Council appoints members to new Ridges community authority as controlling board action advances

Athens City Council on June 16 adopted Resolution R03-25 to fill vacancies and reappoint members to the board of trustees of the Ridges New Community Authority (the new community authority created to manage land and future development at the Ridges). The resolution appoints James Kaufman to fill an unexpired citizen-member term, and reappoints Chris Nisley (citizen member) and Andrew Stone (local government member) to terms expiring June 16, 2027.

Earlier in the meeting, administration staff told council that the proposed community authority item had appeared on the Ohio Controlling Board agenda that day. Administration also said Joe Retchie would present to the Affordable Housing Commission the following day at noon in City Council Chambers to discuss next steps for Ridges development and “how they're gonna do to actually build some housing units out there,” including a remark that the project could include up to about 700 housing units.

Council members described the appointments as routine and said the selected individuals bring experience to the authority’s role in overseeing transferred land and development activity. “Now that, hopefully, the new community authority will be in charge of making sure that this land that is being transferred to the new community authority can be developed, we need to have some strong people,” a council member said during consideration of the resolution.

The resolution passed by voice vote following a motion and second.

The June 16 minutes record the appointments and the administration’s report that the controlling board had the matter on its agenda; council indicated it expects staff and authority representatives to report back with implementation steps, including any required approvals, budgets, or developer agreements needed to proceed with housing development.