April 5, 2007

By Diane Chiddister

The possible annexation of the Fogg farm came to an abrupt halt on Wednesday, March 27, when the farm’s owners sold their land to an anonymous buyer who purchased it with the condition that the annexation petition not move forward.

Like the name of the land’s new owner, the future of the Fogg farm remains unknown, except that at the present time, there are no plans for annexation or development, according to attorney Barry Reich of the Springfield firm Cole, Acton, Harmon, and Dunn, who handled the transaction.

“At this time it will stay in agriculture,” Reich said in an interview on Thursday.

While Reich said he and the buyer have not discussed future plans for the property, the move indicates that the buyer does not have immediate plans for annexation.

“If they were interested in going forward, they would have left the annex petition in place,” Reich said.

The new owner paid $800,000 for the land, or about $20,000 an acre for the 39-acre plot. Reich said he could not say whether the new owner is an individual or a group.

The unidentified buyer purchased the land from realtor Doug Miller and the Fogg family trust, who Reich said were also unaware of the buyer’s identity. A Springfield banker, Jeffry Hughes, is the “exchange agent” whose name was used on legal forms so that the buyer could remain anonymous. The land will remain in Hughes’ name for “a period of time” until the buyer decides on the next step, according to Reich, who said the buyer may or may not choose to reveal his or her identity in the future.

The Village officially received the request for annexation at the beginning of January and by state law had until May 1 to either accept or reject the petition. Council had approved the first reading of the request and had on its April 2 agenda the second reading, or final approval, of the annex request.

In a presentation in January, Miller introduced a concept plan for his proposed residential development on the Fogg farm, which was named The Village Greene. The development included about 210 housing units, including both multi-family dwellings and single-family homes.

Miller did not return several phone calls seeking comment for this article.

The potential annexation has been a controversial issue in Yellow Springs, and at the March 19 Council meeting a group called Grow Smart, represented by Mary Donahoe, stated that it would mount a referendum if Council approved the annex request. The group had already collected 400 signatures in support of the referendum, she said.

Also at the March 19 meeting, Council reviewed the pre-annexation agreement that Village Manager Eric Swansen had negotiated with Miller. At that meeting Council members requested that Swansen ask Miller to meet with Home, Inc. Director Marianne MacQueen in order to try to negotiate a greater percentage of affordable housing units in the development, but that meeting had not taken place before the sale this week.

According to Reich, negotiations for the sale took place within the last 30 days.

Village Council was not aware that any negotiations were taking place, according to Swansen on Thursday.

“If something was going on, all of us were kept in the dark,” he said.

Contact: dchiddister@ysnews.com