Paulding County Economic Development Press Release

PAULDING – The quarterly Paulding County zoning inspectors meeting took place on Wednesday at the Paulding County Economic Development Office. This group morphed out of quarterly county mayor’s meetings and has developed as a way to bridge communication gaps and further effort in zoning consistency and collaboration amongst the county.

The main agenda item was to start collecting the list of zoning fees for each municipality and township.  These lists will be compiled into a spreadsheet that will allow a comparison of costs and the variation of fees.  Those in attendance shared their table of fees which started a comparison discussion.  The group determined that if the zoning fee tables were submitted to the courthouse, they could be found on the recorder’s website.

Sarah McCabe, with the county auditor’s office, shared that they will be sharing year end data for building permit summaries.  These would be regarding commercial, residential, agriculture, mobile homes, and destroyed mobile home permits issued in 2024.

Brian Harder, with the county engineer’s office, shared that since the county GIS system was implemented visits to the office have diminished greatly.  It was questioned about how many zoning maps are on file with the engineering office.  Harder reported that less than 50% of the maps are on file.  The group will work with the office to increase this amount.

General conversation turned to the county health department and the septic verification program.  Recently the county has started to lay out the plan for verifying septic systems around the county are operating correctly and efficiently.  More information about this state-required program will be forthcoming from the department.

Tim Copsey, county economic development director offered information about the county land bank funds from the State of Ohio.  Earlier this week, the Ohio Department of Development moved forward with committing the $500,000 allocation to the county and asked for final paperwork to be submitted by January 6.  Estee Blair, with Maumee Valley Planning Organization, will submit this information for the county.  Demolition bids will then be sent out for the 42 submitted properties around the county.

Participants this quarter represented Washington Township, Carryall Township, Crane Township, Paulding Village, Cecil Village, the county auditor office, the county engineer office, and economic development.  The group agreed to meet again on March 19th, 2025.