September 16, 2004

Plan board delays decision to rezone part of Commons

By Lauren Heaton

Antioch University has owned it since the 1930s, and the Antioch School has used and maintained part of it since the 1950s. And both opponents and proponents of Antioch University’s plan to rezone and sell eight acres of land on the Antioch Commons pleaded their cases during a public hearing before the Village Planning Commission on Monday.

After considering the two sides, however, plan board members agreed the issue was too important to judge hastily and postponed a vote on the university’s request to rezone the property from Educational to Residence “A.” They plan to weigh the issue against the goals of the Village Comprehensive Plan and hope that at their next meeting on Oct. 11 they can make a recommendation to Village Council which has final say over the rezoning request.

Nearly 30 villagers came to express their views that the parcel on the corner of Allen and Corry Streets should be preserved for the safety and educational benefit of Antioch School students. Speakers listed the ways in which having influence over the land was vital to maintaining green space, proper stormwater drainage in the area and access to the Antioch School’s Corry Street entrance.

But Glenn Watts, vice chancellor of Antioch University, said that the college wants to sell the land to increase revenue to make up for unusually low student enrollment and changes occurring on campus as part of the renewal plan. Rezoning the land and selling it for residential development would allow the university, and by extension Antioch College, to meet its budgetary needs for 2004. Though members of the university’s Board of Trustees have not yet approved the sale of the land, they have decided the property, which includes G. Stanley Hall Hall, is not critical to the college’s mission, Watts said.

The Antioch School, whose three-acre property is zoned residential, can’t build or operate on property zoned education. Though the school has the right of first refusal to purchase the college’s land, the school only gets to exercise its purchase privilege after the college receives an offer. And university leaders won’t market the land until they are certain it can be rezoned.

Watts acknowledged that rezoning the land to Residence “A” would open it up to commercial developers and raise the market value to a price that would be difficult for the Antioch School to afford. Because the college needs cash, Watts said, the college would not sell just a portion to the Antioch School before rezoning the entire parcel.

The university wants to preserve the Antioch School’s rights on the land, but it cannot be responsible for subdividing the land after it is sold, Watts said. He presented two recommendations for subdividing the property after it is sold: a developer could build on the parcels with road frontage, and the school could purchase a buffer strip behind the houses to separate them from the school. Watts said that he hopes the school would also be able to purchase the right of way along the northern edge of the property, which has served as its driveway since the school opened there in 1952.

If the Antioch School wasn’t interested in buying part of the property, Watts said, the university would recommend subdividing it into 12 lots and maintaining G. Stanley Hall Hall.

Several plan board members said that the university’s proposals were unenforceable and threatened to “muddle” their decision, which is based on zoning issues. Board members said they preferred to justify their decision on standards of public necessity, convenience, general welfare, good zoning practice and alignment with the Comprehensive Plan.

The university believes the sale of the property would benefit Yellow Springs through residential growth from building 10 to 12 homes, increased Village property and income tax revenue and increased enrollment for public schools, Watts said. Each of these benefits advances goals established by the Village.

But keeping the property, which is currently part of the Antioch Commons, or golf course, as open space could also reap benefits in keeping with the goals of the Village’s comprehensive plan. The open space controls development around the school, which the Village notes is important for safety reasons, Planning Commission member Dawn Johnson said. The school itself, with the green space encircling it, also draws new families to the village each year, others at the meeting said.

The swale that runs across the property provides stormwater drainage for the school and the golf course, the school’s board of directors said in a letter to the plan board.

Former Antioch College trustee Bill Hooper reviewed the history of the land and said he opposed rezoning the property. In 1981 Antioch College sold a 25-acre tract of the golf course to the Village as a loan to get through serious financial hardship. The college bought the property back in 1991 and agreed to maintain it as green space “in perpetuity,” Hooper said.

The green space agreement was meant for the entire corner property and “the trustees clearly understood the land was the entire golf course,” Hooper said. For unknown reasons, the Hall property was never included in the deed restriction, but the university intended to keep the corner parcel green forever, he said. It should, therefore, not be developed for non-educational purposes and selling it should be “reserved as a last resort plan,” he said.

Applause erupted from the small crowd in the Bryan Community Center meeting rooms after Hooper’s statements. Others such as Roberta Allen and Matt Bold said that the property should only be sold and developed as a last resort when the college had no other options available.

The college does have other pieces of property to sell to make money, none of which would affect the Antioch School, Peggy Erskine said. The university has had the 22-acre Birch III property on the market for nearly a year.

At the close of the public hearing, Planning Commission members weighed in with their analysis of the situation. Board member Steve Deal said that although the village could benefit from the rezoning, justifying it as a public necessity was difficult to do. In considering public convenience, the entrance on Corry Street should not be a major consideration because the Antioch School could build an entrance off Allen Street, commission chairman, Bruce Rickenbach, said.

For the general welfare of the public and all those involved, changing the zoning could have a positive effect on the university and a benign-to-negative effect on the Antioch School, Johnson said.

“Both institutions provide a positive benefit to the village,” Johnson said. “It behooves us to work cautiously to consider social benefits as well as monetary benefits.”

Considering whether rezoning would be in keeping with good zoning practices, Johnson also voiced concern that rezoning the property was a type of spot zoning because it is bordered on three sides by Glen Helen, Antioch Commons and the Antioch School. The nearest residential property is across Allen Street. Though other plan board members said the property is contiguous with its neighboring residential district, they acknowledged that parcels smaller than 10 acres cannot exist as independent districts.

“In essence, since the rest of the golf course can’t be developed, this is an island on otherwise undevelopable property,” John Struewing said.

Though Struewing and George Pitstick, who is Village Council’s representative on the Planning Commission, said they were prepared to make a decision Monday evening, board members agreed to consider how rezoning the land fits into the rest of the Comprehensive Plan before voting on the issue.

Plan board will continue the discussion at its next regular meeting on Monday, Oct. 11, 7 p.m., at the Bryan Community Center, meeting rooms A and B.