January 20, 2005

Planners approve map delineating sewer line limits

By Lauren Heaton

At its meeting Jan. 10, the Village Planning Commission approved a map of the urban service boundary, or the limits of the area capable of being served by gravity sanitary sewers.

Village Council on Monday agreed to add the map to the Village Comprehensive Plan.

At the plan board’s next meeting, on Monday, Feb. 14, the commission will begin a dialogue using the service boundary to define the limits of the urban service area, which is defined as acceptable for growth.

The service area could include all the land within the service boundary and may include land outside the boundary.

Plan board members described the potential impact of the urban service area by using concrete examples. Areas within the area could be annexed into Yellow Springs and rezoned, board member Dawn Johnson said.

The Village can more easily deny annexation of land outside the service area, plan board member John Struewing said.

Much of the service boundary is not located outside the village corporation limits.

The boundary extends farthest outside the village on the western edge of Yellow Springs. The boundary makes a loop that extends approximately 2,000 feet west of East Enon Road, roughly follows the boundaries of the planned Center for Business and Education and reaches part way across the Fogg property just west of Yellow Springs High School.

If and when the Village receives state funding to upgrade the Dayton Street sewer line, the urban service boundary is expected to extend 3,000 feet west of East Enon Road, which would accommodate gravity-fed services to a property owned by the Welsh family and another owned by Jard Enterprises.

The service boundary also extends 1,300 feet beyond the southern village limit at Kahoe Lane and through the Kahoe property, and it also extends north to the east of U.S. 68 and north of State Route 343.

In an interview last week, Village Planner Phil Hawkey said that development pressure is greatest on land adjacent to properties that receive Village services and on land that could receive gravity-fed sewer services.

According to plan board members, the three areas with the greatest potential for growth are the northwestern border of Yellow Springs, the Kahoe property to the south and the area east of U.S. 68 and north of State Route 343.

The Center for Business and Education, the Fogg property and part of the Pitstick farm are part of the Cooperative Economic Development Agreement, or CEDA, between the Village and Miami Township. Land in the CEDA that is developed commercially would be annexed into Yellow Springs and receive Village utilities.

The land around these properties, particularly those areas within the urban service boundary, has the next greatest potential for being developed.

The Village could also choose to extend the urban service area beyond the gravity-fed areas by installing a lift station to provide water and sewer services to land meant to be developed, Hawkey said.

Developers are responsible for the cost of installing sewer lines on their properties, which means the Village is not likely to incur costs to extend public services, Hawkey said.

There are many technical and planning factors that go into defining the urban service area and the area intended for growth, such as how new buildings would affect stormwater drainage, Village sewage treatment capacity, how a development complements greenspace and what the community envisions for the future, Hawkey said.

“I can’t imagine that community visioning won’t factor into defining the USA,” he said. “And this doesn’t mean holding up the Community Resources project,” he said, referring to the Center for Business and Education.

The limits of the urban service area will affect how the land around the commerce park is used. Though plan board has not begun discussing the service area, Hawkey said he would be surprised if land west of the Fogg farm on Dayton-Yellow Springs Road were included.

The urban service area that Council added to the Village Comprehensive Plan in 1991 included Whitehall Farm, which has since been preserved as greenspace. But as the use of land on Yellow Springs’ borders changes, so do plans for growth.

The village needs to create an updated urban service area that should address “not only what is possible, but also what is wise,” Hawkey said.