-year, 75% CRA tax abatement to help cover Windsor’s costs associated with improving traffic conditions around its planned apartments.
Specifically, a TIF exemption could help Windsor — not the Village — build out East North College Street, connecting Livermore and Corry streets, to help with the flow of traffic around the development.
In that case, or upon any other public infrastructure improvements made by Windsor, the developer would later be reimbursed by the Village out of the TIF revenue paid to the local government.
Again, Bridge stressed the “mutually beneficial” effects between developers and municipalities that stem from extending TIF exemptions, and added that the public infrastructure improvements seen as a result could, he said, ultimately benefit the Yellow Springs of tomorrow.
“This could be a win for future generations — a proactive capital improvement strategy,” Bridge said. “It’s a way to make sure that certain areas primed for development … have the resources to maintain those improvements.”
He continued: “It’s a way of having your cake and eating it, really. Terms of reimbursement can be baked into projects.”
Bridge acknowledged that while TIF programs have the potential to siphon tax dollars from other local taxing jurisdictions — such as school districts, libraries, senior services and others — during the designated time of exemption, he said that Village Council would have the latitude to include provisions for those institutions when the Village determines the details of a TIF agreement.
As of press time, no legislation regarding TIF appears on publicly available future Village Council agendas.
The next Village Council meeting will be held Tuesday, Sept. 2 — one day later than normal, owing to the Labor Day holiday — at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers in the John Bryan Community Center.
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