February 24, 2005

CIC pursues annexing land

By Robert Mihalek

Community Resources is officially seeking to have land for the Center for Business and Education annexed into Yellow Springs, a step necessary to develop the proposed commerce park.

Also known as the Community Improvement Corporation, Community Resources started the annexation process on Jan. 28 when its board filed a petition for annexation with the Greene County Board of Commissioners. The commissioners unanimously approved the annexation request on Feb. 10. Last Monday, the annexation petition was delivered to Deborah Benning, the clerk of Village Council.

Council must wait 60 days before voting on the annexation request, John Chambers, the Village solicitor, said. The first regular Council meeting after the waiting period expires is April 18, Chambers said.

He said that the request would likely be presented to Council as a resolution, which requires one vote to be approved.

The property, located at East Enon and Dayton-Yellow Springs Roads, would be annexed under the same zoning designation, Agriculture, that it carries in Miami Township, Chambers said.

The Center for Business and Education will become the new home of Antioch University McGregor, whose campus will feature a 65,000-square-foot facility on 10 acres. Members of Community Resources have said that construction of the $15 million campus is scheduled to begin in September 2005 and will be completed in December 2006. McGregor expects to open the facility’s doors a month later.

Dan Young, the vice chairman of Community Resources, said the organization is “coming closer to presenting a plan for rezoning” the property. Young, who has spearheaded Community Resource’s efforts to develop the commerce park, said the organization’s board still needed to agree on the zoning it would seek for the property. He did say that Community Resources would likely choose one of the zoning designations allowed under the new Planned Unit Development zone. Young said that the revised PUD regulations would allow Community Resources to define the commerce park as its board wants and to prohibit retail businesses on the site.

Community Resources is seeking to have the land annexed under the guidelines established in the Cooperative Economic Development Agreement, a document approved by Council and the Miami Township trustees in which they agreed to work together to promote commercial development.

Because the commerce park site will be developed under the CEDA, the trustees will support the annexation request.

Under the CEDA, the Village will provide to the annexed land water and sewer services, police protection, street lighting and other Village services. Miami Township will provide fire and EMS protection and snow removal. The Village will receive income taxes and utility revenue from businesses in the commerce park, and the Township will receive property and real estate taxes equivalent to the amount of revenue the Township would have received if the property had remained in Miami Township.