December 29, 2005

By Lauren Heaton

A group of local residents attended the Miami Township trustees’ meeting on Dec. 19 to request that the Fogg and Pitstick farms be removed from the Cooperative Economic Development Agreement (CEDA) between the Village and the Township.

After some discussion, the trustees agreed to continue the topic at their next meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 4, and to suggest it as an agenda item for the joint Village Council/Township trustee meeting at the end of January.

Suzanne Patterson, Rick Donahoe, Dimi Reber and Bill Slattery asked the trustees to remove from the CEDA the two farms, which are located near the planned Center for Business and Education, at East Enon and Dayton-Yellow Springs Roads. The villagers said that the commerce park would be sufficient to accommodate the growth needed for Yellow Springs.

Land within the CEDA, Patterson said, attracts developers and makes it much easier to get Village utility access. The Pitstick and the Fogg farms should remain agricultural, she said.

The trustees felt differently about the issue, saying that the CEDA offered a measure of protection by encouraging nonresidential and non-retail development. Trustee Chris Mucher said that by promoting particular types of commercial development, the CEDA “more clearly defines what the Village and the Township feel is the best use for those areas.”

“No one’s interested in Wal-Marts and Kmarts in those areas, and the CEDA protects those areas more than if it were taken off,” he said.

The three properties listed in the CEDA were identified by the Village Planning Commission in the 1970s as “special planning areas,” or economic growth zones, Mucher said after the meeting.

The trustees’ interest in including them in the CEDA was largely for revenue sharing, he said.

Mucher said that while the Pitstick farm is zoned industrial and seems a natural fit for development, if the Planning Commission decided the Fogg farm was no longer suitable for growth, the trustees would consider removing it from the CEDA.

After the meeting, Donahoe said that trying to accommodate small businesses in the Center for Business and Education would be difficult because bringing utilities to the area will drive up the cost of real estate and force developers to invite larger income-producing projects to the site.

In addition, he said, trying to limit development to the commerce park is unrealistic. Developing one piece of land puts pressure on other properties, and the “spawning” of new growth never ends, he said.

“Once you get progress started — what they call progress — those who start it can’t stop it,” Donahoe said. “They’ll try to do the right thing, but they won’t be able to afford it. And when it doesn’t pay, they’ll rezone it for something bigger, and the whole thing crumbles.”

Patterson said the CEDA is a green flag for developers, and it will encourage some kind of development, none of which, she said, is needed on either the Fogg or the Pitstick farms.

The trustees and Council created the CEDA in 2002 to encourage economic development and facilitate revenue sharing between the Village and the Township. It initially included the 46-acre commerce park site, which at the time was owned by Vernay Laboratories, and 40 acres of the Pitstick farm, on the east side of East Enon Road. Later that year the Vernay property was taken off the market temporarily, and the Fogg property was added to the CEDA. In 2004 Community Resources purchased the commerce park site from Vernay.

The 39-acre Fogg farm, co-owned by developer Doug Miller and the Lucy Van Ness Fogg Living Trust, was annexed to Yellow Springs in the fall of 2004 for the purpose of developing the property. That fall, some local residents formed Villagers Addressing Land Issues and Development (VALID) to oppose the development of the property. VALID members were among those who discussed the CEDA with the trustees last week.

In other Township business:

• The trustees agreed to purchase eight new radio pagers and two radios for the fire department. The new radios, which will cost a total of about $4,000, will replace 11 outdated or damaged pagers.

• Fire Chief Colin Altman reported the fire department responded to 38 EMS calls and 26 fire calls between Dec. 5 and Dec. 19.

• The trustees agreed to pay $16,432 in bills for the period beginning Dec. 5 and ending Dec. 19.

Contact: lheaton@ysnews.com