Section 349.01 | New community organization definitions.

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• Effective: September 13, 2022
• Legislation: Senate Bill 61 - 134th General Assembly

As used in this chapter:

(A) "New community" means a community or development of property in relation to an existing community planned so that the resulting community includes facilities for the conduct of industrial, commercial, residential, cultural, educational, and recreational activities, and designed in accordance with planning concepts for the placement of utility, open space, and other supportive facilities.

(B) "New community development program" means a program for the development of a new community characterized by well-balanced and diversified land use patterns and which includes land acquisition and land development, the acquisition, construction, operation, and maintenance of community facilities, and the provision of services authorized in this chapter.

A new community development program may take into account any existing community in relation to which a new community is developed for purposes of being characterized by well-balanced and diversified land use patterns.

(C) "New community district" means the area of land described by the developer in the petition as set forth in division (A) of section 349.03 of the Revised Code for development as a new community and any lands added to the district by amendment of the resolution establishing the community authority.

(D) "New community authority" means a body corporate and politic in this state, established pursuant to section 349.03 of the Revised Code and governed by a board of trustees as provided in section 349.04 of the Revised Code.

(E) "Developer" means any person, organized for carrying out a new community development program who owns or controls, through leases of at least seventy-five years' duration, options, or contracts to purchase, the land within a new community district, or any municipal corporation, county, or port authority that owns the land within a new community district, or has the ability to acquire such land, either by voluntary acquisition or condemnation in order to eliminate slum, blighted, and deteriorated or deteriorating areas and to prevent the recurrence thereof. "Developer" may also mean a person, municipal corporation, county, or port authority that controls land within a new community district through leases of at least seventy-five years' duration. "Developer" includes a lessor that continues to own and control land for purposes of this chapter pursuant to leases with a ninety-nine-year renewable term, so long as all of the following apply:

(1) The developer's new community district consists of at least five leases described in this section.

(2) The leases are subject to forfeiture for all of the following:

(a) Failing to pay taxes and assessments;

(b) Failing to pay an annual fee of up to one per cent of rent for sanitary purposes and improvements made to streets;

(c) Failing to keep the premises as required by sanitary and police regulations of the developer.

(3) The new community authority is established on or before December 31, 2024.

(F) "Organizational board of commissioners" means the following:

(1) For a new community district that is located in only one county, the board of county commissioners of that county;

(2) For a new community district that is located in more than one county, a board consisting of the members of the board of county commissioners of each of the counties in which the district is located, provided that action of the board shall require a majority vote of the members of each separate board of county commissioners; or

(3) For a new community district that is located entirely within the boundaries of a municipal corporation or for a new community district where more than half of the new community district is located within the boundaries of the most populous municipal corporation of a county, the legislative authority of the municipal corporation.

(G) "Land acquisition" means the acquisition of real property and interests in real property as part of a new community development program.

(H) "Land development" means the process of clearing and grading land, making, installing, or constructing water distribution systems, sewers, sewage collection systems, steam, gas, and electric lines, roads, streets, curbs, gutters, sidewalks, storm drainage facilities, and other installations or work, whether within or without the new community district, and the construction of community facilities.

(I) "Community facilities" means all real property, buildings, structures, or other facilities, including related fixtures, equipment, and furnishings, to be owned, operated, financed, constructed, and maintained under this chapter or in furtherance of community activities, whether within or without the new community district, including public, community, village, neighborhood, or town buildings, centers and plazas, auditoriums, day care centers, recreation halls, educational facilities, health care facilities including hospital facilities as defined in section 140.01 of the Revised Code, telecommunications facilities, including all facilities necessary to provide telecommunications service as defined in section 4927.01 of the Revised Code, recreational facilities, natural resource facilities, including parks and other open space land, lakes and streams, cultural facilities, community streets and off-street parking facilities, pathway and bikeway systems, pedestrian underpasses and overpasses, lighting facilities, design amenities, or other community facilities, and buildings needed in connection with water supply or sewage disposal installations, or energy facilities including those for renewable or sustainable energy sources, and steam, gas, or electric lines or installation.

(J) "Cost" as applied to a new community development program means all costs related to land acquisition and land development, the acquisition, construction, maintenance, and operation of community facilities and offices of the community authority, and of providing furnishings and equipment therefor, financing charges including interest prior to and during construction and for the duration of the new community development program, planning expenses, engineering expenses, administrative expenses including working capital, and all other expenses necessary and incident to the carrying forward of the new community development program.

(K) "Income source" means any and all sources of income to the community authority, including community development charges of which the new community authority is the beneficiary as provided in section 349.07 of the Revised Code, rentals, user fees and other charges received by the new community authority, any gift or grant received, any moneys received from any funds invested by or on behalf of the new community authority, and proceeds from the sale or lease of land and community facilities.

(L) "Community development charge" means:

(1) A dollar amount which shall be determined on the basis of the assessed valuation of real property or interests in real property in a new community district, the income of the residents of such property subject to such charge under section 349.07 of the Revised Code, if such property is devoted to residential uses or to the profits, gross receipts, or other revenues of any business including, but not limited to, rentals received from leases of real property located in the district, a uniform or other fee on each parcel of such real property in a new community district, or any combination of the foregoing bases.

(2) If a new community authority imposes a community development charge determined on the basis of rentals received from leases of real property, improvements of any real property located in the new community district and subject to that charge may not be exempted from taxation under section 5709.40, 5709.41, 5709.73, or 5709.78 of the Revised Code.

(M) "Proximate city" means the following:

(1) For a new community district other than a new community district described in division (M)(2) or (3) of this section, any city that, as of the date of filing of the petition under section 349.03 of the Revised Code, is the city with the greatest population located in the county in which the proposed new community district is located, is the city with the greatest population located in an adjoining county if any portion of such city is within five miles of any part of the boundaries of such district, or exercises extraterritorial subdivision authority under section 711.09 of the Revised Code with respect to any part of such district.

(2) A municipal corporation in which, at the time of filing the petition under section 349.03 of the Revised Code, any portion of the proposed new community district is located.

(3) For a new community district other than a new community district described in division (M)(2) of this section, if at the time of filing the petition under section 349.03 of the Revised Code, more than one-half of the proposed district is contained within a joint economic development district created under sections 715.70 to 715.83 of the Revised Code, the township containing the greatest portion of the territory of the joint economic development district.

(N) "Community activities" means cultural, educational, governmental, recreational, residential, industrial, commercial, distribution and research activities, or any combination thereof that includes residential activities.

Last updated June 29, 2022 at 2:25 PM

Available Versions of this Section

• September 29, 2013 – House Bill 59 - 130th General Assembly
• September 29, 2015 – House Bill 64 - 131st General Assembly
• October 17, 2019 – Amended by House Bill 166 - 133rd General Assembly
• September 30, 2021 – Amended by House Bill 110 - 134th General Assembly
• September 13, 2022 – Amended by Senate Bill 61 - 134th General Assembly
• October 3, 2023 – Amended by House Bill 33 - 135th General Assembly