YELLOW SPRINGS — After more than a week of investigating, News Center 7 has worked to figure out what happened to property very close to Dave Chappelle’s home in Yellow Springs.
>> Previous Coverage: Dave Chappelle voices concern over Yellow Springs housing development
News Center 7′s Brandon Lewis went through records and documents on Thursday to find answers.
Developers wanted to turn the property into affordable housing, but Chappelle fought the plan.
>>PREVIOUS REPORT: Yellow Springs votes against affordable housing after Dave Chappelle threatens to pull investments
We can now confirm the property changed ownership, and there is a link to Chappelle.
WHIO-TV has not been able to talk with Chappelle, but our reporting found his company is now connected to some of the farmland a developer wants to turn into houses.
More than 50 acres of land sit near East Hyde road and Spillan Road where Oberer Development President George Oberer wanted to build homes.
In December, neighbor Dave Chappelle said this during a village council meeting: “I’m adamantly opposed to it, obviously I live behind the development or the proposed development.”
The village agreed to let Oberer build single-family homes only, but not townhomes, duplexes, and apartments.
A couple of weeks ago, WHIO-TV received a tip that Oberer backed out of the project, and we filed a public record request with the village.
Their clerk of council said in an email they are “aware that the property has changed hands, but it’s impossible at this point to tell whether the transfer was internal or external.”
News Center 7 got hold of the deed for the property, which showed in April the land was transferred from Oberer land developers to Spillan Road LLC.
The Greene County auditor’s website said the land was still owned by Spillan Rd. LLC, but the parcels have addresses linked to Oberer land developers in Miamisburg and Iron Table Holdings in Yellow Springs, which is Chappelle’s company.
In an online Yellow Springs news article Wednesday, Chappelle’s publicist confirmed in a phone call last week that Chappelle recently bought the Oberer land. The newspaper said the publicist did not clarify if he purchased all of the property.
News Center 7 went to Dave Chappelle’s house Thursday to ask to talk to him, but a voice at the gate said “no you cannot.”
The person then replied to reach out to his publicist.
News Center 7 has reached out to the publicist but we have not heard back.
A man at Chappelle’s office also said he did not know enough to make a comment.
On Thursday, News Center 7 called George Oberer’s office and was told he was in, but he was the only one who could talk about this specific property.
At least two other times, News Center 7 has reached out to Oberer in the last week.
As for what Chappelle will do with the property, we are still working to learn more.
Chappelle told the village council in December he would pull his money out of other village projects if the council approved the Oberer plan.
In a previous statement issued to CNN in February, Chappelle’s publicist said “Neither Dave nor his neighbors are against affordable housing, however, they are against the poorly vetted, cookie-cutter, sprawl-style development deal which has little regard for the community, culture and infrastructure of the Village.”
This is a developing story and we will continue providing updates as more information becomes available.
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