On March 18, Director of Planning and Development Carrie Porter presented plans to develop the 15-acre Green Acres property owned by the City. The plan proposes dividing the property into parcels for the development of 17 market rate single-family homes, creating a public park, and leaving an area for future development. The plan comes after City Council directed City offices to look into developing Green Acres with single-family homes last year.

Based on the plan presented, the City would subdivide the lots, level the area, provide drainage, and install connections to water, sewage, and electricity to make the lots sellable to developers who will build houses. Porter stressed that these plans are all flexible and subject to change depending on the Council’s preferences. 

The plan was presented at a Council special session to address ongoing and proposed housing development in the City. Over a dozen community members, many residing near the Green Acres property, took advantage of the public comment section to express their opinions of the development. Opinions of community members who commented were mixed. Many expressed support for more development amidst a lack of available housing in Oberlin. Others expressed concerns with the loss of a natural area, drainage, and decreased property values for nearby residences. 

The City purchased the Green Acres property that had originally housed the Lorain County Children’s Home in 2011. In 2015, the City contracted the non-profit Community Builders to create a mixed-income development including multi-family housing and single-family homes. According to Porter, the plan faced strong opposition from community members at public meetings and was eventually tabled by Council and the Planning Commision. Porter attributed the pushback against the project to misconceptions regarding affordable housing and concerns about building multi-family housing in an area mostly comprised of single-family homes. 

“I don’t think people understood what affordable housing was,” Porter said. “I think people thought it was a Section 8 development, but it was a tax credit development. So there were some misperceptions about what it was going to be. I think they also didn’t want multi-family there.”

In the new plan, development will solely consist of market-rate single-family homes. Porter said that the development serves the goals outlined in the Comprehensive Plan. The Comprehensive Plan identified the lack of affordable housing as a top priority. Porter said the City hopes that development in places like Green Acres will ease Oberlin’s shortage of housing and lower housing costs overall. 

“I think it’s important that the City is trying to address the housing issues that were identified by the community,”  Porter said. “This is one piece of many, I think. We know we need all different types of housing, so this is one way to get some single-family market-rate, and I think, too, it can serve as a catalyst. Once people see some construction happening, then it seems to attract more.”

Council will take the next step in deciding if and how to develop Green Acres. Council Vice President Michael McFarlin expressed support for the overall goals of the project.

“My view as an individual Council member, separate from that of the entire Council, is that we desperately need more housing in Oberlin,” McFarlin wrote in an email to the Review. “We heard feedback from the community about that specific lot and I’m confident we can come up with a workable plan that not only addresses the needs and desires of the community, but also aligns with the goals and objectives that address housing included in the Comprehensive Plan.”

Councilmember Ray English also shared his stance on the development of Green Acres in an email to the Review. He pointed out that the current proposal offered no specific plans for the northwest quarter of the property that Porter mentioned could be developed with multi-family homes sometime in the future.

“At this point I believe the best course of action would be to create a subcommittee of City Council that can review all relevant information and propose for council consideration a plan for all of Green Acres, including the northwest section,” English wrote. “That plan should address housing concerns and park space while also considering views from the community.”