Houses and concrete

By Doug Page | Friday, August 17, 2007, 11:08 AM

Xenia has gobbled up a bunch of land for housing. Beavercreek and Tipp City are about built out. You’d better have deep pockets if you’re wanting to buy in Yellow Springs.

Realtors tell you it’s location, location, location.

Everyone wants his piece of the American dream: the home of his own most likely in the ’burbs, which has led to uncontrolled growth and poor planning.

Housing developments are metastasizing between southern Dayton and northern Cincinnati.

What was once Ohio corn and bean fields is turning into something else — Megaburb — where all that grows is houses and concrete.

For poor planning, look no further than Greene County. This summer’s water restrictions showed how commercial growth has outstripped the water system.

Places such as Tipp City and Yellow Springs have attempted to put the quietus on growth. They just say no.

Tipp tries to keep residential growth to around 1 percent annually, this after seeing its population balloon by 50 percent in the 1990s.

In the same manner, Yellow Springs makes it difficult for builders to scrape and build. As a consequence, the prices of houses in Yellow Springs are a wee bit higher than elsewhere.

Sunday, a two-bedroom in the village was listed at $160,000. A similar two-bedroom in Dayton was going for $96,000.

It’s that ol’ supply and demand. People want to live in the Springs. We’ll all agree that YS is a “special” place.

There’s just not enough houses for all us one-time hippies to relive our youth. So the price was dear.

That got kicked in the head with the announcement that Antioch College is closing. The school was the village’s cash cow as its largest employer.

The closing will be a serious hit to the village’s income tax revenue, which means those residents left will likely face a larger tax burden.

Somebody’s got to pay the bills.

Troy has been toying with a temporary residential moratorium. It has been advertised as a way to take a deep breath and figure out where the city is heading.

For cities and villages, residential growth is a fast way to cash. Economic development is hard and expensive. Residential growth is not.

And, in many cases, it keeps the local politicians from raising taxes. Skillfully done, such development adds to the tax base without increasing by too much the demand for service.

Most times, that will get politicians re-elected.

One kicker to the equation is the attitude of some longtime residents. They don’t want anyone new in their town. Their family grew up here. They don’t want it to change.

And, by golly, they will do whatever is necessary to make sure it doesn’t.

Good luck with that. That which does not change, dies.

The next several years will be interesting — interesting as in the famed Chinese curse, “May you always live in interesting times.”

The area can grow or it can metastasize or it can die.

Because we still make things in the Valley — rather than push paper around or flip burgers for those who do — the latter doesn’t seem likely.

Hope I’m not wrong. I’ve got this three-bedroom turn-of-the-century house that would sell for at least a million — if it were in San Francisco.

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