Ohio
Buying Land in Union County, Ohio
Seat Marysville, home to Honda's original Ohio manufacturing complex. Union County has grown roughly 35% since 2015 as Columbus-metro growth pushes northwest -- and its townships each zone themselves individually rather than the county running a unified rural zoning code, a distinction that matters given how much new solar and data-center development the county has drawn.
Zoning: townships self-zone, the county does not run a unified rural zoning code
Unlike counties that have adopted a single ORC Chapter 303 rural zoning code administered by a county rural zoning commission, Union County's fourteen townships each adopt and administer their own zoning individually under ORC Chapter 519. Jerome Township, for example, maintains its own zoning department separate from both the county and any other township. The tri-county Logan-Union-Champaign (LUC) Regional Planning Commission -- a joint body serving Logan, Union, and Champaign Counties -- keeps a reference listing of each Union County township's current zoning code and inspector contact, which is a useful starting point, but it does not itself hold zoning authority over any of them.
The practical upshot for a land buyer is the same one that applies across much of unzoned or township-zoned Ohio: a parcel's zoning status, allowed uses, and permitting process depend entirely on which specific township it sits in, and a neighboring township just a few miles away may run a completely different zoning code -- or none at all. Confirm zoning status directly with the specific township trustees or zoning inspector before assuming based on a parcel's general location.
Real, sustained growth pressure -- and where it's concentrated
Union County has been described by its own health department as one of Ohio's fastest-growing counties, and broader Columbus-metro growth reporting corroborates that: the county's population grew by roughly 35% over the 2015-2025 decade, with continued growth into 2024-2025 driven substantially by people moving in from other states and counties. Marysville, the county seat and home to Honda's original Ohio manufacturing plant (now being retooled in part for electric-vehicle production), anchors the county's largest job base, while communities like Plain City and the portion of Dublin that extends into Union County reflect direct Columbus-metro spillover.
For a land buyer, this means genuinely different pressure depending on where in the county a parcel sits: land near the county's southeastern edge, closest to Dublin and the Columbus metro, is likely to see far more subdivision and rezoning pressure than land in the county's more agricultural northern and western townships. Growth-driven land-use change is a real, current, ongoing factor here -- not a hypothetical one -- and it shows up concretely in both the utility-scale solar development and the Jerome Township data-center dispute described below.
Jerome Township: data centers, noise complaints, and a moratorium
Jerome Township, in the county's southeast corner, already hosts two Amazon data center facilities, and residents living nearby have repeatedly reported a constant, industrial-scale noise -- often described as an 'industrial buzz' -- along with concerns about the electricity and water demand these facilities place on shared utility infrastructure. In response, the township trustees unanimously adopted a nine-month moratorium on new data-center development in September 2025, running through roughly early June 2026, intended to give the township time to study long-term impacts and consider zoning or regulatory changes before more projects are approved. Notably, at least one report indicates the township continued to approve some data-center permits even after the moratorium took effect, suggesting the pause was not a complete freeze -- confirm the moratorium's exact current scope and any successor zoning changes directly with Jerome Township before assuming a project is or isn't affected.
For a buyer specifically looking at land in or near Jerome Township, this is a live, unsettled situation rather than a resolved one: whatever zoning or siting rules the township adopts once the moratorium period ends could materially affect nearby land values and neighboring development, in either direction. See our dedicated wind-solar-leasing standalone for Union County for the separate, but related, story of the county's utility-scale solar development.
Septic, water, and other departments to know
The Union County Health Department (940 London Ave., Suite 1100, Marysville; (937) 642-2053; uchd.net) permits and inspects household sewage treatment systems and reviews subdivisions developed outside public water and sewer service -- nearly 9,000 homes and businesses in the county rely on private sewage treatment systems. This research pass found no evidence of a separate carve-out city health department within Union County (unlike some neighboring counties where the county seat runs its own department), but confirm directly with the health department which agency covers a specific parcel.
For property records, GIS mapping, and subdivision or road-frontage questions, contact the Union County Auditor, Recorder, and Engineer's offices directly through the county's main government site -- specific current phone numbers and office details for those departments could not be independently confirmed in this research pass.
Who to Call Before Buying Land in Union County
Web access in this research pass was limited to search-indexed content; outbound access to individual county-government and utility sites was unavailable during this session, so several contact phone numbers (Auditor, Recorder, Engineer) could not be confirmed and are left blank rather than guessed. Confirm all details directly before relying on this page for a specific parcel.
Planning & Zoning
Logan-Union-Champaign (LUC) Regional Planning Commission
Reference listing of current township zoning codes and inspector contacts across Union County.
Building & Permitting
Jerome Township Zoning Department
Zoning and building permits within Jerome Township, including current data-center moratorium status.
Environmental Health
Union County Health Department
General environmental health questions countywide.
Septic / Onsite Wastewater
Union County Health Department
Household sewage treatment system (septic) permits, subdivision review, and private well questions countywide.
Recorder / Clerk / Land Records
Union County Recorder
Recorded deeds, easements, and plats for a specific parcel.
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Get local guidanceTopics Specific to Union County
Sources
- Union County Townships (zoning codes by township) — Logan-Union-Champaign Regional Planning Commission (accessed 2026-09)
- Township Zoning | Jerome Township, OH — Jerome Township, Union County, Ohio (accessed 2026-09)
- Septic Systems — Union County Health Department (accessed 2026-09)
- Where Central Ohio is growing the fastest may surprise you — Axios Columbus (accessed 2026-09)
- List: Fastest growing counties in Ohio according to census records — NBC4 WCMH-TV Columbus (accessed 2026-09)
- Jerome Township puts pause on new data center development for nine months — WOSU Public Media (accessed 2026-09)
- Ohio towns are pushing back against data centers -- to varying degrees of success — The Statehouse News Bureau (accessed 2026-09)
Last reviewed 2026-09