July 21, 2005

EDITORIAL

What we can learn from Birch III

There’s an important lesson that Yellow Springs and members of Village Council can learn from Glenwood Springs, the housing development on Birch III: the community needs to seek developers who will build diverse neighborhoods, including housing for those who work here, rather than just the affluent. Otherwise, Yellow Springs is likely to continue to attract more Glenwood Springs-type developments, housing projects that appeal to the wealthy but do little to preserve, let alone advance, the village as a diverse community.

Glenwood Springs will consist of 40 homes on about 21 acres of land on the south end of town. Houses in the development will be at a minimum 1,800 square feet if they’re one story and 2,200 square feet if they’re more than a story tall. The developers, Mark Bertke and Doug Eastham of Purple Sage, LLC, have said that the houses will cost between $250,000 and $500,000.

The prices of these homes will limit who can live in this new neighborhood. This will not be a development for first-time homebuyers, young families or single parents. You likely won’t see Antioch professors, Friends Care Community staffers or Yellow Springs school teachers living there. Instead, the development will be for the well-heeled, those who can afford large mortgage payments.

Purple Sage can’t really be faulted for following a market and developing a neighborhood that the company believes will make a profit. But that’s why the community cannot wait for altruistic developers to come along and propose housing developments that serve a wider range of people.

The Village has tools, including control of public utilities and financial incentives, to influence the type of growth that is likely to occur around town. Through the Village’s Planned Unit Development process, which was revised earlier this year, the Village could work with builders to design developments that include houses of greater variety, of different sizes, and, therefore, costs. The Village could also pursue legislation that would require developers to include moderately priced housing in their projects.

If Yellow Springs is going to grow in population, let’s do it right. Let’s build housing for a variety of people, not just the affluent and those who can afford quarter-million to half-million-dollar homes.

Speak out on school funding

The Yellow Springs Board of Education and school district administrators have two years to devise a plan to make up 5 percent of the district’s funding that will be lost in July 2007. School officials are still trying to understand how the district will be affected by the elimination of some school funding and other changes enacted in the new state budget.

Yellow Springs Board of Education members and school district administrators are right to be quite concerned about the prospects of losing these funds, which are expected to be at least $385,000, though Joy Kitzmiller, the district’s treasurer, said that the amount could grow. That’s because more changes were enacted in the state’s new two-year budget, including the phasing out of personal tangible taxes over the next four years.

But board officials and administrators are not just concerned — they’re frustrated. As Ms. Kitzmiller asked in an interview, “Where am I supposed to come up with this?”

School board members and administrators are urging local residents to contact their state legislators and ask them to reinstate the funding that will be eliminated, called “transitional aid guarantee funding,” and provide more support for the school district. Yellow Springs’ legislators include Senator Steve Austria, who represents the 10th District, and Representative Chris Widener, who represents the 84th District.

Here’s how to contact Sen. Austria: sd10@mailr.sen.state.oh.us; Senate Building, Room 132, First Floor, Columbus 43215; or 614-466-3780. Rep. Widener’s contact information is district84@ohr.state.oh.us; 77 South High Street, 11th Floor, Columbus 43215; or 614-466-1470 (telephone) and 614-644-9494 (fax).

Contact them. Tell them that the funding system is not working, that the funding cuts will harm the Yellow Springs schools, the community and its children.

—Robert Mihalek