“Climate migration is nothing new. The International Displacement Monitoring Centre estimates that an annual average of 21.5 million people were forcibly displaced each year by weather-related events — such as floods, storms, wildfires and droughts — between 2008 and 2016.”

At the center of the fraught discussion was the ongoing, intergovernmental initiative to build a 30- to 50-unit low-income housing development on the district-owned Morgan soccer fields.

In the coming months, lifelong villager and personal trainer Kyle Truitt is resolving to roll out more weekly fitness classes, train more local athletes, build his ever-growing clientele and, as always, keep his hometown healthy and moving — all this in a new space.

As was discussed at Monday’s Village Council meeting, one matter still stands in the way of Columbus-based development company Woda Cooper LLC applying for the $15 million in low-income tax credits: getting site control of the Morgan Fields from the school district.

All three tracts are zoned agricultural and are beyond Yellow Springs’ urban service boundary — that is, beyond the reach of municipal utilities. They are subject to the provisions of Miami Township’s zoning regulations, which require minimum lots of three acres and lot frontage of 300 continuous feet. 

2024’s top stories in Yellow Springs: Low-income housing dominates local discourse, new apartments coming to Antioch College, locals protest firing at Wellness Center, March homicide claims local life and village home raided for marijuana.

Several new businesses and organizations cropped up in Yellow Springs in 2024; several hit major milestones and others transitioned and expanded.

After finalizing the development agreement with the Village, Woda Cooper will apply to the Ohio Housing Finance Agency for $15 million in federal low-income housing tax credits.

At the most recent Planning Commission meeting, Tuesday, Dec. 10, the group revisited — and ultimately recommended to repeal — an anomalous and oft-under-referenced section of the Yellow Springs zoning code: the Gateway Overlay District.

In the second-to-last regular Village Council meeting of the year, held Monday, Dec. 2, Council members voted 5-0 in favor of finalizing the $18,102,489 municipal budget for 2025.