Holmes County

Holmes County, Ohio (rural Appalachian-edge county on the unglaciated plateau in central-northeast Ohio; ~44,000 residents; county seat Village of Millersburg; 14 townships - Berlin, Clark, Hardy, Killbuck, Knox, Mechanic, Monroe, Paint, Prairie, Richland, Ripley, Salt Creek, Walnut Creek, Washington; 7 incorporated villages - Baltic, Glenmont, Holmesville, Killbuck, Loudonville (partial - mostly in Ashland County), Millersburg, Nashville) has NOT adopted countywide zoning under O.R.C. Chapter 303 and does not operate a county-tier land-use ordinance. 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 most do not, and Holmes County has not. Townships in Holmes County may adopt zoning resolutions under O.R.C. Chapter 519; the prevailing pattern in Holmes County (and a defining feature of its land-use regime) is that most townships have NOT adopted township zoning resolutions, leaving large swaths of unincorporated parcels effectively unzoned. This pattern is partly a function of demographics: Holmes County is home to the world's largest concentration of Old Order Amish - estimated ~39,525 in the Holmes-Wayne-Tuscarawas settlement in 2023, comprising roughly half the county's population and projected to reach majority status, and including eleven separate Amish affiliations (the most diverse Amish settlement worldwide). The Amish community has historically resisted township zoning adoption because zoning categories do not map cleanly onto Amish multi-generational farmsteads where extended family housing (Daadi Haus / 'grandfather house' / accessory dwelling for retired elders or married children) is a religious and economic norm. The county's land-use coordinating body is the Holmes County Planning Commission (2 Court Street, Suite 21, Millersburg, OH 44654), which reviews subdivision plats and lot splits under the county's adopted Subdivision Regulations but does NOT regulate ADU use or impose ADU-specific standards. Commercial building permits are issued by the East Central Ohio Building Authority (ECOBA), a regional certified building department in Dover (Tuscarawas County) that has had jurisdiction over Holmes County since September 20, 2004; ECOBA expressly does NOT have jurisdiction over detached one-, two-, or three-family dwellings, which are governed by the Ohio Residential Code (OAC 4101:8) and inspected by the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Industrial Compliance (DIC). ADU permissibility in unincorporated Holmes County therefore turns on (1) whether the parcel is in one of the few townships with zoning (a minority - in practice consult the township trustees), (2) whether the parcel is inside village limits (Baltic, Glenmont, Holmesville, Killbuck, Millersburg, Nashville each have their own zoning), (3) whether the parcel can support a second septic field under OAC 3701-29 administered by the Holmes County General Health District, and (4) whether the parcel sits inside a mapped FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area along Killbuck Creek, the Mohican River, or their tributaries.