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Google PlayA housing development in Yellow Springs, Ohio will not include affordable housing in it after Dave Chappelle and other residents voiced concern.
Per the Dayton Daily News, the Yellow Springs council voted no on including an affordable housing component in the planned development. Oberer Homes, the company set to construct the development, made a plan with the village to include duplexes and other affordable housing alongside family homes in a 53-acre area south of Yellow Springs.
After multiple complaints, the village council voted 2-2 on the “planned unit development” zoning. That means there won’t be the affordable housing included, and it will be a development of 143 single-family homes only. Chappelle expressed opposition to the project, and threatened to pull his businesses from the local area including his plans for a restaurant and a comedy club. “I am not bluffing,” said Chappelle. “I will take it all off the table.”
Other Yellow Springs citizens said that they were concerned about how the development might impact traffic, water management, and being left out of the conversation between the council and Oberer. Resident Matthew Kirk said he was on board initially, but he eventually “soured” on the project because he sees it as two seperate developments, rather than just the one. “Those products attract different homebuyers,” he said.
Chappelle first made his feelings on the development known during a council meeting in December, 2021. “I just want to say I am adamantly opposed to it,” said Chappelle at the time, per WHIO. “I have invested millions of dollars in town. If you push this thing through, what I’m investing in is no longer applicable.”
During that same meeting, Chappelle said the average age in Yellow Springs is 49, and since there’s no school in the area it’ll be difficult to attract young families. “The changes are inevitable, but we do have a decision on what they will or could be,” he said. Other business that Chappelle had in the area includes an old school house he plans to renovate for the local National Public Radio affilate, WYSO. If the deal went through as originally planned, Chappelle said he was to sell all his property to Oberer.
