Washington Court House

Fayette County, Ohio (south-central Ohio till-plains county; ~28,500 residents; county seat Washington Court House; ten townships — Concord, Green, Jasper, Jefferson, Madison, Marion, Paint, Perry, Union, and Wayne — and incorporated places Washington Court House (city), Bloomingburg (village), Jeffersonville (village), and Milledgeville (village)) does NOT operate a countywide zoning ordinance 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; counties may adopt county zoning under O.R.C. Chapter 303 but a small minority do (Lake County is the canonical example), and Fayette County is not among them. The Fayette County Regional Planning Commission (FCRPC) handles subdivision plat review under O.R.C. § 711.10 for unincorporated parcels and shared subdivision standards for the participating municipalities, but does not regulate use or density. Townships in Fayette County may adopt township-tier zoning under O.R.C. Chapter 519; as of 2026-05, township zoning coverage in Fayette County is partial — Union Township (encompassing Washington Court House's immediate suburban fringe along US-35 and SR-41) and Jeffersonville-area Jefferson Township are the townships most likely to have a zoning resolution in force, while several outer agricultural townships (Wayne, Madison, Marion, Perry, Paint, Concord) operate without township zoning. Where neither county nor township zoning exists, an unincorporated parcel is effectively unzoned for land-use purposes; the Ohio Residential Code (OAC 4101:8) still governs construction standards for any dwelling, including an ADU, and the Fayette County Health District still governs septic permits, but there is no local zoning prohibition on a second dwelling on a parcel. ADU permissibility in unincorporated Fayette County therefore turns on (1) whether the parcel is in a township with zoning, (2) whether the parcel is inside the city of Washington Court House or one of the three village limits (in which case city/village zoning applies), and (3) whether the parcel can support a second septic field under OAC 3701-29 capacity rules. Fayette County participates in the I-71 / US-35 logistics corridor, which has produced unusual development pressure around Jeffersonville (Tanger Outlets, distribution centers), and around Washington Court House (US-35 corridor), but ADU policy itself remains entirely a township/municipal question.

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