OHIO LEGISLATIVE SERVICE COMMISSION
Office of Research Legislative Budget
www.lsc.ohio.gov and Drafting Office
H.B. 315 Bill Analysis
135th General Assembly
Click here for H.B. 315’s Fiscal Note
Version: As Reported by Senate Local Government
Primary Sponsors: Reps. Hall and Seitz
Effective date:
Daniel DeSantis, Research Analyst and other LSC staff
SUMMARY
Township law
▪ Specifies which body serves as the organizational board of commissioners of a new
community authority if more than one body is eligible.
▪ Authorizes townships to impose a “protect and serve charge” of up to $1 on admissions
to certain event venues in the township to fund police, fire, and emergency medical
services.
▪ Modifies various township newspaper publication requirements to allow publication via
the print or digital edition of a newspaper of general circulation, the official public notice
website, or via the township’s website and social media account.
▪ Eliminates the requirement that the county prosecutor approve specifications of fire
equipment.
▪ Specifies that boards of township trustees’ emergency powers include emergencies due
to a natural disaster, civil unrest, cyber attack, or the derailment of a train.
▪ Eliminates a requirement that each township provide its fiscal officer with a book for the
record of marks and brands.
▪ Repeals provisions of law requiring townships to obtain the approval of voters before
constructing or improving a town hall above a certain cost (currently $75,000).
▪ Allows townships to establish township preservation commissions.
▪ Establishes a civil enforcement process for the resolution of zoning violations and the
collection of zoning fines.
▪ Requires a permanent license plate issued to a township to display the term “township”
in bold letters.
December 11, 2024
Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office
▪ Allows a township to use general funds to pay for machinery, tools, material, and labor
used in constructing, reconstructing, maintaining, or repairing roads and culverts.
Digital publication of notices
▪ Requires a publisher to establish a government rate for posting legal advertisements,
notices, and proclamations that are required by law to be published, in a newspaper of
general circulation’s digital edition on the newspaper’s website.
Recreation boards
▪ Specifies that automated external defibrillators must be placed in each sports and
recreation location at any time that the location is hosting an organized youth sport
activity.
Auditor of State
▪ Expands Auditor of State fiscal distress services.
Indigent burial
▪ Appropriates $1 million to the Indigent Burial and Cremation Support Program.
Brownfield Remediation Program
▪ Eliminates procedures for the designation of a county lead entity under the Brownfield
Remediation Program, and, instead, revises what is considered a lead entity by doing both
of the following:
 Eliminating the stipulation that a lead entity must be a grant award recipient and the
responsible party with whom the Department of Development executes a grant
agreement for grant funds; and
 Clarifying that a lead entity means a county, township, municipal corporation, port
authority, conservancy district, park district or other similar park authority, county
land reutilization corporation, or organization for profit.
▪ Regarding current law that allows money appropriated to counties that is unspent after a
calendar year to be made available for grants statewide on a first-come, first-served basis,
eliminates the requirement that those grants be limited to 75% of a qualifying project’s
total cost.
▪ Delays the effective date of these changes to July 1, 2025.
Public officials
▪ Allows a judge and a prosecuting attorney to submit an affidavit to have their name
removed from the general tax list and duplicate of real and public utility property.
▪ Specifies that certain election officials are designated public service workers under the
Public Records Law, thereby prohibiting residential and familial information from
disclosure.
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As Reported by Senate Local Governments
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Antisemitism
▪ Requires a state agency to apply the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s
(IHRA) May 26, 2016, working definition of antisemitism when reviewing, investigating,
or deciding whether there has been a violation of any relevant policy, law, or regulation,
prohibiting discrimination based on anti-Semitic intent.
▪ Requires anti-discrimination and anti-bias training for state agency employees to use the
IHRA working definition of antisemitism as an educational tool to familiarize staff and
officials with antisemitism.
Historic rehabilitation tax credit
▪ Prohibits the Department of Development, in awarding a historic rehabilitation tax credit,
from considering whether a project will benefit an economically distressed area.
Conservancy district charitable and social welfare trusts
▪ Allows the board of directors of a conservancy district that includes all or parts of more
than 16 counties to do both of the following:
 Establish a charitable trust, social welfare trust, or both, that meets certain
requirements, to benefit the conservancy district and the purposes for which the
district was created, in perpetuity;
 Use surplus money in its maintenance fund, other than proceeds derived from the
levy of maintenance assessments, to provide financial support to a conservancy
district charitable trust or social welfare trust.
▪ Establishes requirements for the instrument creating any conservancy district charitable
trust or social welfare trust and documents evidencing the payment and receipt of
financial support by such trusts.
▪ Exempts conservancy district charitable trusts and social welfare trusts from the Public
Records Law and from being considered a “subdivision” under the existing uniform
depository act.
▪ Exempts conservancy district charitable trusts and social welfare trusts from the
following:
 Various charitable trust oversight powers granted to the Attorney General, including
authority for the Attorney General to investigate trustees of charitable trusts.
 General law governing the incorporation and administration of charitable trusts.
▪ Exempts money in a conservancy district charitable trust and social welfare trust and
money received for such trusts from the meaning of “public moneys” under the uniform
depository act.
▪ Adds rents, incomes, royalties, and other revenues received from the use of the
conservancy district’s lands to the conservancy district maintenance fund.
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▪ Increases statutory competitive bidding thresholds from $50,000 to $75,000 for
conservancy districts. Starting in 2025, the provision increases the threshold amount by
3% each year.
Underground Technical Committee
▪ Adds an OHIO811 nonvoting advisory member (OHIO811 member) to the
Underground Technical Committee (UTC), who is not counted for purposes of
(1) determining whether a quorum is present and (2) determining the number of
votes necessary to constitute a majority for the UTC to take action.
▪ Requires the OHIO811 member to be appointed by the Governor to a four-year term.
▪ Requires the first OHIO811 member to be appointed to the UTC not later than 60 days
after the effective date of the section.
▪ Requires the OHIO811 member to provide support, expertise, education, and
additional research, data, and industry information to the UTC regarding the Ohio
Underground Protection Service Law and processes.
Cooperative economic development agreements
▪ Allows, under certain conditions, a cooperative economic development agreement
(CEDA) to include a new type of agreement that would allow a political subdivision’s
regulations to apply within territory wherein the regulations would not otherwise apply.
▪ Specifically includes road and bridge improvements and regulations as types of
government improvements and services that CEDAs should be liberally construed to
allow.
▪ Specifies that nothing in the CEDA law expands or diminishes the exception of public
utilities from certain regulations.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
New community authority .............................................................................................................. 6
Township admissions charge .......................................................................................................... 6
Newspaper notices ......................................................................................................................... 6
Fire equipment specifications ......................................................................................................... 7
Emergencies .................................................................................................................................... 7
Marks and brands ........................................................................................................................... 7
Township town halls ....................................................................................................................... 8
Township preservation commission ............................................................................................... 8
Zoning violations ............................................................................................................................. 8
License plates .................................................................................................................................. 9
Roads............................................................................................................................................... 9
Digital publication of public notices ............................................................................................... 9
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As Reported by Senate Local Governments
Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office
Recreation boards ........................................................................................................................... 9
Auditor of State ............................................................................................................................. 10
Public officials ............................................................................................................................... 10
Judges and prosecuting attorneys ............................................................................................ 10
Election officials......................................................................................................................... 10
Definition of antisemitism in certain investigations, training ...................................................... 11
materials, and proceedings........................................................................................................... 11
IHRA definition of antisemitism ................................................................................................ 11
Historic rehabilitation tax credit ................................................................................................... 13
Indigent burial ............................................................................................................................... 13
Brownfield Remediation Program ................................................................................................ 13
Conservancy district ...................................................................................................................... 14
Conservancy district charitable trusts and social welfare trusts .................................................. 15
Establishment ............................................................................................................................ 15
Qualifying as charitable trusts or social welfare trusts ............................................................. 15
Trust instrument and financial support document requirements ............................................ 16
Exemptions from current law classifications ............................................................................ 17
Conservancy district maintenance fund ....................................................................................... 17
Competitive bidding ............................................................................................................. 18
Underground Technical Committee ............................................................................................. 18
OHIO811 nonvoting member .................................................................................................... 18
Duties .................................................................................................................................... 18
Exclusions ............................................................................................................................. 18
Cooperative economic development agreements ....................................................................... 19
New type of agreement ............................................................................................................ 19
Eligible parties ...................................................................................................................... 19
Eligible territory .................................................................................................................... 19
Effect of agreement .............................................................................................................. 20
Effective date of agreement ................................................................................................. 20
Alternative county agreement ............................................................................................. 20
Road and bridge improvements and regulations...................................................................... 21
Public utilities ............................................................................................................................ 21
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As Reported by Senate Local Governments
Office of Research and Drafting LSC Legislative Budget Office
DETAILED ANALYSIS
New community authority
The bill makes a clarification regarding the organizational board of commissioners for a
new community district. The organizational board is responsible for overseeing the proceedings
to establish a new community district, which is ultimately overseen and operated by a board of
trustees. The bill specifies that when multiple bodies are eligible to serve as the organizational
board of commissioners of a new community authority, the body appearing on the original
petition, unless that body adopts a resolution to appoint another body as the organizational
board.1
Township admissions charge
The bill authorizes townships to impose a “protect and serve charge” on admissions to
certain event venues in the township to fund police, fire, and emergency medical services.
The charge may equal up to $1 per admission to event venues that have a capacity of
least 2,000 and are exempt from property taxation. However, the charge cannot apply to
admissions to county fairgrounds, events sponsored by the state or a local government, or events
with a ticket price of $10 or less. Before adopting a resolution imposing the charge, the township
must hold two public hearings on the proposal, with notice of each meeting published in a local
newspaper.
A township that chooses to impose the charge must use the revenue collected to fund
police, fire, and emergency medical services. Under the bill, every person receiving an admission<