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Present for the most recent Village Council meeting, Monday, Oct. 6, were, from left, Trish Gustafson, Brian Housh, Carmen Brown, Gavin DeVore Leonard, Kevin Stokes and Village Manager Johnnie Burns. (Video still)

Council approves 28-acre annexation, subdivision expansion expected

In the next month, Yellow Springs will grow by 28 acres toward the northwest.

At the most recent Village Council meeting, Monday, Oct. 6, Council members unanimously approved an ordinance to accept an annexation agreement, from Miami Township to the Village of Yellow Springs, of 28.3 acres of property along East Enon Road.

The property — agricultural land that rotates between soy beans and corn — is located north of Dayton-Yellow Springs Road and south of Yellow Springs-Fairfield Road. It’s owned by CF Land Holdings, a farming operation run by local resident Jim Clem.

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The land also directly abuts the new 89-unit Spring Meadows subdivision.

According to the county auditor’s website, the land has an appraised value of $239,790, and is presently zoned agricultural. Once the annexation takes effect and the land becomes a part of Yellow Springs municipal limits, those 28 acres will assume a new status of R-C, or high-density residential.

The 28-acre farmland the Village will likely annex into municipal limits in the coming weeks is located along East Enon Road. The land sits directly west of the Spring Meadows subdivision and the Village-owned Glass Farm. (Map by YS News; data courtesy of the Village of Yellow Springs)

Though never explicitly stated by Village staffers or Council members at Monday’s meeting, the land set to be annexed into municipal limits will likely become an extension of Spring Meadows, and will be developed for residential living.

As the approved ordinance notes, the petition for annexation was filed on behalf of Clem by Jonathan Bills, president of CAP5 Development LLC and a principal for DDC Management — the Miamisburg-based developer of Spring Meadows.

The News reported last month, based on previously obtained documentation, that a proposed site plan for the annexed land aims for a tentative development, titled “Spring Meadows Extension,” with 74 single-family lots, as well as 12 “ten-plex” structures, for a total of 194 units on the 28-acre property.

Those proposed plans, however, are far from actualization.

“The developer for this site hasn’t submitted an application to our offices yet,” Village Planning and Economic Director Meg Leatherman told Council members on Monday. “So, we don’t know the specific design of what they’re planning for.”

Leatherman later added that, before any building on the annexed land occurs, development details from a land developer will be first presented to the Village Planning Commission for consideration at a forthcoming meeting.

“We can’t say for sure exactly what kind of traffic mitigation, what kind of stormwater  [mitigation] needs to be put into place,” Leatherman said. “Those details will come when the application is submitted and we take it to Planning Commission.”

Leatherman indicated that some kind of residential development plan on those 28 acres — a continuation of the Spring Meadows subdivision or otherwise — would follow the Village’s 2020 update to the Comprehensive Land Use Plan, or CLUP, which categorized the “future use” of that land as either “light industrial/residential transition.”

As Leatherman noted, the Clem property is within the Village’s Urban Service Boundary — insofar as the land is ostensibly able to be serviced by municipal utilities, should it ever be developed for residential purposes.

Leatherman also pointed out that she and other Village staffers have been in conversations with local land conservation nonprofit Tecumseh Land Trust regarding suitable properties for development beyond existing municipal boundaries.

“The CLUP really talks about developing within our urban service area, and not in environmentally sensitive areas,” she said. “We have mapped out with TLT significant land around the Village, and this is not one of those areas.”

Village Manager Johnnie Burns echoed Leatherman’s sentiments and stated that any future development plans for the land in question would not only be in accordance with the tenets of the CLUP, but also that the Village has strategically developed its infrastructure towards that region to accommodate future housing there.

“When we [were] doing phases one and two of Spring Meadows,” Manager Burns said of the subdivision’s building, “We stubbed in infrastructure to Glass Farm and this property based on the Comprehensive Land Use Plan.”

He continued: “The sewage pump and the lift station [were] configured to where it would cover all of this. If the motor needs to be increased, that could be done. This does include a backup generator.”

Burns later said: “The infrastructure for this area will also be developed 100% by the developer.”

Before the final vote was taken, Council members appeared amenable to the move to annex the Clem property.

“We’re trying to balance this dynamic of having enough places to live, and enough housing being built that we maintain affordability in the village,” Council Vice President Gavin DeVore Leonard said. “The assumption we’ve been operating on is that, when there are more houses … other houses become more affordable. Therefore, there are more places [where] more people can live affordably.”

“I think this is in keeping with our strategy,” he concluded.

Some in attendance of Monday’s Council meeting — mostly neighbors of the annexed property — expressed concerns over a future expansion of the Spring Meadows subdivision.

East Enon Road resident Rick Sanders said he was worried about an increase in traffic on his road, water drainage, sewage, electrical capacity and more.

“All of these things would be greatly amplified with 200 more units,” Sanders said.

Sanders’ neighbor Jerome Borchers had similar concerns.

“I would challenge all of you folks,” Borchers said to Council members, “To sit [on Yellow Springs-Fairfield Road] at nine in the morning to see how many cars go 70 or 75 miles per hour. If we add 200 cars to that, there will have to be a new traffic light. … We don’t look forward to quiet weekends with 200 units around the corner.”

Local resident Ralita Hildebrand requested “due diligence” from Village government as it considers any future development on the Clem property.

“I’m hoping that Village Council … will think about this property through the lens of strategic planning about what kinds of buildings we’d like to have, what kind of housing we’d like to have and also the public infrastructure the Village will be required to have.”

Another resident, Tony Salmonson, took more of a hard line in his remarks to Council.

“Let’s not ‘Beavercreek-esize’ Yellow Springs,” he said, regarding municipal expansion.

In other Council business, Oct. 6—

New Village flag policy

By a unanimous vote of 5–0, Council approved a resolution titled “Establishing Exceptions to Orders to Fly the Municipal Flag at Half-Staff.”

As written, the resolution authorizes the Village Council president and vice president to confer with the village manager to make decisions regarding any order to fly the Bryan Center’s American flag at half-staff.

“In delegating this duty to our duly elected president and vice president in consultation with our village manager, Village Council understands the enormity of this responsibility and the need to enforce this policy with judicious oversight,” the resolution reads.

Prior to this legislation, Yellow Springs’ village manager would directly abide by the orders of the U.S. president, the Ohio governor and/or the mayor of Washington D.C. to lower Yellow Springs’ municipal flags to half-staff in honor or commemoration of a national tragedy, past or present.

The legislation to amend this longstanding policy stemmed from the recent local outcry over the Village following President Trump and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s orders to lower the flag in honor of Charlie Kirk, a controversial conservative provocateur who was shot and killed on Sept. 10.

In commemoration of Kirk, Yellow Springs’ municipal flag was lowered to half staff from the date of his death to Sept. 14 — a response to a directive that was met with consternation and dismay from villagers and Council members alike.

“I think some really good work was done on this resolution,” Council member Brian Housh said on Monday of the move to have the village manager not respond unilaterally to flag-related orders from on high.

“This is what our Village values are all about,” he said. “This is why we’ve all chosen to live [in Yellow Springs]. We want to make sure we respect our residents’, visitors’ and constituents’ concerns.”

The next regular Village Council meeting will be held Monday, Oct. 20, at 6 p.m., in the John Bryan Community Center.

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