LAUGHABLE LANDLORD

Dave Chappelle Helped Tank Affordable Housing in an Ohio Town

The comedian threatened to yank his businesses from Yellow Springs during a city council meeting.

A city in Ohio voted down an addition of affordable units to a new housing development Tuesday after residents, among them world-famous comedian Dave Chappelle, loudly complained. The 53-acre development in Yellow Springs, Ohio, named Oberer Homes, will go on as originally planned after the city council vote—with 143 single-family homes, each starting at $300,000. If the affordable options were included, 64 single-family homes, 52 duplexes and 24 townhomes would have been built, with 1.75 acres donated for further affordable development. Chappelle threatened to pull his businesses out of Yellow Springs—a restaurant, Firehose Eatery; a comedy club, Live From YS; and his company, Iron Table Holdings, which owns a former fire station, if the affordable housing were to be part of the project. “I am not bluffing. I will take it all off the table,” he said at the city council meeting.