Delaware

Delaware County, Ohio (north-Columbus suburban / exurban county on the Olentangy River; ~232,000 residents as of the 2024 ACS estimate, by some measures the fastest-growing or among the top-three fastest-growing counties in Ohio for the 2010-2024 decade; county seat City of Delaware; eighteen townships including Berkshire, Berlin, Brown, Concord, Delaware, Genoa, Harlem, Kingston, Liberty, Marlboro, Orange, Oxford, Porter, Radnor, Scioto, Thompson, Trenton, and Troy; incorporated places City of Delaware (county seat), City of Powell, City of Westerville (mostly in Franklin County with a Delaware-County remainder), Village of Galena, Village of Ostrander, Village of Sunbury, Village of Shawnee Hills, Village of Ashley, and unincorporated Lewis Center / Polaris CDP) does NOT operate a unified countywide zoning ordinance for unincorporated territory and has not adopted county-tier zoning under O.R.C. Chapter 303. Ohio is a home-rule state under Article XVIII of the Ohio Constitution and Dillon's Rule otherwise; O.R.C. § 303.02 permits a board of county commissioners to adopt county zoning subject to a referendum, but Delaware County has never put a countywide zoning question to its voters (Lake County is the canonical Ohio county that does operate county-tier zoning). Zoning in unincorporated Delaware County is therefore performed township-by-township under O.R.C. Chapter 519 (Township Rural Zoning), and the Delaware County Regional Planning Commission (DCRPC) provides advisory subdivision and plat review under O.R.C. § 711.10 plus county-level coordination. Every one of Delaware County's eighteen townships HAS adopted township zoning (a notable contrast with rural Ohio counties where many townships are unzoned); this is a consequence of Columbus-driven development pressure since the 1990s. ADU regulation in unincorporated Delaware County is thus set township-by-township; the County's land-use role is limited to subdivision/plat advisory review, addressing, the County Engineer (county roads, drainage), the General Health District (private septic and water), the Delaware Soil and Water Conservation District (erosion and sediment), and the County Auditor (assessment). The City of Delaware, City of Powell, the Delaware-County portion of Westerville, and the villages of Galena, Sunbury, Ostrander, Ashley, and Shawnee Hills all zone independently under their charters or home-rule grants.

• flood-zone
• other
• other
• airport-noise
• other