December 9, 2004

EDITORIAL

Time to plan

The decision by one of the owners of the Fogg property to delay efforts to annex the parcel into Yellow Springs gives the community time to debate issues this town is now grappling with. More good news came at Village Council’s meeting on Monday when Council members pledged to organize several meetings where community members can discuss what one Council member called a “convergence” of issues that will influence Yellow Springs’ future.

These public forums must be designed to engage a variety of positions and provide a true community dialogue on issues related to expanding the village’s boundaries, or whether Yellow Springs can experience growth through “infilling,” or building on empty land in town. There’s time to lobby for the preservation of a green belt around Yellow Springs. The forums should offer a place to discuss how the town’s shrinking population and job base have affected Village services and the public school population, and allow for a discussion on how the Village can pay for millions of dollars in capital improvement projects. Community members can talk about how this town can increase jobs and support existing businesses.

The forums need to address several basic questions that are at the heart of the development debate: Is Yellow Springs really ready to grow? What kind of growth, and how much, is appropriate for the village? How can Yellow Springs maintain its history of preserving open spaces while promoting growth?

By agreeing to set up several meetings to discuss these types of issues, Council members seem to recognize that, despite signaling for some time their intention to promote business and residential growth, the community needs to be engaged in this discussion on Yellow Springs’ future. The emergence of what appears to be a significant number of Yellow Springers who either oppose annexing the Fogg property, or who have legitimate concerns about the type and extent of growth that could occur here, shows that not everyone is in agreement with calls to increase the population and spur job growth by expanding the village’s borders. It shows that while 70 handpicked leaders can meet for a day for an economic planning forum, as they did last March, a broad-based community discussion needs to take place before such big changes can gain acceptance throughout town.

As Council and other community groups, including Community Resources, the nonprofit organization developing the commerce park, have initiated efforts to increase the population and jobs, we’ve been told that Yellow Springs can grow smartly without causing sprawl. In one piece of educational material, Council said that “the only way to create long-term sustained, slow growth is to expand the Village borders,” and “the most plausible locations for growth are on the western side of the Village,” where the commerce park site and Fogg parcel are located.

Council also said that “growth does not have to mean sprawl.” Until Council members lay out a vision for how they intend to make this happen, and until Council ensures that development on the edge of Yellow Springs does not harm downtown, many will remain skeptical. After all, proposals for developing the Fogg property show that the commerce park, while a valuable and needed project, is likely to attract more development on the edge of town — and the first shovel of dirt hasn’t even been turned over. Coordinated planning from the Village and Miami Township, as well as other groups such as Community Resources and Tecumseh Land Trust, can stop growth from snowballing out of control.

If Village officials, who are being looked at as the leaders of the growth effort, plan wisely and ensure downtown will be protected and sprawl will be avoided, most Yellow Springers are likely to get on board.

—Robert Mihalek