Ohio Revised Code § 711.09 provides:
(A) (1) Except as otherwise provided in division (A)(2) of this section, when a city planning commission adopts a plan for the major streets or thoroughfares and for the parks and other open public grounds of a city or any part of it, or for the unincorporated territory within three miles of the corporate limits of a city or any part of it, then no plat of a subdivision of land within that city or territory shall be recorded until it has been approved by the city planning commission and that approval endorsed in writing on the plat. If the land lies within three miles of more than one city, then division (A)(1) of this section applies to the approval of the planning commission of the city whose boundary is nearest to the land.
(2) Division (A)(1) of this section does not apply to any unincorporated territory when all of the following conditions are met:
(a) The township in which the territory is located has a zoning resolution covering all the unincorporated territory in the township.
(b) The county in which the territory is located has a county or regional planning commission.
(c) Subdivision regulations other than municipal subdivision regulations are in effect in the county in which the unincorporated territory is located.
When all of these conditions are met, no plat of a subdivision of land in that unincorporated territory shall be recorded until it has been approved by the county or regional planning commission as provided in section 711.10 of the Revised Code.
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(C) The approval of the planning commission, the platting commissioner, or the legislative authority of a village required by this section, or the refusal to approve, shall be endorsed on the plat within thirty days after the submission of the plat for approval or within such further time as the applying party may agree to; otherwise that plat is deemed approved, and the certificate of the planning commission, the platting commissioner, or the clerk of the legislative authority, as to the date of the submission of the plat for approval and the failure to take action on it within that time, shall be issued on demand and shall be sufficient in lieu of the written endorsement or other evidence of approval required by this section. The planning commission, platting commissioner, or legislative authority of a village shall not require a person submitting a plat to alter the plat or any part of it as a condition for approval, as long as the plat is in accordance with the general rules governing plats and subdivisions of land, adopted as provided in this section, in effect at the time the plat was submitted. The ground of refusal or approval of any plat submitted, including citation of or reference to the rule violated by the plat, shall be stated upon the record of the commission, commissioner, or legislative authority. Within sixty days after refusal, the person submitting any plat that the commission, commissioner, or legislative authority refuses to approve may file a petition in the court of common pleas of the proper county, in which the person shall be named plaintiff. The petition shall contain a copy of the plat sought to be recorded, a statement of the facts justifying the propriety and reasonableness of the proposed subdivision, and a prayer for an order directed to the recorder to record the plat and may include a statement of facts to support a claim that the rules of the planning authority under which it refused to approve the plat are unreasonable or unlawful. The planning authority refusing to approve the plat and the recorder of the county shall be joined as defendants and summons shall be issued upon those defendants as in civil actions. Within the rule day provided for a civil action, the planning authority may file an answer in which it may set forth a statement of the facts justifying its refusal to approve the plat, a copy of its rule under which it refused to approve the plat, and a statement of the facts supporting the reasonableness and lawfulness of that rule. The court shall hear the matter upon such evidence as is introduced by either party and the planning authority may introduce as a part of its case a complete transcript of any proceedings had before it. Any detail of the plat may be modified upon motion of the plaintiff before the cause is submitted to the court. If the court finds that the prayer for the recording of the plat or any modification of it as may be agreed to or proposed by the plaintiff, is supported by a preponderance of the evidence, it shall enter an order directed to the recorder to record the plat as originally submitted or as agreed to be modified. Otherwise, the petition shall be dismissed. The court shall return a separate finding upon the reasonableness and lawfulness of the refusal to approve the plat or upon the reasonableness and lawfulness of the rule under which the planning authority refused to approve the plat or both, as the case may require. The judgment or order of the court may be appealed by either party on questions of law as in other civil cases.
The planning commission, platting commissioner, or legislative authority of a village may adopt general rules governing plats and subdivisions of land falling within its jurisdiction in order to secure and provide for the coordination of the streets within the subdivision with existing streets and roads or with the plan or plats of the municipal corporation, for the proper amount of open spaces for traffic, circulation, and utilities, and for the avoidance of future congestion of population detrimental to the public health or safety but shall not impose a greater minimum lot area than forty-eight hundred square feet. The rules may provide for their modification by the planning commission in specific cases where unusual topographical or other exceptional conditions require the modification. The rules may require the county department of health to review and comment on a plat before the planning commission, platting commissioner, or legislative authority of a village acts upon it and may also require proof of compliance with any applicable zoning resolutions as a basis for approval of a plat.
However, no city or village planning commission shall adopt any rules requiring actual construction of streets or other improvements or facilities or assurance of that construction as a condition precedent to the approval of a plat of a subdivision unless the requirements have first been adopted by the legislative authority of the city or village after a public hearing. The rules shall be promulgated and published as provided by sections 731.17 to 731.42 of the Revised Code, and before adoption a public hearing shall be held on the adoption and a copy of the rules shall be certified by the commission, commissioner, or legislative authority to the county recorder of the county in which the municipal corporation is located.
In the exercise of any power over or concerning the platting and subdivision of land or the recording of plats of subdivisions by a city, county, regional, or other planning commission pursuant to any other section of the Revised Code, the provisions of this section with respect to appeals from a decision of a planning commission apply to the decision of any such commission in the exercise of any power of that kind granted by any other section of the Revised Code in addition to any other remedy of appeal granted by the Revised Code. When a plan has been adopted as provided in this section, the approval of plats shall be in lieu of the approvals provided for by any other section of the Revised Code, so far as territory within the approving jurisdiction of the commission, commissioner, or legislative authority, as provided in this section, is concerned. Approval of a plat shall not be an acceptance by the public of the dedication of any street, highway, or other way or open space shown upon the plat.
In Athens County the provisions of A(2)(b) & (c) are met, however, the provisions of A(2)(a) is not met since there is no township zoning. Therefore, the cities of Athens and Nelsonville which have subdivision regulations, have subdivision planning jurisdiction within the three mile area adjacent to their respective corporation lines. The three mile maps are below.
