Plan board recommends new comprehensive plan

By Lauren Heaton

After nearly a year of revision, Village Planning Commission members agreed at their meeting and public hearing on Monday, Dec. 10, to recommend that Village Council approve an amended version of the Village Comprehensive Plan. Plan board members agreed to have the revised comprehensive plan edited and collated by a professional before Council is scheduled to consider adopting the plan at one of its meetings in February.

The plan has not been changed since 2001, and this year’s revision was a routine update of the document that guides and informs all planning and policy making for Village government. The revision does not redirect the Village or change its core purpose, but rather seeks to clarify its goals and attempts to incorporate a balance of values that span from economic growth to retaining open space and staying small.

The introduction, for example, was reworded to the following:

“This Comprehensive Plan, referred to as “the Plan,” is a statement of policy that outlines the Yellow Springs community’s desires regarding issues such as atmosphere or community character, quality of life and growth rate. These desires translate into statements of goals, which direct the discussion and implementation of policy with regards to land use and Yellow Springs government’s decisions. The Plan’s purpose recognizes the community’s responsibility in reaching consensus about how physical and social resources are valued, managed and used. The Plan influences nearly all essential community services and zoning ordinances and provides the basis for legislative action.”

The plan addresses a chronological view of the village from its past, to its present condition to its future goals and objectives.

Land use planning
Some of the most significant changes to the plan can be found in section 4: Land Use Principles and Objectives. The former plan addressed this section as a list of conflicts that can arise when the values of open space and small size are pitted against the village’s equally important need for affordability, economic vitality and diversity. The newer version proposed a list of nine principles that would satisfy village needs regarding housing, commerce, industry, education, parks and recreation, a thoroughfare plan, the environment, special planning areas and annexation and utility extension. The principles are followed by a list of six “caveats” that should be adhered to where possible in attempt to meet the stated principles.

The nine principles are: 1) make land use decisions that restore and maintain a population, employment, and an economic base that can sustain the community; 2) make provisions for housing that satisfies people of all income levels; 3) support land use developments in which residents can live, walk and bicycle to meet their daily needs; 4) Encourage land use that honors both private landowners’ rights and the community’s desire to determine how and where it wants to grow; 5) Promote mixed-use land use for areas that are compatible with the mixed uses of adjacent areas; 6. preserve open space, critical environmental areas and historic buildings; 7) promote transportation infrastructure that supports safety and accessibility for pedestrian, bicycle and motorized traffic; 8) direct development to areas already served by infrastructure or within the urban service area; 9) promote business growth to areas where it already exists or where compatible with the adjacent land use.

In pursuit of these nine principles, this section lists caveats, such as the fact that preserving open space can restrict economic/residential growth, increases the value of adjacent land and reduces potential property tax revenue. A second caveat indicates that economic vitality is essential as long as the community can retain its current character and diversify its investment in the different economic sectors such as tourism, manufacturing, retail and education. The section also recognizes that villagers see tourism as both a benefit and a nuisance and that as visitors increase, the village will be forced to address issues such as the need for increased parking to accommodate a higher volume of foot -traffic.

As another caveat, the term “smallness” as a community value is qualified by the balance of other desires, such as wanting to be an economically sustainable community. The plan suggests that “it may instead be more appropriate to engage in actions that seek to preserve community values and physical, social, economic, political conditions that preserve at least the feeling and perception of being a small town.”

The issue of land use at the village limits (which would affect annexation issues) will depend on the land use regulations developed by Miami Township, the plan states, adding that the Village “must find ways for the community to mutually satisfy Miami Township interests with our own to prevent ‘sprawl’ — defined as development that...‘leapfrogs’ over our existing corporate boundary...or that infringes on ‘environmentally sensitive’ and/or designated ‘open space’ areas without an ‘exchange’ for preserving” these areas.

This section also states that the Village must maintain essential public services at cost-effective, sustainable levels. These include a water system, wastewater treatment, street maintenance, electric distribution, police, parks (including Gaunt Park and pool and the Bryan Community Center), public library building, independent school system.

The plan in context
Though the Comprehensive Plan is the Village’s main compass, there are still land use issues that Planning Commission recommends Village Council attempt to define. From a list of a dozen outstanding issues, plan board suggests the Village focus on three: 1) conduct a creditable population study to determine the ideal population needed to sustain the Yellow Springs community; 2) conduct an ongoing analysis of the costs and benefits of maintaining local public services; 3) conduct a professional transportation study to assess the compatibility of local roadways, bikeways and sidewalks with the community’s needs.

While the comprehensive plan is the overarching policy guide, the Village has two other essential tools, the Village zoning code and its subdivision regulations, to implement and regulate policy. Plan board and subsequently Village Council regularly revises both of those documents as well. The next revision for the zoning code is scheduled to begin next year.

In other plan board business:
• Plan board members discussed briefly a letter from Yellow Springs Historical Society President David Neuhardt opposing the current plan to raze the historic Barr home on the corner of Xenia Avenue and Limestone Street in order to build senior apartments for Friends Care Community. Plan board members Matt Reed, Lori Askeland and John Struewing agreed that the plan for the property should include some investigation of the possibility of accomplishing the housing goals without tearing down the historic structure.

• At next month’s meeting on Monday, Jan. 14, plan board is scheduled to address a preliminary proposal from Friends Care for the Barr property and review Planning Commission’s annual report.

Contact: lheaton@ysnews.com