Findlay Mayor Christina Muryn is renewing her call for township trustees and Hancock County commissioners to sit down with the city and work out a common approach to annexation, city utilities and revenue sharing, saying a year of outreach has drawn little response. Muryn sent a letter on Oct. 16 asking township and county leaders to meet and discuss a proposed framework, and as of Wednesday, Oct. 21, she said no one had answered, according to reporting by The Courier of Findlay.
At the center of the proposal is a draft Master Cooperative Economic Development Agreement that would set one standard process for future annexations in townships that sign on, rather than negotiating a separate deal for each request. The city says the goal is to give townships more certainty, give property owners more flexibility, and settle in advance the questions that have made annexation a recurring source of friction around Findlay for decades.
Under the draft, the city would share revenue with a township for 10 years after land is annexed, paying the township an amount equal to 2 mills of the property’s improved assessed value. If a tax abatement or another incentive delays the property’s taxable value, those payments would start after the incentive ends. Apart from comments from the Allen Township trustees, Muryn said, the city has received little feedback on the draft agreements it has circulated over the past year.
The proposal also draws a line around the city’s expected growth area. A half-mile band around the current city limits would remain part of Findlay’s growth plans, and annexation would still be expected there. Beyond that half mile, however, properties in participating townships could connect to city utilities without being required to join the city, separating utility service from annexation for outlying customers in townships that sign on.
Longtime utility customers outside the city would also be protected under the draft. Businesses such as Whirlpool on North Main Street and Ball Metal on County Road 99, both in Allen Township, would not be required to annex to keep city utility service. Properties outside the city that connect to city utilities currently pay the city’s outside rate, which the city lists at 1.5 times the standard rate.
Findlay already has revenue-sharing agreements with Marion Township, first set up in 2001 and updated in 2016, and Liberty Township, set up in 2006, according to the city’s annexation page. There is no such agreement with Allen Township, so annexations there fall back on the declining, time-limited payments set by Ohio Revised Code section 709.19 — a difference the mayor’s proposal would address with a uniform local agreement.
Muryn has framed the renewed letter as an invitation local leaders should not leave unanswered. “The issue of annexation has existed for decades and will continue to exist if today’s elected leaders do not attempt to work together,” she said, according to The Courier. Whether township trustees and county commissioners now agree to meet will determine if Findlay’s next annexations are handled under a shared framework or continue to be negotiated one property at a time.
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