During a regular meeting on Nov. 3, City Council approved funding for the water, sewer, electrical, and grading work necessary for the development of 17 single-family homes, a park, and a multi-family housing unit on the City-owned Green Acres property along East College Street and Oberlin Road. These improvements are estimated to be completed by next spring and will pave the way for the City’s development plans. 

The bid award of $660,531 granted to Buckeye Excavating & Construction Inc. was passed by a 6–1 vote. Joe Waltzer was the only Councilmember to vote against the plan, citing environmental concerns. 

In March 2024, Carrie Porter, director of planning and development for the City of Oberlin, presented plans to create 17 single-family homes, a public park, and space for future development on the 15-acre Green Acres property, which the City had acquired in 2011. Previously, the property housed the Lorain County Children’s Home. The City conducted interviews with two contractors for the project, but neither were deemed acceptable. As a result, the Green Acres Development Committee recommended that the City move ahead with preparing the site and determine a contractor for the development at a later date. 

“A lot of work has gone into the planning process,” Councilmember Ray English wrote in an email to the Review. “It’s taken the City years to get going on Green Acres. I saw no reason for further delay, for not moving ahead with work to prepare the site.” 

The development was prompted by concerns about the availability of housing in Oberlin. It has been in the works since 2015, when the plan to develop the 15- acre property was first proposed. The original proposal to build a mixed-income development of multi-family homes faced significant backlash and was altered to the current plan, consisting mostly of single-family homes. 

“The Green Acres Project is important to Oberlin because it will create much-needed housing in the City and will fulfill some of the objectives and strategies in the City’s new Comprehensive Plan,” Porter wrote in an email to the Review. “It will also add a new neighborhood park on the City’s East side, which has also been a long-time goal of the City and, I think, an issue for East side residents.” 

Porter said the Green Acres Project will address many of the key goals outlined in the City’s Comprehensive Plan, the Social Equity Plan, and the Climate Action Plan. This includes providing convenient mobility options for residents and workers to access key destinations throughout the city, improving the quality of life for residents, establishing procedures and policies that encourage sustainability, enhancing public parks, improving utility services, and expanding the diversity and affordability of housing. 

Some of the single-family homes will be affordable for people of moderate-to-low income, according to English, who served on the Green Acres Development Committee, a now-dissolved subcommittee of City Council that spearheaded the development of the overall plan for the Green Acres property. 

Waltzer said he voted against the development because he felt that his concerns about sustainability were not being taken seriously. 

“From the beginning of the process, I have tried to encourage those working on Green Acres to bring in a progressive planning firm or seek out ‘green’ developers to explore better options for Oberlin,” Waltzer wrote in an email to the Review. “These calls were not supported. I was told my concerns would be addressed, but in the end, the plan barely changed from the version we saw nearly two years ago.” 

English said that the City will offer incentives for sustainable development. 

“Oberlin needs housing of all types,” he wrote. “That was the conclusion of an earlier housing study commissioned by the City, and it’s a central recommendation of the City’s Comprehensive Plan, which was approved last year.”