Townships are relatively small pieces of land (usually no larger than thirty-six square miles). They are created to designate land ownership or to establish a form of local government. Within the United States, there are two different types of townships.
The first type of township is a survey township. These townships were created as the United States expanded. The federal government used survey townships to survey and sell public land, as well as to designate property ownership. For example, the Land Ordinance of 1785 established survey townships in what would eventually become Ohio. As the states and Native Americans relinquished lands in the Northwest Territory to the federal government, surveyors were to divide the territory into individual townships. Each township was to be square. Each side of the square was to be six miles in length, and the completed square would include a total of thirty-six square miles of territory. The Township would then be divided into one-square mile sections, with each section encompassing 640 acres. Each section received its own number. Section sixteen was set aside for the use of the public schools. The federal government reserved sections eight, eleven, twenty-six, and twenty-nine to provide veterans of the American Revolution with land bounties for their service during the war. The government would sell the remaining sections at public auction. The minimum bid was 640 dollars per section or one dollar for each acre of land in each section. From time to time, townships were surveyed that measured only five miles on a side or which had other variations on the usual form of thirty-six one square mile sections.
The other type of township is known as a civil township; Orange Township falls into this category. Typically, a board of township trustees oversees the Township. The major issues that a civil township government addresses are cemetery maintenance, trash collection, road upkeep, and snow removal. Civil townships are most common in rural areas, but even large cities sometimes expand around townships or parts of townships. Townships are commonly annexed into a municipality as a town or city develops and expands. For example, Mill Creek Township in Hamilton County, Ohio no longer exists, as several cities, most notably Cincinnati, absorbed the Township by annexation, acquisition or other means.
In 2000, 16,504 civil townships existed in the United States. These townships existed in twenty states, primarily states in the Northeast and Midwest. Over the course of Ohio's history, at least 1,340 townships have existed within the state. Civil Townships, such as Orange Township, have legal limitations regarding township governance. Orange Township is not designated as a home rule township, meaning it is a statutory township that does not have inherent power, only those that are delegated or reasonably implied by the state. Chapter 504 of the Ohio Revised Code details qualifications for townships to adopt limited home rule government and enforce more powers of self-governance1.
Because of the statutory designation of Orange Township, Ohio Revised Code may be referenced when looking to justify land use action. Section 519.02 outlines the purposes for zoning and that zoning resolutions must be made “in accordance with a comprehensive plan”. In 2004, Ohio House Bill 148 expanded the purposes of zoning for townships by allowing them to zone “in the interest of the public health, safety, convenience, comfort, prosperity, or general welfare,” whereas prior, it was limited to the purposes of health, safety, and morals. The bill also removed “morals” from enabling legislation for zoning and enabled authority to adopt reasonable residential landscaping and architectural standards, excluding exterior building materials.
Ohio Senate Bill 18, adopted 34 days after Ohio House Bill 148, removed general welfare zoning authority for residential land use regulation, reducing township authority to regulate density by limiting its justification to health and safety. Senate Bill 18 was found unconstitutional in 2005 by Franklin County Court of Appeals, Tenth Appellate District, No. 07AP-738 and in Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority Board of Trustees v. State of Ohio, 2008-Ohio-2836.