On Wednesday, Feb. 12, the Village Board of Zoning Appeals granted Columbus-based Woda Cooper Companies — the Village’s selected developer for the LIHTC project — approval for its variance application to exceed the housing density limit, and reduce the parking space requirement for a proposed 71-unit affordable housing development.

Donald Gronbeck, 44, of Bath Twp., was arrested in October 2022 and indicted on 50 criminal charges in connection with sex crimes allegedly committed between 2018 and 2021 when he worked at the now defunct Yellow Springs Primary Care, Inc., and Kettering Health’s Soin Medical Center in Beavercreek.

Woda Cooper Companies aims to develop a three-story, low-income housing complex in Yellow Springs comprised of 71 one-, two- and three-bedroom units. Monthly rents, excluding utilities, would range from $345 to $1,150.

The Village of Yellow Springs announced earlier this month that it received $176,246 from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to continue the yearslong work of replacing aging water lines throughout the village.

According to Village Solicitor Amy Blankenship and Planning and Economic Development Director Meg Leatherman, a the Village’s economic incentive policy complicates the process of new businesses, developments or nonprofits setting up shop in Yellow Springs.

Naturalists with the Division of Natural Areas and Preserves of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources will lead the division’s annual 3.5-mile winter hike along the Little Miami State and National Scenic River on Saturday, Feb. 8.

“What happens if Yellow Springs ever becomes a city?”

It’s a question that many villagers have asked over the decades as our local population has fluctuated, our small-town economy has become ever more service- and tourism-based and as new housing developments have cropped up.

Hometown hero Aamil Wagner, #59 and offensive tackle for Notre Dame brought out scores of Yellow Springers to watch him play in the College Football National Championship game against The Ohio State University on Monday, Jan. 20.

Should Woda Cooper successfully be awarded the $15 million in low-income housing tax credits from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency to build a low-income housing development, the district would have $689,000 to turn the Joneses’ cornfield into playable soccer fields.

“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.”