Ironton

Lawrence County, Ohio (southernmost Ohio along the Ohio River; ~58,240 residents per the 2020 census; county seat Ironton; 14 townships — Aid, Decatur, Elizabeth, Fayette, Hamilton, Lawrence, Mason, Perry, Rome, Symmes, Union, Upper, Washington, Windsor; one city Ironton plus six villages: Athalia, Chesapeake, Coal Grove, Hanging Rock, Proctorville, and South Point) has NOT adopted county-tier zoning under O.R.C. Chapter 303 and operates no countywide land-use ordinance regulating dwelling type or accessory dwelling units. The county DOES regulate subdivision of land under O.R.C. Chapter 711 through the Lawrence County Regional Planning Commission (administered by the Lawrence Soil and Water Conservation District at 740-867-4737), and the county operates a State-Certified County Building Department (established 2009 by the Lawrence County Commissioners) that issues building permits — but the County Building Department's certification is COMMERCIAL ONLY. The department's own page states: 'This does not include residential structures.' Residential one- and two-family dwellings (which is the category covering virtually all ADUs in this county) therefore fall to (a) township-tier zoning under O.R.C. Chapter 519 where a township has adopted a zoning resolution, (b) municipal zoning inside Ironton and the six villages, and (c) the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Industrial Compliance (DIC) for residential plan review and inspection under the Ohio Residential Code (OAC 4101:8) in jurisdictions without a certified residential building department. ADU permissibility in unincorporated Lawrence County is therefore set parcel-by-parcel: whether the township has zoning, whether soil/slope/septic supports a second dwelling, and whether the parcel is in an Ohio River floodway or floodplain.

• flood-zone
• other
• other
• other