THE PLAINS, Ohio — Construction of two low-income housing developments in The Plains has been delayed by concerns about potential damage to prehistoric earthworks built by people known as the Adena over 2,000 years ago.
The housing projects are part of a program by the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, which gives tax credits to developers of low-income rental properties. Both projects are located along East First Street in The Plains and are adjacent to two prehistoric earthworks, Dorr Mounds 1 and 2.
Concerns about the developments’ potential to damage the mounds led to creation of The Plains formed the First Street Neighborhood Association. Members of the association testified at a July 9 meeting of the Ohio Housing Finance Agency’s Multifamily Housing Committee, which reviews projects and makes funding recommendations to the Ohio Housing Finance Agency’s board.
After hearing the members’ testimony, the committee approved the projects — on the condition that the developers complete the archaeological review for the project with the Ohio History Connection.
One of the low-income housing developments in question is being built by Fairfield Homes Inc and will be called Cornerstone at Eclipse Run. Joseph Wickham, the director of development for Fairfield Homes Inc, told the Independent in an email that the $19.8 million project will consist of multiple two-story apartment buildings containing 58 apartments, with one to three bedrooms that will rent for $700–$1,200.
The other development is a collaboration between Woda Cooper Development and Hocking Athens Perry Community Action, to be called The Lofts on First.
The Lofts on First will cost over $19 million to build and will create 51 one- and two-bedroom apartments. The units will be specifically earmarked for seniors (ages 55 and older) and will be a three-story building similar to Woda Cooper’s other local development, Kershaw Greene. HAPCAP will connect residents to its own services as well as help them access public assistance as needed, said HAPCAP Executive Director Kelly Hatas.
History of the mounds
In 1974, 25 Adena earthworks in The Plains, known as the Wolf Plains Mound Group, were added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Adena earthworks like the Wolf Plains Group are the earliest permanent monuments built in the Ohio Valley, according to Brad Lepper, curator of archaeology for the Ohio History Connection. The mounds can contain a variety of artifacts such as flint spear points, engraved tables, jewelry and more, Lepper told the Independent.
Artifacts also may be found in the remains of temporary villages that were often built near the mounds during construction, Lepper said; those sites typically contain more day-to-day objects such as knives or broken pottery.
Being listed on the National Register of Historic Places doesn’t prevent a site from being altered or demolished unless the work uses federal funding. Property owners can get tax credits to maintain properties rather than demolishing them.
And while the Wolf Plains Mound Group is listed in the Ohio Archaeological Inventory, the State Historic Preservation Office considers that list to be a reference tool, not a preservation mechanism.
As a result, “Any mound group on private property is potentially in danger of being damaged or destroyed,” Lepper told the Independent in an email. He cited the example of the Bridge Street Mound in Chillicothe, which the private landowner “deliberately bulldozed because they were worried that the presence of the mound would scare away developers.”
Developers respond to archaeological assessment mandate
Fairfield Homes’ Wickham said his company will work with the Ohio History Connection to complete the archaeological review. According to Wickham, Fairfield Homes has been working to include public concerns about the mounds since the initial stages of the project.
“Upon our initial interest in the property, Fairfield Homes proactively reached out to the Archaeological Conservancy to understand and address any concerns prior to drafting initial plans,” Wickham said. “Fairfield Homes is in ongoing communication with the Conservancy during the Ohio History Connection review process to ensure thoughtful and responsible planning.”
Woda Cooper declined to be interviewed as part of this story, but did provide answers to some questions through HAPCAP.
Hatas noted that Woda Cooper has dealt with construction adjacent to archaeological sites before: Woda Cooper discovered a pioneer cemetery during construction of Kershaw Greene.
“It slowed their project down. But that was required, they had to reach out to all the proper authorities and follow the process that that set forth,” Hatas said, later adding that “[Woda Cooper] have already demonstrated their responsibility in regards to areas of historical significance.”
This isn’t the first time a HAPCAP project in The Plains has had to go through an archaeological assessment. Hatas said the agency had to get an archeological assessment of a property on Connett Road where HAPCAP plans to put a Head Start Center.
Eva Bloom, HAPCAP’s director of development, said that the assessment was “guided by some outside experts who determined it would be prudent to do that.”
As for conducting archaeological assessments for any future projects in The Plains, Bloom told the Independent that HAPCAP would defer to the experts.
“I don’t know that anyone would benefit from us kind of deciding that we know this area better than those whose job it is to protect the history of Ohio,” Bloom said. “I just don’t know that that’s the place that we are going to thrive.”
HAPCAP doesn’t expect to be involved in the archaeological review of the Lofts on First site, Bloom told the Independent.
Hatas explained that HAPCAP serves as a nonprofit co-developer, which allowed the project to access additional funding. If the agency becomes involved in future tax credit based projects, she added, HAPCAP will likely take on a more active role in getting community input.
“Moving forward, we will have to know and understand that [community engagement is] going to be part of our role,” Hatas said. “Because we’ve spent the last 60 years building our reputation in this county and community, and we’re going to be here for a lot longer than the construction phase. We want to remain good partners and [be] well respected in the community.”
Other concerns
In addition to impact on the mounds’ historical significance, the First Street Neighborhood Association worries about the environmental consequences, both for residents and wildlife.
The Fairfield Homes project will be built next to the Athens City School District’s bus garage. Acheson worries that the emissions from school buses and their backup alarms may have negative effects on future residents.
“[The] backup alarms on the buses are well over 100 decibels, [the alarms] go off early in the morning, all times of the day, as the buses come back and park and so forth,” said association member Todd Acheson. “The exhaust pipes will point right at the building, and there’s nothing to protect it. There’s a chain link fence.”
In response to these concerns, OHFA’s multifamily housing committee made it a closing condition that the environmental assessment for the property address the bus garage.
However, Fairfield Homes told the Independent that its environmental assessment of the property already included the bus garage and noted that it was classified as a nongenerator of hazardous waste in 2001 according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s hazardous waste site database.
“The facility was not identified as a Recognized Environmental Condition and therefore no mitigation measures were deemed necessary by the environmental consultant,” Joseph Wickham, Fairfield’s director of development, told the Independent in an email.
The architectural design of the HAPCAP–Woda Cooper project may violate OHFA policy, the neighborhood association says, because the proposed three-story structure and dense population concentration will clash with the neighborhood’s aesthetic.
“When you look at that development it is surrounded on four sides by single family houses that probably are at most 18 feet or so high,” Acheson said.
The housing finance agency’s design and architectural standards document states that “Developments should coordinate with or complement the local architecture and promote resident integration with the broader neighborhood.”
The neighborhood association also pointed to the parking lot’s lighting as another area of concern. Athens Township’s zoning code requires that exterior lighting be shielded so that it doesn’t shine onto adjacent property.
Eva Bloom, HAPCAP’s director of development, told the Independent that the construction plans now have the lighting all angled downwards to comply with the zoning code.
Need for affordable housing
Despite their concerns with the two developments, members of the neighborhood association said that they aren’t opposed to affordable housing going into The Plains.
John Branner, a member of the neighborhood association who spoke at the housing finance agency’s committee meeting, told the Independent that his opposition to the project is due to its implementation.
“We realize affordable housing is needed, we really do.” Branner said. “It’s just the scale of it, [developers] get points for packing [people] in. I don’t know any other way, like sardines, and that’s no way for humans to live just cause their spreadsheets look good with the numbers.”
According to a 2022 report by the Athens County Foundation, the county needs an additional 4,875 units of low-income housing to meet demand.
This same report notes that the cost of rental and owner-occupied housing has drastically increased since 2018. In 2022, the number of rental units costing over $1,000 a month increased by 59%, while the number of homes sold for over $200,000 increased by 81%.
The community has to come together to find a solution for the housing shortfall, HAPCAP’s Bloom told the Independent.
“If this problem was easy, it would have been solved,” Bloom said. “We do need, really, all members of our community to be engaged with what the solutions are. We are working with the [Athens County Housing Security Co-Create Group] that is particularly focused on housing security, no one can see things from all perspectives, and so we are grateful that the community are having conversations around what we want housing to look like.”
At the end of the day, Hatas understands that the situation around these housing developments represents a conflict between historic preservation and public development.
“I think the tension that’s really coming to light right now, specifically through the situation with the mounds, is that we also want to protect the historical significance of the region that we live in, but we want to protect the lives of those who are living here today,” Hatas said. That is a really hard needle to thread.”
