Muristek
The village council in Yellow Springs, Ohio – near Dayton – voted against a planned affordable-housing development during a meeting on Monday, February 7, after some residents, among them entertainer Dave Chappelle, spoke against the plan. Dayton Daily News reported that the village and the company behind the development, Oberer Homes, had together drawn up plans for a 53-acre site at the southern edge of the town that would include “duplexes and affordable housing along with single-family homes.” The council voted down the plan 2-2, with one abstention, leaving Oberer to proceed with the development but without the affordable-housing component. Those in favor of the plan had argued that it would help address the high demand for housing in the area, but numerous residents opposed it, WHIO reported. Before the vote, Chappelle told the council they looked “like clowns” for considering the development after he had warned them that he would pull his business interests from the town. Those interests include plans for a restaurant and a comedy club, according to Dayton Daily News, and a new office and studio for the local National Public Radio affiliate, WYSO, according to WHIO. “I can’t believe you would make me audition for you,” Chappelle told the council members. “I am not bluffing. I will take it all off the table,” he said. Chappelle previously argued against the plan during another council meeting in December. The footage here shows Chappelle speaking at both meetings. “I just want to say I am adamantly opposed to it,” Chappelle said in December, before noting that he lives beside the site of the proposed development. “I have invested millions of dollars in town. If you push this thing through, what I’m investing in is no longer applicable,” Chappelle said. He argued that the town would be unable to attract young families without building a new school, and said he would sell his property in the town to Oberer if the plan went ahead. During the same meeting in December, Max Crome, an architect native to Yellow Springs who had been working with Chappelle on his planned comedy club and radio station, argued that the development was “a bad deal” that was “clearly not designed for the benefit of the villagers." Other residents raised concerns over potential traffic issues, a lack of parking, and a shortage of amenities, while some argued that the proposed affordable homes would not be affordable for many people already living in Yellow Springs. On February 7, council members Marianne MacQueen and Brian Housh voted for the measure and Carmen Brown and Lisa Kreeger voted against it, Yellow Springs News reported. A fifth council member, Kevin Stokes, recused himself from the vote as he lives next to the development site and had previously said he opposed it, reports said Credit: Yellow Springs Village Council via Storyful
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