Regulating oil and gas via zoning
The last twenty years oil and gas drilling for Clinton Sandstone wells has moved into urban areas, as drilling locations in rural areas have been used up.  Under the concept of “home rule” enjoyed by municipalities, cities and villages enjoy broad police powers to regulate health, safety and public welfare.   As a result, a number of Ohio communities attempted to “zone-out” or otherwise regulate away drilling activity.  In State ex rel. Morrison v. Beck Energy Corp., Slip Opinion No. 2015-Ohio-485, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that a municipality could not impose its own stringent well permitting requirements on top of the state’s system of regulation.  The court found that under O.R.C. 1509, the Ohio Department …

Open space preservation
Modern zoning planning has recognized the virtue of preserving open spaces, not only by establishing parks and recreation areas, but also by preserving the rural character of certain parts of communities and restraining urban sprawl.  This can be accomplished in several ways.  Agricultural zoning prohibits the use of land for commercial, industrial and residential purposes.  Cluster zoning assigns a given amount of land a certain amount of open space, but allows the developer flexibility in arranging the density of his buildings.  One portion of the project would be intensely developed, with open space aggregated to better effect elsewhere.
The last several decades have seen increasing use of Planned Unit Developments (“PUD’s”).  A PUD allows mixed use (residential and commercial, …

Non-conforming uses
A nonconforming use is a use of property that predates the zoning code or, after enactment, was initially permitted, only to have the code subsequently changed.  The nonconforming use is allowed (O.R.C. 713.15) to continue because of the unfairness in forcing one who has invested in building in reliance on former law to be forced to cease operation and due to the fact that enforcing the new code against the “grandfathered” use may not be legal for constitutional reasons.  A nonconforming use may not be expanded.  Additionally, zoning codes typically provide that a use discontinued for a period of time acts as conclusive proof of the intention to abandon the use.
Conditional uses
A landowner may apply for an exception to …

Overview
In Ohio over four million people live in unincorporated townships, the majority of which have enacted zoning ordinances.  Reasons include controlling what are, in the eyes of the community, inappropriate uses, dealing with growth pressures, and promoting economic development.
Governing Law
The authority for townships to enact zoning codes is found in Ohio Revised Code Sec. 519.02, which authorizes the regulation of the:
•    location, height, bulk, number of stories, and size of buildings and other structures;
•    percentages of lot areas that may be occupied, set back building lines, sizes of yards, courts, and other open spaces, the density of population, the uses of buildings and other structures;
•    uses of land for trade, industry, residence, recreation, or other purposes; and
•    landscaping and architectural …

History
Zoning codes grew out of the limitations inherent in using the legal theory of nuisance as the sole tool for regulation of growth in American cities at the turn of the 19th century.  In that era, if a neighbor, for instance, was affected by the operation of a smelly slaughterhouse, he or she had to file a nuisance complaint in court and let a judge decide whether the noxious activity was appropriate for the neighborhood.  No planning was involved.  Issues relating to building uses, heights and location were handled by courts on an ad hoc basis.
Toward the end of the 19th century, new construction techniques (the first passenger elevators were installed in New York in the 1870’s) allowed construction of …