Gambier

Knox County, Ohio (rural / exurban county in north-central Ohio about 45 miles northeast of Columbus; ~62,000 residents in the 2024 ACS estimate; county seat City of Mount Vernon; twenty-two civil townships — Berlin, Brown, Butler, Clay, Clinton, College, Harrison, Hilliar, Howard, Jackson, Jefferson, Liberty, Middlebury, Milford, Miller, Monroe, Morgan, Morris, Pike, Pleasant, Union, and Wayne; incorporated places City of Mount Vernon, Village of Centerburg, Village of Danville, Village of Fredericktown, Village of Gambier, Village of Martinsburg, and the unincorporated communities of Howard and Bladensburg) 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; O.R.C. § 303.02 permits a board of county commissioners to put county zoning to the voters of the unincorporated area, but Knox County has never done so. Unincorporated zoning is therefore set township-by-township under O.R.C. Chapter 519 (Township Rural Zoning). Of the twenty-two Knox County townships, eighteen have adopted township zoning resolutions (Berlin, Brown, Clinton, College, Harrison, Hilliar, Howard, Jefferson, Liberty, Middlebury, Milford, Miller, Monroe, Morgan, Morris, Pike, Pleasant, Wayne); four remain UNZONED (Butler, Clay, Jackson, Union) and any otherwise-lawful use, including an accessory dwelling, is permissible in those townships subject only to state codes and the Knox County Health Department's sewage-treatment rules. The Knox County Regional Planning Commission (KCRPC), created November 21, 1971 by the Knox County Commissioners, provides advisory subdivision and plat review under O.R.C. § 711.10 plus county-level coordination, but issues no zoning certificates and operates no county building department. Knox County also does NOT operate a certified residential building department under O.A.C. 4101:7; the county commissioners considered creating one in 2022-2023 but as of mid-2026 no certified Knox County residential building department exists. Residential construction in unincorporated Knox County therefore proceeds under the Ohio Residential Code (O.A.C. 4101:8) without local plan review or inspection — the state code is the binding standard, but Knox County is one of a minority of Ohio counties where new one-, two-, and three-family dwelling construction in unincorporated territory receives no local building-permit review at all. Inside the City of Mount Vernon and the six villages, the municipality's own zoning and building permit framework controls.

• flood-zone
• other
• other
• other
• historic