2025-12-12

Briana Cooper

Pending Legislation

House Bill 361 was introduced in June 2025 and has recently been referred to the House Local Government Committee for review. The Bill is currently focused on streamlining the entitlement processes.  However, the Bill may soon be expanded to address both entitlements and permitting. Here’s what the Bill currently covers:

Land-use decisions / “entitlement applications”

  • The Bill defines an “entitlement” as discretionary land-use decisions (such as variances, conditional uses, zoning changes, and planned unit development regulations). 
  • Notice & hearing requirements: The Bill calls for a public hearing to be held within 30 days after application submission (unless the applicant deviates from the original submission) and specifies detailed notice requirements (mailed postcard to owners within the area and within 250 feet, posting signs, posting on the jurisdiction’s website with link to relevant documents). 
  • Requirements: Local governments (counties, townships, and municipalities) must approve or disapprove an entitlement application within 90 days; otherwise the application is deemed approved. 
  • For appeals to a board of zoning appeals in a county or township, the decision must be made within 30 days after appeal submission (currently it’s simply a “reasonable time”). 

Building inspections / plan review

  • A building department must complete plan review and conduct inspections within 30 days after a request for a residential or non-residential project. 
  • If the building department fails to act within the time frame, the general contractor, owner, or applicant may give notice of their intention to contract with a third-party private inspector or an out-of-jurisdiction certified building department to conduct the review/inspection. 
  • The Bill requires the Board of Building Standards (BBS) to adopt rules so that the certification process for those enforcing building codes is “as accessible as possible,” while still ensuring adequate qualification. 
  • The BBS is authorized to maintain and publish a list of third-party private inspectors and certified building departments, including credentials and limitations on their authority. 
  • If a third-party inspection is used, the owner or general contractor pays the fee to the third-party inspector; the building department retains the right to charge its standard administrative filing fee but may not charge for the inspection itself. 

Here’s what may soon be added to the Bill:

Improvements to permitting

  • The local governmental body would have to review the permit application within a limited period and let the applicant know whether the local governmental body considers the application complete. This is to ensure that the local governmental body does not take months to review it, only to reject it as incomplete, sending the applicant back to start from scratch.
  • The local governmental body would then have a reasonable amount of time (30 days as currently proposed) to review and fully process the permit application. If the local governmental body does not complete a full review within that period, then the applicant may retain an independent third-party professional to review and approve or deny the permit application. 

If adopted, this new uniformity and streamlining policy would significantly improve the permitting process across Ohio. Similar language has been enacted in other states with much success.

Read the latest version of HB 361 here.