Learning More about "Limited Home Rule Townships" in Ohio

Sharing this news story entitled:

 "Family cemeteries banned in West Chester Twp."

By Denise G. Callahan

Staff Writer - "Journal-News" in Butler County, Ohio

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Abstracted from the article:

"Townships in this state are required to maintain public cemeteries — West Chester’s cemetery budget is $263,433 this year — and the trustees were concerned they would be responsible if someone ever abandoned a property that had a family cemetery on it."

“My concern is if those cemeteries become abandoned, they then become the responsibility of the township,” Trustee George Lang said. “I’m trying to avoid a future liability for the taxpayers. That’s purely it.”

"Township administrator Judi Boyko told the trustees recently she doesn’t believe they have any situations pending like the one Lang described, and they aren’t going to take an inventory, but an attorney general’s opinion allows the ban so they wanted to give themselves some extra protection.

In 2007, the attorney general’s office decided townships could not ban private cemeteries. The prosecutor in Fairfield County asked the question again in 2014 and the attorney general said townships with limited home rule authority, like West Chester, do have the power."

“A board of trustees of a limited home rule township may enact a resolution prohibiting the burial of human remains in private or family cemeteries within the unincorporated territory of the township provided that the board of township trustees determines the resolution is in the interest of the public health, safety, morals, or general welfare of the public,” the opinion reads. “Relevant factors that a board of township trustees may consider in determining whether to enact such a resolution include, among others, the conservation of safe, underground water resources and the preservation of property values within the township.”

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Link to the Ohio Attorney General's Office - 2014 Opinion mentioned in this article:
"Trustees of limited home rule township may prohibit burial of human remains in private or family cemeteries within the unincorporated portions of the township." 

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List of Urban Townships in Ohio

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Ohio Revised Code:

"Chapter 504: LIMITED HOME RULE GOVERNMENT"

504.01 Procedure for adopting limited home rule government.

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"What Does it Mean to be A Home Rule Township?"

Further information:

"Is Limited Home Rule Right for Butler Township"

"Limited Home Rule gives the township the ability to enact legislation in a broad range of areas that it cannot do as a statutory township. Currently, the only powers a statutory township has includes the adoption of township zoning, creation of a police and/or fire district, imposition of civil fines for property maintenance and/or traffic violations, and general maintenance of roads and cemeteries within the township (excluding county roadways). That’s it, nothing more, nothing less."

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"Coalition of Large Ohio Urban Townships (“CLOUT”)A Committee of the Ohio Township Association The Coalition of Large Ohio Urban Townships (“CLOUT”) is a group of large, urban townships in Ohio that has formed a committee for the purpose of providing its members with a forum for the exchange of ideas and solutions for problems and issues related specifically to the governance of large, urban townships. CLOUT works jointly with the Ohio Township Association and seeks only legislation which would be permissive in nature so as not to pose a detriment to any of Ohio’s 1,308 townships. Membership in CLOUT is limited to those townships having either a budget of over $3,000,000, or a population of 15,000 or more residents in the unincorporated area."