April 7, 2005

Smart growth event sparks energy

Led by Heather Sturgill, a University of Cincinnati student, left, Eric Fredericks and Sue Parker, with Byron Dann, negotiated downtown sidewalks in wheelchairs during an accessibility walk at the “Smart Growth for a Small Town” event Saturday.

By Lauren Heaton

Last weekend’s conference, “Smart Growth for a Small Town,” was all about talk. The more than 500 people milling about downtown among the First Presbyterian Church, the Senior Center, Antioch College and Mills Lawn School braved the cold and rain to learn and share ideas about how to promote economic growth and strengthen the sense of community in Yellow Springs.

Though the weekend did not generate plans on what to do next in the village, two of the conference organizers, Krista Magaw, the executive director of the Tecumseh Land Trust, and Len Kramer, a member of the Village Mediation Program Steering Committee, both said they achieved the goal of creating enthusiasm for the process ahead of creating a plan for the village that satisfies the community.

“We were hoping to see some hope, optimism and energy,” Magaw said on Monday. “We saw a lot of positive ideas about things we can do to rev up the economy and enhance the things we love about the village, and that’s absolutely what we were hoping to do.”

A keynote presentation on Friday night by Thomas Hylton, author of Save Our Land, Save Our Towns, contextualized the weekend by covering the history of urban sprawl and the do’s and don’ts on how to build a vital downtown while retaining ample green space. On Saturday, visiting planning experts Dan Burden, Jim Segedy, Clark Tibbetts and Murray McDade led walking tours around town and several presentations on improving village design and inspiring Yellow Springs to think creatively about the future.

By Sunday’s closing event, villagers appeared ready to use the weekend’s momentum to turn the talk into plans to create “communities by choice, not by chance.”

A ‘gold mine’ downtown
Balancing high-density commercial and residential districts with the preservation of parks, gardens and open space was a recurring theme of the weekend.

Centralized areas of activity with well-planned thoroughfares encourage residents to walk or bike downtown, socialize around coffee shops and meet their daily shopping needs within their own community, Segedy said, using as illustrations a series of sketches of small downtown areas around the country. Interspersing parks and green space gives residents a place to recreate and a sense of openness to the place they live, he said.

According to this model, downtown Yellow Springs has the potential of “a gold mine waiting to be tapped,” Burden said during Sunday’s closing discussion.

During the walking tours he pointed out that the intersection of Dayton and Corry Streets could incorporate an attractive roundabout to invite people in and hold them. Sidewalks could be widened to allow for greater accessibility and room for activities, he said.

Along with improving the design of downtown, Burden said, enhancing the other “nodes” of activity, such as the western gateway and the business district at the south end of town, could revitalize activity in the village, a concept that surprised several local residents who assumed that multiple business districts compete with, instead of complement, each other.

Holding charrettes, or brainstorming forums, focused on designing specific sites on these nodes could be a useful way to generate positive ideas, Burden said. He praised Yellow Springs for its natural and human resources and encouraged villagers to use their enthusiasm and these “incredible gifts” to create a successful village.

“You’ve got human uranium in this town,” he said. “You’re going to make it!”

Communication seen as key
Conference participants raised questions and concerns about how to ensure that the different groups, including leaders, developers, property owners and citizens, could trust each other enough to negotiate for the common good. Guest planners stressed the power of communication to find common ground between seemingly opposing groups.

Tibbetts, who has an economic and environmental planning background, encouraged villagers to approach developers with business proposals that benefit their projects as well as serve the community’s needs. Developers are not evil, he said, and they are often flexible when they understand the community’s values and can find ways for everyone to benefit.

Acting Village Manager Phil Hawkey and Greene County Commissioner Rick Perales encouraged community members to convey their wants and needs to their elected leaders and government officials. “Use us, talk to us, and I think together we can make some good things happen,” Perales said.

Guest planners also encouraged villagers not to polarize or vilify each other, but to look for common values and find solutions that meet many needs.

Hopeful, with a hint of doubt
While Amanda Calder, who is studying environmental studies at Antioch College, said she was energized and motivated by the weekend’s event, she said she was disappointed with the lack of representation from Antioch. Better communication and outreach to faculty and administrators at the college, Antioch University and Antioch McGregor will be an integral part of creating a successful visioning process, she said.

“You can’t have a vision for Antioch or a vision for the town that doesn’t include each other,” she said.

Sue Parker said she was uncomfortable with the fact that few African-Americans, younger people or those who spearheaded the previous weekend’s Community Forum participated in the smart growth weekend. People focused on the village’s economic issues seemed separate from those focused on avoiding sprawl, she said, suggesting that an umbrella group or activity was needed to bring the two sides together.

“My guess is that the people in that [economic] group have some very different values than we have here,” Parker said.

Rick Donahoe, who is a member of Villagers Addressing Land Issues and Development, or VALID, agreed that there was little crossover between those who have organized the two Community Forums and those who participated in the smart growth weekend, and said the divide between them was still palpable. Donahoe, who was away the weekend of the Community Forum, took some responsibility for the gap. “I’m part of the problem,” he said.

Magaw, who was also away during the Community Forum, said that there was quite a bit of crossover and noted a solid number of newcomers and people under 40 attended the smart growth weekend’s evening events.

More work ahead
The work of planning for Yellow Springs’ future has just begun, Magaw said. But there is a lot more optimism now about ways to develop the village than there was last fall when the community debate about growth picked up in earnest, Magaw said. It was at that time that the owners of the Fogg property were seeking to annex their land into Yellow Springs and McGregor committed to moving to the Center for Business and Education, making that project more of a reality.

“People were earnestly thinking we need jobs so bad that anything will do,” she said, and others said they wanted Yellow Springs to stay exactly the same. “Neither extreme makes sense. The middle way is likely to be the most successful,” she said.

The first step for the community, Burden and Tibbetts said, will be to create a visioning process that includes input from a broad range of local residents.

At the same time it’s also crucial that villagers continue to work closely with developers on projects such as Birch III and development at the west edge of town, Magaw said. She suggested that Yellow Springers get to know the developers and find out how to work together to build higher-density projects that are more cost-effective for them.

While the visioning is going on, Magaw encouraged villagers to begin smaller projects such as improving signage, getting sidewalks repaired and extended or putting benches around town.

Tecumseh Land Trust hopes to stay involved with the planning process as a positive resource while the Village Mediation Program takes over for the visioning process, she said.

“There’s lots more to do, that’s for sure,” Magaw said. “I hope we can keep up the momentum and use this energy for the visioning process.”