Ohio State University Fact Sheet

Community Development

700 Ackerman Road, Suite 235, Columbus, OH 43202-1578

Rural Zoning Can's and Can'ts

CDFS-301

In 1947, the Ohio General Assembly passed enabling legislation that allows cities, villages, counties, and townships to establish zoning. The procedures and methods and procedures to establish zoning are distinct. However, the content is the discretion of the people of the area. Ohio's law is very precise and detailed. The law is designed to involve the public in the zoning process.

Zoning regulation can be divided into two categories: unincorporated (rural) and municipal. This series of fact sheets will focus on rural zoning. Rural zoning concentrates on township and county zoning outside of municipalities (village, town, city).

Township zoning is the responsibility of township trustees. County zoning falls into the jurisdiction of the county commissioners. County zoning may include all or any number of townships in the county. County zoning includes a uniform zoning text administered county- wide. All zoning issues are accepted or rejected by referendum.

Discussions of zoning by rural residents constantly provoke differences of opinion about what zoning is, what it can do, and what it cannot do. In 1947, the Ohio legislature gave counties and townships the legal authority to proceed with rural zoning as long as it was based upon a comprehensive plan. The legislation that created rural zoning is quite precise but misunderstandings can occur. The purpose of this fact sheet is to outline items that rural zoning can do, as well as what rural zoning can not do.

What Zoning Can Do

At it's best rural zoning can:

• assist community economic growth by helping reserve adequate and desirable sites for industrial and commercial users
• protect the public's property from inconsistent or harmful uses
• help keep rural areas from becoming dumping grounds for businesses which are trying to avoid municipal regulations
• protect individual property owners from harmful or undesirable uses of adjacent property
• provide orderly and systemic transition in land use that benefits all land uses through public hearings and local decisions
• help prevent objections to normal and necessary farming operations which can take place when residential developments move into agricultural areas in an unplanned fashion
• make a community more attractive by assisting the preservation of open space, unique natural resources, and natural terrain features
• protect present and future industry from harassment by residential neighbors by informing residents where industry will be allowed to develop in an orderly fashion
• serve as a tool to put into effect plans for future development
• allow for important community decisions to be made within the community

What Zoning Can Not Do

At its best, zoning cannot:

• change or correct past land uses. The only exception is if a use is made "non- conforming". A nonconforming use can be eliminated if that use is voluntarily discontinued for two years or if more than one-half is de stroyed by fire or natural disaster
• prohibit farm buildings or farming decisions, such as crop or livestock selection
• establish higher development standards than the community desires, such as guarantee that its adoption will be followed by industrial, commercial, or tourism development
• assure proper administration of the resolution, no matter how good it may be
• assure that land uses will be permanently retained as assigned under the zoning resolution. Re-zoning is possible in response to changing conditions and unanticipated opportunities
• guarantee the structural soundness of buildings constructed in zoned districts. Zoning is not a building code.

Rural zoning can provide guidelines for acceptable use practices. While it can not change or correct land use action in the past, it can serve as a guideline for development in the future.

Zoning is a development tool available to rural residents who want to participate in the growth and development of their area. There are definite limits as to what zoning can and cannot accomplish in rural areas.