October 14, 2004

Planners support rezoning Hall land

By Lauren Heaton

The Village Planning Commission agreed Monday to support a request from Antioch University to rezone the G. Stanley Hall property from Education to Residence A.

Plan board chairman Bruce Rickenbach, members Dawn Johnson and Steve Deal, and George Pitstick, Council’s representative on the commission, voted yes. John Struewing was absent.

Plan board recommended that Village Council approve the request to rezone the eight-acre property. Council will hold a first reading on the request at its next meeting on Oct. 18.

Antioch University wants to rezone the Hall property, which is located next to the Antioch School and is part of the Antioch Commons, as part of its plans to sell the land. The university anticipates needing funds to compensate for unusually low enrollment at Antioch College and to supplement for costs needed to develop the college’s new curriculum, said Glenn Watts, the university vice chancellor.

Planning Commission originally considered the rezoning request last month, but postponed a decision to give planners more time to weigh the merits of the request.

Close to 30 people came to last month’s meeting to oppose the zoning change. Some said that rezoning the land would allow a developer to build homes on land Antioch School students have used as an outdoor extension of their classrooms for over 50 years.

At Monday’s meeting eight people showed up in support of the elementary school, and only Caroline Mullin, the president of the school’s board, and Peggy Erskine, a former director at the school, made statements on the issue.

Mullin also requested that plan board consider placing development restrictions on the land granting an easement to the Antioch School for access to its driveway and to utilities, sewer and telephone lines. She also requested that a developer be restricted to honoring a 30-foot “safe zone” between the Antioch School and private properties and to maintaining the natural stormwater swale on the land.

Plan board took the past several weeks to evaluate the zoning change in the context of the goals of the Village’s Comprehensive Plan. Johnson said that approving the change would serve the plan’s goals to increase housing stock and encourage residential growth in the village’s interior.

Though the Comprehensive Plan also advises careful maintenance of educational facilities and green spaces, specifically mentioning the Antioch Commons, which used to be called the golf course, Johnson said that developing the property as Residence A would not impede the preservation of both the school and the golf course.

“There is no compelling evidence here that prevents us from going ahead with this action [to approve rezoning],” Johnson said.

Rickenbach agreed with Johnson’s evaluation, adding that though the plan board should consider the Antioch School’s needs, the Comprehensive Plan advises the board to “do no harm” in making zoning decisions.

“We cannot deprive people of the legitimate use of their property and thereby cause harm,” he said.

At plan board’s meeting last month, former Antioch University trustee Bill Hooper said that Antioch College had included the Hall property as part of the golf course’s green space.

But Watts said on Monday that the Board of Trustees had always viewed the property as separate from the golf course.

The Planning Commission approved 3–1 a second measure recommending that if the Hall property is developed, Council take into consideration the Antioch School’s requests for driveway and utilities access and for a buffer zone between the school and the development.

Johnson voted against the motion, saying that making development conditional on those standards was an “illegal action” that was “in violation of our Comprehensive Plan.”

Mullin said that she was “satisfied with the result” of Planning Commission’s decision.

Though the Hall property may be rezoned, the Antioch School may still have time to come up with a plan for the land surrounding it. Over the past two months, Antioch University has received some “outside funds coming to the college in conjunction with the Renewal Commission” that may offset the need to sell the Hall property, Watts said after the meeting.

The university’s Board of Trustees has communicated a reluctance to sell the land, and the issue is not on the agenda for the board’s meeting this week in Yellow Springs, Watts said.

Even if the property is sold, Watts said, the university “can accommodate virtually every condition” the Antioch School raised at Monday’s meeting. The university could either split the property into two lots, one for a developer and one that meets the Antioch School’s needs, or agree with a developer to create a buffer zone and street and utility access.

The Antioch School’s development committee has been discussing alternative plans for the property, Mullin said, and has met with the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship about turning the property into an intentional community or an eco-village.

“If the trustees aren’t putting it on the market at this time, then there is lots of time to make plans,” Mullin said of the university’s Board of Trustees. “It’s a matter of communicating with the community and connecting with those who have an interest in a shared community space.”