This summer, Little Art Theatre got a long-awaited update. The marquee was replaced with an LED homage to the theatre’s early 20th-century Art Deco overhang. On the humid evening of Friday, Aug. 15, an estimated 400 folks crowded Short Street to roll out the proverbial red carpet for a local landmark and its Hollywood makeover. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
2025 In Review | Top Stories
- Published: December 30, 2025
A changing downtown
Downtown Yellow Springs began to look and feel different this summer after a number of changes to both its uses and its physical landscape.
In mid-June, Village Manager Johnnie Burns launched a pilot to close Short Street to vehicular traffic, converting the connector between Xenia Avenue and Walnut Street into a gathering space. The move eliminated 14 parking spaces on Short Street, with nine new spots replacing them along Walnut Street and Xenia Avenue. The Village populated Short Street with picnic tables, benches, bike parking, portable restrooms, a foldable tent and overhead lighting. Burns said the closure was a bid to keep visitors downtown longer, relieve sidewalk congestion and create a safer, more controlled space for events.
Over the summer, the block began to take on a new identity — a place to eat, linger and, at times, dance. It also became a flash point. Some residents and business owners said the closure created traffic backups and softer sales; others pointed to public safety benefits, particularly around Mills Lawn Elementary pickup and drop-off, as well as the benefits of a community gathering space.
By fall, Council was grappling with split feedback on Short Street. A Village survey drew 969 responses: 47% supported making the closure permanent, 42% opposed it and 11% were unsure. After a failed 2–2 motion to reopen the street, Council left Short Street closed into 2026 and directed staff to return with concrete design options and costs.
Across the intersection, Little Art Theatre used the new pedestrian space at Short Street as a space for celebration. In August, an estimated 400 people packed Short Street for the unveiling of the theater’s new marquee — a high-tech, Art Deco-inspired upgrade positioned as a first step toward the Little Art’s centennial in 2029.
Just next door to Short Street, change landed with more finality: YS Hardware closed, and the YS Toy Company announced it would shutter by year’s end. The YS Development Corporation moved to purchase the two historic buildings that housed those businesses for $630,000 — financed through a Community Foundation bridge loan — on the premise that local control of the buildings now could help prevent out-of-town interests from reshaping the heart of downtown later.
Public testimony at the July 7 Village Council meeting took nearly two and a half hours as villagers sounded off on the proposed apartments at Antioch. With Council’s approval of the preliminary development plans, real estate developer Windsor Companies will draft final plans for a 96-unit complex at the site of the former Antioch College Student Union, as well as 43 senior-focused rentals in the Charles F. Kettering building. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
Housing and land use
Efforts to expand Yellow Springs’ housing stock were at the forefront of villagewide discourse and a great many public meetings in 2025.
The year began with a sustained push from Village leadership and some elected officials to render the school district’s Morgan soccer fields suitable to accommodate a 60-unit apartment complex that would provide affordable rentals for individuals who fall between 30% and 80% of the area median income.
After many months of discussion, that initiative — colloquially known in town as the “LIHTC project,” for the low-income housing tax credits necessary to build the apartments — ultimately stalled in late May when the Ohio Housing Finance Agency announced that the proposed housing project was not selected for federal funding.
All the while, the Village spent the year working with Columbus-based developer Windsor Companies to build more than 100 apartment units on sites affiliated with the Antioch College campus.
By year’s end, Village Council approved preliminary development plans for Windsor’s goal of razing Antioch’s former student union, and in its place, building two three-story apartment buildings with 48 rental units each. A block away, Windsor also seeks to purchase the Charles F. Kettering building from Antioch and redevelop it to accommodate 43 rental units for persons 55 and older.
Elsewhere in town, Village decision-makers sought to grow municipal limits in 2025: In May, Village Manager Johnnie Burns began working with area property owners Matthew and Julie Jones to annex their 84-acre property along East Enon Road. Neighbors to the Jones property petitioned both Council and Township Trustees to belay the annexation, citing concerns over potential development on the 84 acres. The Township Trustees ultimately voted not to sign the annexation agreement. Though the trustees’ vote did not take annexation of the property off the table the Joneses have not moved forward with further pursuit of an expedited annexation.
A successful annexation occurred farther north up East Enon Road. In October, Council approved a 28-acre annexation of land, most recently owned by Jim Clem, which directly abuts the relatively new Spring Meadows subdivision.
In November, Planning Commission approved preliminary plans from Miamisburg-based developer DDC Management to expand Spring Meadows into the newly annexed 28 acres. There, DDC aims to build 190 dwelling units — 120 of which will be condos, and 70 of which will be detached single-family homes.
Some land around Yellow Springs will never see any development.
In July, local farmland conservation nonprofit Tecumseh Land Trust announced that the group secured an easement on 36 acres of land near the intersection of state routes 343 and 370, less than two miles east of village limits. Then, in December, TLT finalized its conservation easements on 185 acres of contiguous farmland along Dayton-Yellow Springs Road, west of the village.
Both those swaths of land will remain agricultural in perpetuity.
WYSO reporter and host of “All Things Considered” Jerry Kenney warms up before his evening broadcast from the station’s current headquarters at the Kettering Building next to Antioch College. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
WYSO loses federal dollars
In August, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — a decades-old nonprofit that helps pay for PBS, NPR and 1,500 public radio and television stations across the country — announced it would take steps toward its closure after being defunded by Congress.
For Yellow Springs-based NPR affiliate station 91.3 WYSO, that meant the loss of $300,000 in planned operating funds for the coming fiscal year and beyond — a little under 10% of the local station’s budget, which for 2026 is $3.4 million.
As the CPB also brokered music licensing agreements for WYSO and other public radio stations, the nonprofit’s dismantling makes for an uncertain musical future for the local station.
What is certain, however, is that WYSO will, in the weeks ahead, relocate its headquarters from the Antioch College campus to the Union Schoolhouse on Dayton Street. With construction nearly finished, the renovated 19th-century building will provide WYSO improved spaces for broadcasting, reporting, performance and hosting community events.
Villager Amy Wamsley, pictured in the English Channel, completed her solo crossing in 16 hours and 56 minutes. (Submitted photo)
Wamsley swims channel
This summer, Yellow Springs resident Amy Wamsley achieved a long-time goal with an historic solo swim across the English Channel. After completing an eight-hour swim in San Francisco Bay in May, Wamsley traveled to Europe aiming to become only the second Ohio woman to swim the Channel since the 1970s. She told the News in 2024 that she’d set her goal in childhood, aiming to complete the swim by the time she turned 50.
Wamsley’s attempt came with challenges: Weather repeatedly delayed her start during a narrow May 30–June 10 window, extending lodging costs and complicating logistics for her volunteer support team. When she finally entered the water just before her 50th birthday, Wamsley battled hours of nausea, missed tides and exhaustion, at times nearing removal from the swim.
Nevertheless, on June 13 — her 50th birthday — Wamsley reached the shore in Sangatte, France after 16 hours and 56 minutes.
Back home, villagers kept track of Wamsley’s progress online, and with the news of her successful crossing, sent out a wave of cheers and congratulations that reached Wamsley once she made it back to England. Those same villagers welcomed Wamsley home the next week, lining Xenia Avenue as she returned from the airport.
Two groundbreaking celebrations were held Friday, Feb. 14, a the campuses of Mills Lawn and McKinney/YS High School. Pictured putting shovels to soil, from left: John Gudgel, school board member Dorothée Bouquet, school board President Rebecca Potter, Mills Lawn Principal Megan Winston, Superintendent Terri Holden, Treasurer Jacob McGrath, Operations Director Jeff Eyrich, school board member Amy Bailey and McKinney/YSHS Principal Jack Hatert. (Photo by Lauren “Chuck” Shows)
Schools break ground
In February, YS Schools marked the start of the district’s long-planned facilities overhaul with groundbreakings at the Mills Lawn and Yellow Springs Middle and High School campuses. The groundbreaking celebrations featured student performances and remarks from Village and District leaders and student speakers. The projects followed voter approval of a 2023 bond issue and income tax levy funding a $55 million upgrade after two earlier levy failures.
Plans reconfigured Mills Lawn as a pre-K through fourth-grade school with major renovations and security improvements; following the groundbreaking, YS Schools issued a communitywide survey seeking input on the upcoming preschool program. At the East Enon Road campus, grades 5–12 will be consolidated through a mixture of demolition, renovation and new construction to include secure entrances, expanded performing arts spaces, new middle and high school wings, an updated common area and a larger shared gym, alongside parking and traffic-flow improvements.
The facilities project remains underway and is expected to be completed in 2026; in December, the schools launched a capital campaign to help fund aspects of the facilities project not covered by state or local levy funding.
DOCTOR MEAT from the 2025 YS Porchfest. (Photo by Reily Dixon)
Porchfest returns
After a yearlong hiatus, Yellow Springs Porchfest returned in September under new stewardship — a reset for the beloved, volunteer-driven music festival. The event found a permanent home with the Yellow Springs Arts Council, supported by a grant from the YS Community Foundation, which funded the festival’s first paid part-time coordinator, local resident David Seitz.
Brittany Baum, who founded YS Porchfest with Rachel Price, told the News early in 2024 that the festival would take a hiatus due to a need for more and sustained volunteer aid, as well as support from a local nonprofit arm. The YS Arts Council took up the mantle, and on Sept. 20, this year, Porchfest again transformed porches and patios into stages for free neighborhood concerts, featuring 69 acts across 39 locations.
Organizers said the festival’s new structure aims to stave off volunteer burnout and help ensure the festival’s long-term sustainability, while preserving its focus on local music, walkability and community connection.
—Lauren “Chuck” Shows & Reilly Dixon
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