Ohio Code 929.05 – Appropriation of agricultural land
(A) No public or private agency, as defined in section 163.01 of the Revised Code, shall appropriate more than ten acres or ten per cent of an individual property under one ownership and currently used in agricultural production in an agricultural district, whichever is greater, except as provided in this section. No state agency, municipal corporation, county, township, or other political subdivision or taxing authority, or any other public entity, and no person shall advance a grant, loan, interest subsidy, or other distribution of public funds within an agricultural district for the construction of housing, or commercial or industrial facilities to serve nonagricultural uses of land, except as provided in this section.
Terms Used In Ohio Code 929.05
- Agricultural production: includes conservation practices, provided that the tracts, lots, or parcels of land or portions thereof that are used for conservation practices comprise not more than twenty-five per cent of tracts, lots, or parcels of land that are otherwise devoted exclusively to agricultural use and for which an application is filed under section 929. See Ohio Code 929.01
- agriculture: includes farming; ranching; aquaculture; algaculture meaning the farming of algae; apiculture and related apicultural activities, production of honey, beeswax, honeycomb, and other related products; horticulture; viticulture, winemaking, and related activities; animal husbandry, including, but not limited to, the care and raising of livestock, equine, and fur-bearing animals; poultry husbandry and the production of poultry and poultry products; dairy production; the production of field crops, tobacco, fruits, vegetables, nursery stock, ornamental shrubs, ornamental trees, flowers, sod, or mushrooms; timber; pasturage; any combination of the foregoing; the processing, drying, storage, and marketing of agricultural products when those activities are conducted in conjunction with, but are secondary to, such husbandry or production; and any additions or modifications to the foregoing made by the director of agriculture by rule adopted in accordance with Chapter 119 of the Revised Code. See Ohio Code 1.61
- Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- in writing: includes any representation of words, letters, symbols, or figures; this provision does not affect any law relating to signatures. See Ohio Code 1.59
- Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Person: includes an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, and association. See Ohio Code 1.59
- Property: means real and personal property. See Ohio Code 1.59
- state: means the state of Ohio. See Ohio Code 1.59
(B) A public or private agency desiring to appropriate land in an agricultural district and a public entity or person desiring to make a distribution of public funds as provided in division (A) of this section shall, not fewer than thirty days before commencing proceedings or taking the action, give written notice of the intent to the department of agriculture unless the agency, public entity, or person has received the approval of an environmental document that includes consideration of the impact on agricultural land from an appropriate federal agency and the department of agriculture is listed among the agencies for coordination of the document. The notice shall be accompanied by a report justifying the proposed action, including an evaluation of alternatives that would not require the action within the agricultural district. The department shall review the proposed action to determine its effect on agricultural production in the district and on the policies, plans, objectives, and programs of other state or local government agencies. After considering the need for the proposed action and its necessity to protect, promote, or enhance the public health, safety, peace, or welfare of some or all inhabitants of the state, if the director of agriculture has reason to believe that the proposed action would have an unreasonably adverse effect on the district or on the policies, plans, objectives, or programs that would outweigh the protection, promotion, or enhancement of the public health, safety, peace, or welfare, he shall inform the governor within thirty days after having received the written notice. The governor shall issue an order that the proposed action shall not be taken for sixty days. During the sixty-day period the director shall immediately publish, in a newspaper of general circulation in the district, one notice of a public hearing to be held on the matter at a convenient location in or as near as possible to the district on a specified date from twenty to thirty days after publication of the notice and send personal notice by certified mail to any municipal corporation whose territory includes any part of the district and to any public or private agency, public entity, or person seeking to appropriate the land or make the distribution of funds. After the hearing and before the end of the sixty-day period, the director shall make final findings and recommendations in the matter in writing and deliver copies of the findings and recommendations to the agency, entity, or person seeking to appropriate the land or make the distribution, to any public agency having authority to review or approve the appropriation or distribution, and by publication in a manner conducive to the wide dissemination of the findings and recommendations to the public. A public agency having authority to review or approve the appropriation or distribution shall use the findings and recommendations to reach its final determination.
(C) The director of agriculture may institute a civil action to enjoin any prohibited appropriation within an agricultural district until the department makes its final findings and recommendations under division (B) of this section. It is not necessary to the granting of such an injunction that the director prove that the injury threatened is irreparable.
(D) This section does not apply to any lines or other facilities used to transmit or distribute electricity, to any gas or oil pipeline or other facilities used for exploration, production, storage, transmission, or distribution of natural gas, synthetic gas, or oil, to any telephone lines, or to any activity or facility under the jurisdiction of the Ohio power siting board.
(E) This section does not apply to any emergency project immediately necessary for the preservation of the public health, safety, or general welfare.
(F) This section does not apply to a lot in an agricultural district that the owner sells or transfer to his son, daughter, brother, sister, mother, or father for the purpose of constructing a dwelling in which the relative will reside for at least three years.