The county currently handles zoning for Oxford, Milford, Hanover, Ross, Madison and Lemon townships, according Development Director David Fehr, who added that the department will not be burdened by adding St. Clair Twp.
There are benefits, he said, to the county taking over such matters for smaller jurisdictions.
“Right now if you need a zoning permit from St. Clair you need to go out there first and get their approval and then come to the county for a building permit,” Fehr said. “And the zoning inspector was only part-time … so allowing it to be done at the county you get the full staff at the county to assist, you get longer office hours and you get more of a one-stop shop.”
The St. Clair Twp. zoning inspector resigned two months ago, and officials there would rather not fill the $26,000 part-time position.
“We’re in a fiscal emergency with the state and the state suggested strongly that we get rid of the zoning because it’s so expensive and it comes out of the general fund,” St. Clair Twp. trustee Tom Barnes said. “The only fund we really have a problem with is the general fund.”
Since the last zoning inspector’s resignation, other township staff have taken care of zoning permit requests and the trustees themselves investigate nuisance complaints.
Commissioners were supportive of the plan for the county to take over.
“I’m familiar with the zoning process and also the building permit process,” Commissioner T.C. Rogers, a builder and real estate broker, said. “It is tough to maintain a zoning department when you don’t have the volume.”
St. Clair Twp. trustees asked the state to take a look at their books after Fiscal Officer Doug Wheelwright took office in 2012.
Wheelright found that the township’s former fiscal officer failed to pay some bills, including electric payments and payments owed to the Internal Revenue Service.
Coupled with a slow economy and dwindling tax collections, the township was forced into a deficit. When Wheelright took office, he said the township had to reconstruct expenses, bills and payments from 2011 to understand what was paid or unpaid.
The township had a $190,159 deficit that the state said was a condition of fiscal emergency.
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