Buying Land in Highland County, Ohio

Zoning: an open question worth confirming directly

Unlike most Ohio counties in this research wave, this pass could not confirm one way or the other whether Highland County has adopted county rural zoning under ORC Chapter 303. The county maintains a Planning Commission, and the City of Hillsboro's own published guidance directs residents with building or zoning questions for land outside city limits to the Highland County Commissioners directly -- suggesting the county plays some role in unincorporated-area land use -- but no posted Chapter 303 zoning resolution or map was found in this research pass.

Similarly, while Highland County has 17 townships, this research pass did not turn up a confirmed list of which, if any, have separately adopted their own zoning under ORC Chapter 519. Given that gap, a Highland County land buyer should treat zoning status as genuinely unknown until confirmed directly with both the Highland County Commissioners (119 Foraker Place, Hillsboro; (937) 393-1911) and the trustees of the specific township where a parcel sits -- rather than assuming either a default county rule or a blanket absence of zoning.

A growing Amish and Mennonite settlement in the county's east

Highland County's eastern half, roughly between Hillsboro and Greenfield, has seen a real and apparently still-growing Amish and Mennonite settlement that began around 2006, with early families arriving from more crowded Amish communities in northern Ohio. Coverage describes two expanding church districts in that area today, with more recent arrivals reported from Kentucky, Illinois, other parts of Ohio, and Michigan -- part of a broader statewide pattern in which roughly 40 of Ohio's Amish communities have been founded since 2000, often drawn by more affordable farmland than in the state's older, more established settlements.

For a land buyer, this is worth knowing primarily as land-use and market context rather than a regulatory factor: it can mean stronger demand for agricultural parcels in the affected townships, a higher likelihood of encountering multi-household family farms (a use Ohio's agricultural zoning exemption generally protects regardless of lot size, since counties and townships have no power to regulate agriculture, farm buildings, or animal husbandry on lots over five acres), and a practical reason to ask about road frontage and access if a property is likely to see buggy traffic.

Farmland preservation: real, recorded agricultural easements

Highland County is an active, on-the-record participant in Ohio's state agricultural-easement program, administered by the Ohio Department of Agriculture together with USDA and local land trusts. Cardinal Land Conservancy (formerly the Southern Ohio Farmland Preservation Association) serves as local sponsor for at least two confirmed Highland County easements: a 76.758-acre agricultural easement placed on the Kim Hiatt Trust farm in Penn Township's Careytown area in 2016, and the 220-acre Geer Farm, owned by Donald and Cheryl Geer. See our dedicated conservation-easements page for Highland County for what an agricultural easement actually restricts and permits on land that carries one.

Septic and other departments to know

For a household sewage treatment system or well, the Highland County Health Department (1487 N. High St., Hillsboro), serving the community since 1920, handles applications for new installations, repairs, and inspections through its Environmental Health Division. This research pass did not find evidence of a separate city health department for Hillsboro or Greenfield, though Greenfield itself straddles Highland, Fayette, and Ross Counties and was not independently investigated for a separate health-district arrangement.

The Highland County Commissioners' office and the county's Planning Commission (both in Hillsboro) are the starting points for zoning and land-use questions given the open status noted above, and the Highland County Auditor and Recorder hold property, assessment, deed, and easement records -- worth checking directly for any recorded agricultural easement, like the two described above, that could affect a specific parcel's use.