Mills Lawn Greenspace is a Community Treasure

Welcome! The purpose of this site is to emphasize the significant ways in which Mills Lawn greenspace has been valuable to the village of Yellow Springs for many years. It is indeed a sacred place in the community. This point was made in a 1995 Yellow Springs News article entitled Where Are Our Sacred Places? by Doug Hinkley. He wrote: ”What do you call the places and structures that are important to enough people that special efforts ought to be put into preserving them?” The article explains how a group of local residents identified 39 such places and structures in Miami Township and Yellow Springs. They presented their list to the Village Planning Commission to help in making the public aware of how sacred places affect the life of a community and the importance of preserving them. Mills Lawn greenspace was one of the 20 identified as a sacred place.

Community Awareness
Our goal is to generate community awareness and support in this important mission. Our preservation effort is separate from the community’s decision on schools. Our community has voted to approve a new levy to upgrade school facilities. We support quality schools, but we believe this should not necessarily mean losing Mills Lawn greenspace. We believe there is a mutually satisfactory path to ensure the preservation of Mills Lawn greenspace for future generations. We have some ideas about paths to preservation that we believe could benefit villagers, the greenspace, and the schools and we hope to be working with the new 2022 school board in this direction. Our updated (March 4, 2024) action plan is at this link: Mills Lawn 2024 Greenspace Plan. This plan outlines a conservation easement as one way of approaching preservation.

Petition Statement
We the citizens of Yellow Springs, Ohio, hereby petition the School Board and the Village Council to act to permanently preserve the western two-thirds of the land at Mills Lawn as a public park for future generations.

Sign the petition on the How You Can Help page.

Read the Yellow Spring News story and you can watch the video of our public presentation to the James A. McKee Association.

This greenspace was in the original Yellow Springs plan conceived by William Mills and is a natural, living monument to our local history . The 1874 map below is one of many that labeled the property as a park. It has continued to be a vital asset to our village over the years and used by citizens in many ways. Functioning as a central park, the greenspace is a major component of the characteristic charm of Yellow Springs, adding to our sense of place identity. This centrally located park connects us with our unique past and is one of the many community features of our present authentic community charm.

We are focused on preserving the western 2/3 (approximately) of Mills Lawn, which is currently greenspace, whether or not the community decides to move the elementary school. Should the property be subdivided for a park as we are advocating, the well-loved playground could be moved onto the proposed park property. Please see the Village Value link for a detailed account of how this greenspace is critical to the overall vitality of Yellow Springs in terms of our attractiveness, sense of well-being, ecology, and economic growth - a space for families, children, friends, visitors, as well as public cultural events for which our village is well known.

Why Are We Acting to Preserve Mills Lawn Greenspace Now?
The future of this greenspace is in the hands of the school board. A potential source of revenue for the schools could be to sell Mills Lawn on the open market to the highest bidder. A previous school board commissioned a property assessment by McBride Dale Clarion (MDC) in 2018-19 which details how the property could be developed. The property is zoned for high-density housing. After the McBride report, two previous school board members publicly stated that they were not opposed to selling the property to raise funds.

Quote from the Mcbride report, page 15:
"For the purpose of calculating possible residential buildout of the site at 200 S. Walnut Street, MDC assumes the western half of the block could be subdivided off and redeveloped. This would be approximately 4.82 acres with a block width of approximately 350 feet to include two rows of lots, a new alley, and a new road between the remaining school and the new residential development. The new block could look almost exactly like the block to the west between Stafford and Phillips Streets to maintain character and scale."

Specific Intentions Expressed to Sell the Land in 2019
As the previous superintendent was leaving office under the current school board, according to an interview in the Yellow Springs News 2019 (https://ysnews.com/news/2019/08/basora-reflects-on-his-tenure), if a levy did not pass, then the greenspace at Mills Lawn should be sold, along with other school district property. From the article: “With that in mind, Basora said that as he leaves, he is recommending to the school board that they put another levy plan on the November 2020 ballot. “And if that levy doesn’t pass, then they should immediately implement a plan to sell” the land on the west side of the Mills Lawn property and the land on the north and south sides of the high/middle school campus, he added.”

Such a change would be devastating to the character of the village. Losing Mills Lawn’s greenspace would significantly diminish our place identity, degrade our physical environment, destroy a place intended for connection with nature and people, weaken our connection to historical context, and eliminate a venue for community activities, including exercising First Amendment Rights. We believe that all of the needs of the community can be met without sacrificing the treasure that is Mills Lawn greenspace.

Would You Like to Sign the Petition in this Citizens’ Cause?
You can sign the petition and let us know your thoughts and ideas and if you’d like to join us. Go to our How You Can Help page. You’ll see our petition statement for preserving Mills Lawn Greenspace. Let us know if we can add your name to our list of Yellow Springs citizens who support this preservation. Donations are always welcome. Your donations will be used to fund our communication and advocacy efforts. Any unused funds will be donated to the Yellow Springs Tree Committee.