March 31, 2005

Villagers name goals for Yellow Springs at Community Forum

By Diane Chiddister

Reaching a consensus on development issues. Increasing Village revenue by $500,000 a year. Balancing the needs of the local economy with protecting the environment. Making the public more aware of government services. Creating innovative housing solutions, including affordable housing. Increasing enrollment in the Yellow Springs schools.

These were some of the top priorities identified by the more than 100 villagers who participated in the second annual Yellow Springs Community Forum, “Where Do We Go from Here?” on Saturday at Wright State. Forum participants spent the day discussing Yellow Springs’ current needs and future challenges.

“One of the main issues that came out of today is the importance of communication and outreach,” Village Council member Jocelyn Hardman said during the last session of the forum. She said she hoped that villagers could “move forward together” to address the priorities identified at the forum.

The forum was attended by about 80 village leaders, representing most local organizations, who were invited by the forum’s organizers, as well as 29 community members who registered on their own.

The Yellow Springs Men’s Group, Community Resources and the Yellow Springs Chamber of Commerce sponsored the event, and the cochairs were Richard Lapedes and Saul Young.

“People who don’t often talk together on community issues had an opportunity to do so,” Lapedes said after the event, which, he said, he viewed as valuable in building “community equity” by bringing together people who may not agree on all issues but who could begin to understand each others’ perspectives.

One of the forum’s goals was to present to participants an overall picture of the complexity of the issues facing Yellow Springs, and how “you can’t look at one issue without looking at how it impacts other issues,” said Lapedes, a member of the school board and Community Round Table. “I think we were successful in educating people on all the pieces of the puzzle.”

“I like to think the forum is a valuable addition to the tool kit we have in the village on our needs and how to address them,” Lapedes said.

The heart of the forum were six breakout groups focusing on the topics of smart growth, taxes, local government services, education, housing and economic base. Each group selected several items for the Community Round Table, which was first formed at the 2004 forum, to work on over the next year.

At the end of Saturday’s forum, participants elected four new members to the Round Table: Len Kramer, David Heckler, Jerry Gasho and Megan Quinn, who is the temporary representative of the Chamber of Commerce.

Statistics on population slide
Like last year’s gathering, the 2005 forum was influenced by demographic information on declining population and job loss in Yellow Springs.

For instance, the 2002 “Cost of Living Report,” sponsored by the Men’s Group, showed that Yellow Springs’ population has declined by 863 people, or 19 percent, to 3,761 counted in the 2000 census from 4,624 counted in 1970.

Young, who is a member of the Men’s Group, reported that the decline in population includes a decrease of 434 students at Antioch College since 1970. Not counting Antioch students, the number of villagers declined 429 people, or 12 percent, from 1970 to 2000, Young reported.

He also reported that the village lost 272 jobs, or 12 percent, to 1,917 in 2000 from 2,189 in 1990.

Students in the Yellow Springs public schools have declined over the last two decades. In 1980, 745 students attended the public schools; while in 2000, 596 students from Yellow Springs were enrolled, a drop of 38 percent. However, the decline in students is somewhat made up by 108 students from other communities who currently attend the Yellow Springs schools.

Statistics also show that Yellow Springs is becoming less diverse, with 29 percent of the community made up of minority residents in 1970 and 23 percent in 2000.

Diversity, education, green space and a desire to remain small are values that have been identified by Yellow Springers in various visioning efforts in the past 35 years, said Young.

“We don’t get to have schools, green space and diversity unless we have a viable, critical mass of people,” he said.

Green space and village survey
Village Council president Tony Arnett presented what he called “a reality check” on the availability of land for development and the preserved land in and around Yellow Springs.

Currently, about 2,290 acres of land around Yellow Springs are protected by easements, though most of those areas are the 906-acre Whitehall Farm to the north and Glen Helen’s 900 acres to the north and east.

While the Village Comprehensive Plan identifies a greenbelt to the west of Yellow Springs, most of the area is not protected by easements and could be developed, Arnett said.

“The greenbelt is a plan,” Arnett said. “What it isn’t is actually preserved and protected land.”

He also reported some of the results of the Council-sponsored survey of Yellow Springs residents, which asked villagers to identify their preferred means of raising Village revenues, among other questions.

The survey results indicated that most Yellow Springers favor some residential and job growth as the preferred means for raising revenues, Arnett said. More than 95 percent of villagers favor some job growth, and about 80 percent favor moderate population growth, according to the surveys. A large percentage of villagers surveyed opposed raising taxes as a means for raising revenues, Arnett said.

Council organized the survey because the Village faces hard economic choices in the coming years, Arnett said.

“Council saw the train coming and it’s been coming for a long time,” he said, stating that while Village revenues have remained flat, expenses have gone up. The Village also faces more than $10 million in capital expenses in the next 10 years, as outdated infrastructure, including sewer and water lines, needs to be replaced.

“Every year we were just getting by,” he said. “Eventually we have to replace these things. We can’t put them off anymore.”

Housing, education groups
The afternoon’s liveliest dialogue took place when the housing breakout group gave its recommendations. The group identified as its priority “through innovation we can achieve diversity” and identified action items aimed at encouraging nontraditional affordable housing, Bill Alexander, the president of the Men’s Group, reported. Those action items included surveying villagers about their housing needs, investigating alternative housing models in other communities, seeking incentives for developers to create alternative housing and educating the community on the need for such housing.

During the group’s report, Jocelyn Hardman said that Yellow Springs also needs high-end housing options. She noted that executives at YSI Incorporated and The Antioch Company have reported that many of their employees chose not to live in Yellow Springs because they couldn’t find houses in the $300,000 to $500,000 range.

“Is this diversity for all?” she said.
The average number of persons per dwelling in Yellow Springs is 2.1, according to Saul Young, who questioned whether homeowners would be interested in living in alternative housing in such close proximity to others.

“We are no longer willing to live three or four people to a dwelling,” he said.

Other forum participants expressed their frustration that new residential development in Yellow Springs has consisted of mostly expensive homes, which affects those who can only afford moderately priced housing.

“I question what commitment this community has to affordable housing,” said John Fleming, who stated that since he has moved to town “far more monster houses have been built than affordable ones.”

A significant part of an affordable housing effort has to be educating the community, said Arnett. He said he could “make one guarantee: if we’re all in support of having it, but no one wants it in their backyard, we will have no affordable housing,”

The education breakout group named as its priority increasing enrollment in Yellow Springs schools, reported Joan Ackerman.

Action steps toward that goal included improving business and housing opportunities, promoting holistic education, promoting a range of educational programs, promoting the high quality of local education, promoting arts in the community, emphasizing Yellow Springs as an “Education Village” and promoting science and science education.

The group shifted away from promoting Yellow Springs as an “Education Village,” which was last year’s focus, Ackerman said. Because Antioch University McGregor in the last year committed to anchoring the proposed Center for Business and Education, the group saw the community as moving toward the Education Village goal concept and needing now to look at other challenges.

However, Yellow Springs needs to pay more attention to Antioch College and to assuring that the college continues as a viable institution, Michael Jones said.

“The community drastically needs a successful, robust Antioch College,” Jones said. “It’s time for community members to go to the college and proactively ask, ‘what do you need from us?’ ”

Smart growth, economic base
New this year to the forum was the smart growth group, which identified as priorities keeping a balance between the Yellow Springs economy and the environment, creating opportunities for early dialogue between villagers and developers and continuing dialogue about development in a way that is inclusive of all in the community.

The group also identified a list of Yellow Springs qualities that participants hold dear, according to Gina Paget, who reported for the group. Values identified included a feeling of community, diversity, workability, safety, green space, friendliness, manageability, an eclectic atmosphere and the presence of good colleges and schools. Physical values identified included Yellow Springs’ proximity to natural areas, informality, trees, diverse land use, clean air, condensed downtown and low traffic.

The group also suggested creating a checklist of local values to give to potential developers, a strategy that has been used successfully in other towns, according to Dimi Reber, a member of Villagers Addressing Land Issues and Development.

The group focusing on the community’s economic base selected as its priority the need to reach a consensus on development issues.

The group also expressed support for supporting Antioch College, Antioch McGregor and Antioch University; supporting a vibrant downtown; attracting young families through business development, housing choices and high-quality schools; growing small, homegrown businesses, possibly through an incubator; promoting Yellow Springs values; and continuing the commerce park project.

Government services, taxes
The group that studied local government services identified as a priority focusing on “services that will foster economic development within our community that supports our values,” Jeanna Peifer said.

Action steps that the group identified included reviewing how economic development is currently being handled, making the public more aware of government services and closing what group members perceive as a communications gap between Yellow Springers and the Village government.

The breakout group that focused on taxes identified increasing revenues as the most significant priority, said David Heckler, a former Village manager. The group suggested that the Village find an additional $500,000 per year in new revenue sources and that the Village utilities be self-sufficient and held accountable for their costs.

The group suggested that the Village could provide free Internet service for all Yellow Springs residents, an amenity that might make Yellow Springs stand out to prospective home buyers and serve to increase population, Heckler said. Other revenue-generating ideas included a voluntary sales tax and a lodging tax for people staying in town.

Group members also suggested that those working out of town who currently pay income taxes only to the municipality where they work should also pay taxes to the Village.

“There was the feeling that everyone should pay some income tax to the Village if they live in the village,” Heckler said.

The need for new revenue sources will soon increase, as not only must the Village meet rising inflation costs with flat revenues, but also the state of Ohio is planning to cut funding to local governments, Lapedes said.

“There’s no escaping from the requirement of being aggressive in pursuing new revenue sources,” he said.