Short Street has been closed to vehicular traffic since June. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
Short Street to remain closed
- Published: November 13, 2025
The Short Street saga continued at the most recent Village Council meeting, Monday, Nov. 3.
Council again weighed the pros and cons of continuing the closure of the downtown road, which began earlier this year as a pilot project to create a community gathering space.
When Village administrators first rolled out their plan to restrict Short Street to pedestrian-only use, the pilot project was touted as a temporary experiment to last from Spring Street Fair to Fall Street Fair — or mid-June to mid-October of this year.
During that time, the Village populated the road with benches, tables, artwork, portable restrooms and bike racks; several widely attended community events have also taken place in the community space. Since closing the road in June, the Village has spent $18,802.77 on the pilot project.
In a roundabout way, Council voted to keep the space closed until at least February 2026.
Citing anecdotal evidence of accessibility issues and negative effects on some downtown businesses, Council member Carmen Brown made a motion to reopen Short Street until Village administration presents a more clear vision of what a permanent community space would look like.
Brown and Gavin DeVore Leonard voted in favor of the motion; Brian Housh and Kevin Stokes voted against it. With only four members at the dais on Monday — Trish Gustafson was absent — and with a split 2–2 vote, the motion failed. The street remains closed.
Now, Village Manager Johnnie Burns and his administrative team will go to the drawing board to craft two options regarding the future of Short Street for Council’s consideration: conceptual designs for how Short Street would look and function as a permanently closed space, and designs for how it’d work as a “pop-up, pop-down” temporary space.
As Burns wrote in a memo to Council, Village staff will provide Council preliminary quotes, cost estimates and potential funding sources for both options at Village Council’s forthcoming Feb. 2 meeting.
“Once Council identifies its preferred direction,” the memo reads, “staff will refine the details and begin pursuing final design and funding opportunities. Staff will also address business concerns around parking as part of this process and will evaluate parking options in and around the downtown area.”
As in past discussions surrounding Short Street’s closure, Monday’s Council meeting was fraught with differing viewpoints on the believed drawbacks and benefits of the community space — a great many of those views centering around safety.
For Police Chief Paige Burge, the added traffic safety in the downtown area is paramount, and alone why Village Council should vote to keep the road closed.
She reported that she and other officers, when on traffic detail during student pickup and drop-off times at Mills Lawn Elementary, have observed far fewer “risky maneuvers” from impatient drivers — owing entirely to the elimination of the egress Short Street provided drivers who wanted to circumvent traffic congestion.
Chief Burge also opposed the “pop-up, pop-down” option, suggesting that variability may be dangerous.
“Predictability is always going to be safer,” she said.
Speaking first as a parent, and then as a school board member,” Dorothée Bouquet echoed several of these themes.
“When it’s predictable, it’s easier to coach our most vulnerable students on how to navigate traffic situations,” Bouquet said, adding that Short Street’s closure has “incentivized” rushed drivers during pickup and drop-off times to go elsewhere.
She also noted that in the coming years, Mills Lawn’s student population will get younger, as for the first time the school welcomes preschoolers, and as fifth and sixth graders head to the East Enon campus.
“These kids are going to be smaller and more susceptible to not being seen by drivers, so whatever helps with reducing rushed traffic is incredibly valuable,” she said.
In addition to safety, the closure of Short Street’s effects on the local economy permeated Monday’s discussion.
“Open Short Street now,” Dino’s Cappuccinos owner Dino Pallotta said. “Please start listening to the businesses. We need it open until we have a plan.”
“This has torpedoed my business,” Ohio Silver owner Marcia Wallgren said. “The Village makes it very difficult to do business downtown.”
Chamber of Commerce Director Phillip O’Rourke provided some contrast to those assertions when he presented the findings of a recent Chamber-backed survey, in which 31 Yellow Springs and area businesses provided their views on Short Street.
Of the 31 business respondents — 48% of which are located in downtown Yellow Springs — 41% were in support of Short Street’s permanent closure, 32% favored a temporary closure and 16% opposed any kind of closure. Less than 10% of those surveyed were undecided or did not have enough information.
Owing to that data, O’Rourke said he was in favor of Short Street’s permanent closure.
As the News reported in its Council coverage last month, O’Rourke’s survey followed a Village-sponsored survey that queried the community at large, rather than business owners exclusively.
Of the 969 individual responses to that survey, 47% respondents said “yes” to making the pedestrian-only space permanent, 42% said “no” and 11% were unsure.
As Monday’s final vote indicates, Council members were split on the matter. While they all agreed that the Village should return with a more concrete plan for Short Street’s future, they differed on what should happen in the meantime — keep the road closed before a plan is made, or open it until a plan is made?
“I’m really interested in this project, and I’d like to see it happen,” DeVore Leonard said. “I haven’t heard anyone up here who’s notably on the side of not wanting to see it happen. I just really want a plan.”
Housh said he was compelled by O’Rourke’s survey and the improved safety conditions around the school, and said he felt as if enough of a framework for the community space had been set up to justify its continued closure.
“I understand there’s strong opposition, but when I look at the surveys, I look at the facts, and I look at it overall — I think there are a lot of positives,” Housh said.
The group also acknowledged that with the Tuesday, Nov. 4, election deciding the fate of three Council seats, the future five-person group will be the one ultimately to determine the fate of Short Street — not the current Council.
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