Menu

by Amy Beth Graves

It came down to the wire, but the 125^th Ohio General Assembly ended up passing several agriculture-related bills, including tort reform (see story on page 2), agriculture security areas, anhydrous ammonia penalties and minimum lot sizes.

Agriculture-friendly lawmakers were a big reason why these important bills were passed, said Rocky Black, director of state legislative affairs for the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation (OFBF). He gave credit to Sens. Doug White, president of the Ohio Senate, Larry Mumper, Robert Gardner and Reps. Bob Gibbs, Keith Faber, Tony Core, John Schlichter and Larry Wolpert.

"They got a lot of things done. A lot of productive legislation was passed," Black said of the lawmakers.

He noted that White, who owns and operates an 800-acre crop and livestock farm, forced lawmakers to take action. White unexpectedly announced Dec. 8 that it was the Senate’s last day in session, forcing lawmakers to wrap up pending legislation or start over again next year. They opted to work through the night and finish several bills.

In those final days, the ag-friendly bills that lawmakers passed, besides tort reform, were:

• SB 115, minimum lot sizes: This bill, introduced by Gardner, R-Madison, allows counties to review all lots under 4 acres and consider looking at lots up to 20 acres. Current law exempts splits greater than 5 acres from being reviewed. The county engineer’s office would look at proper drainage, lot depth to width ratios and location of driveways, mailboxes, buildings and ponds.

Black noted that the bill does not prevent landowners from selling lots in whatever size or number they want. He said the bill is designed to allow better land management and discourage the piece-meal sale of farmland.

"We were very pleased to see the bill passed. We worked very long and hard for it. It is a good bill that will help communities," said Marianne White, a spokeswoman for Gardner.

Farmers have been complaining for years about the development of 5-acre lots, which they consider an inefficient use of land and a contributor to "haphazard development," said Larry Gearhardt, OFBF’s director of local affairs.

"The bill provides the flexibility to allow a county to adopt limited regulations where they are most needed. If a county is not experiencing problems with large lot development, no regulations are forced upon the county. I see SB 115 as a win/win situation for farmers and developers alike," Gearhardt said.

• HB 536, anhydrous ammonia: Sponsored by Schlichter, R-Washington Court House, the bill increases the penalty for the theft of anhydrous ammonia to a third-degree felony, which carries a one- to five-year prison term. Previously, the penalty was a first-degree misdemeanor, which has a maximum penalty of a year in prison. Thieves have increasingly been stealing anhydrous ammonia, which they use to make illegal drugs such as methamphetamine.

"In order for (anhydrous ammonia) to remain a viable product, we have to start to protect its use. This started from a local Farm Bureau policy meeting, and we started talking about it a little bit and we ended up with what we thought we could do to protect farmers a little bit," Schlichter said. "This is a great example of how local policy works, and that is what Farm Bureau did, from the grassroots up."

• HB 414, agriculture security areas: This bill, introduced by Core, R-Rushylvania, is a low-cost way to preserve farmland, Black said. It allows local governments to create agricultural security areas (ASAs), which would be in place for 10 years and include at least 500 acres. In exchange for participating in the voluntary program, landowners would be assured that there wouldn’t be any nonagricultural development on the property. Landowners also could receive a tax abatement up to 75 percent of the value of the qualifying agricultural property.

"This bill will give landowners and local government officials the ability, if they choose, to help preserve farmland for farming. It’s a small tool for farmland preservation," Core said.

Other bills that passed earlier in the year included HB 421, which updated Ohio’s Agricultural Commodity Depositor’s Fund and increases the current $4 million threshold to $8 million and increases opportunities for recovery for producers not paid for grain delivered to an elevator, and SB 67, which strengthens penalties for knowingly damaging or destroying crops, timber, livestock or farm equipment.