May 31, 2007

By Diane Chiddister

Twenty-one years ago, in the midst of an intense local debate about whether the Village should sell the Sutton farm to a local business or keep it as green space, conservationists sponsored a walk on that farm.

The walk became a pivotal point in the village controversy, in which the Village ended up preserving the then-100-acre farm on the northern border of town. And that controversy led a few years later to the creation of the Tecumseh Land Trust (TLT), after a group of villagers -— including Bob and Tia Huston and Janet Ward — recognized the need for a land trust organization to help preserve green space.

The village recently went through another passionate local debate on green space versus growth, sparked by the proposed development of the Fogg farm on the western edge of Yellow Springs. While that development fell through when an anonymous buyer purchased the farm, the community conversation heightened villagers’ awareness of the need for green space protection, according to TLT Executive Director Krista Magaw. Now, TLT wants to build on that heightened interest.

“Awareness is higher than it has been,” she said. “We need to keep the heat on.”

To do so, this Sunday, June 3, from 2–4 p.m., the TLT will sponsor a second walk on the Sutton farm, which borders State Route 343 and is now protected by an agricultural easement. The event will be a part of that group’s annual 17th annual membership meeting. Everyone is invited to the meeting and the walk; you don’t have to be a member to attend.

Organizers of the original Sutton Farm walk wanted villagers to experience the land up close, to see, smell and listen to the trees, fields and wildlife. TLT organizers want villagers who take Sunday’s walk to do the same.

“The land looks so different from the road,” said Magaw in a recent interview. “Driving by, you only see two dimensions.”

It’s especially critical for villagers to understand the vulnerability of the Jacoby green belt on the village’s western edge, according to Magaw. The recent Fogg farm annexation debate made clear to many villagers that the Jacoby green belt, envisioned 40 years ago as part of a doughnut of green space around the village, is still just that — a vision, not a reality.

The issue of Jacoby green belt preservation remains timely because the anticipated opening this fall of Antioch University McGregor in the Center for Business and Education (CBE) will likely spark more interest in development on the western edge of Yellow Springs, according to TLT member Evelyn LaMers.

The CBE is the first development of village land west of East Enon Road in the almost four decades that she has lived in town, according to LaMers, and that development poses new risks for preservation of the Jacoby green belt.

“It was the crack in the door,” she said.

While neither the CBE or the Fogg farm are actually located within the current Jacoby green belt, they are close to it, and development of land close by drives up prices of neighboring farmland, making it harder to purchase easements to preserve the land, according to Magaw.

The TLT has been in contact with owners of farms located within the Jacoby green belt, and most want to put their farms under easements that will preserve them, she said. However, all have financial constraints and would not be able to preserve the land on their own, without financial help.

During the 1990s, the Village partnered with TLT to provide resources that led to the preservation of several properties, including the Elder Welch farm in the Jacoby green belt and the Morris Bean farm. The TLT’s biggest success story was the 1999 preservation of Whitehall Farm on the town’s northern edge, an effort that combined contributions of villagers, the Village government, Greene County Commissioners and the Miami Township Trustees to preserve the 900-acre Whitehall farm.

The Village was a critical partner in that conservation effort, contributing most of its entire green belt fund, or about $300,000, to the Whitehall effort. But that action almost emptied Village green belt coffers, and financial constraints led Council several years back to discontinue using estate tax revenues to fund the green belt fund. Consequently, the partnership of TLT and the Village to preserve green space has stalled, Magaw said.

“Essentially, we haven’t replenished the green space fund with significant dollars,” she said.

The Miami Township trustees followed a different path, and have continued to funnel estate tax revenues into their green space fund, up to an annual cap of about $100,000. That amount of annual revenue, especially partnered with state and federal matching funds, has allowed TLT to put easements on several area farms the past several years.

Altogether, the TLT has worked to preserve over 13,000 acres of farmland and green space since its inception. While that amount of open preservation is significant, TLT members want to keep in front of the public eye the vision of preserving the Jacoby green belt.

The Whitehall effort was successful partly due to its drama, TLT member Bob Parker said. The effort involved the short-term crisis of an impending auction to sell much of the land on the town’s northern edge, possibly to developers. That possibility galvanized villagers, who engaged in a fierce effort to rise to the occasion and save the land.

It may be harder to motivate villagers to stay focused on a less dramatic, longterm effort to preserve the Jacoby green belt by chipping away at a goal. But Magaw and TLT members believe it can be done.

They hope that villagers will come to this Sunday’s walk to once more experience the sensory pleasure of open land.

According to LaMers, “We want people to enjoy the view and fall in love again with the land.”

Contact: dchiddister@ysnews.com