Section 709.38 - Petition for detachment of lands and attachment to contiguous township - may form new townshipUpon petition of a majority of the freehold electors owning lands in any portion of the territory of a municipal corporation, or, if no freehold electors own land therein, upon petition of a majority of the owners of lands therein, accurately described in such petition with an accurate map or plat thereof, praying to have such portion of territory detached therefrom, the board of county commissioners, with the assent of the legislative authority of the municipal corporation given in an ordinance passed for the purpose, shall detach such portion of the territory therefrom and attach it to any township contiguous thereto, or, if the petition so requests, such board shall erect the territory into a new township, the boundaries of which need not include twenty-two square miles of territory.
Before any such territory is attached or detached, under this section, the following requirements shall be met:
(A) The board shall: (1) Ascertain and apportion the amount of existing indebtedness of the municipal corporation from which the detachment is made, which indebtedness shall be assumed and paid by the township contiguous thereto and to which the territory is attached, or by the new township, if a new township is erected, or by the corporate successors of such township, and such apportionment shall be made in proportion to the tax duplicate for the detached territory transferred to a contiguous township erected into a new township to the total tax duplicate for the remaining portion of the municipal corporation from which the detachment is made;(2) Ascertain, adjust, and divide between the contiguous township or the new township, if a new township is erected, and the remaining portion of the municipal corporation all moneys and other credits belonging to such municipal corporation in the same proportion as is provided in this section for division and apportionment of any indebtedness;(3) Order the amount so adjusted and divided to be paid or delivered by the parties in possession thereof to the proper officers of the contiguous township or new township and to the remaining portion of the municipal corporation.(B) After such apportionment is made each section of the original territory by which the indebtedness was incurred shall be primarily liable for the portion of the indebtedness so apportioned.(C) In the issuing of bonds under Chapter 133. of the Revised Code, and in arriving at the limitations imposed in such sections, only the portion of the indebtedness apportioned to each section of territory shall be counted as the net indebtedness.(D) The petition, map, ordinance, and the order of the board, certified by the county auditor, shall be recorded in the official records in the office of the county recorder, and as soon as such record is made the proceedings shall be complete, both as to the detaching of such territory from the municipal corporation and the annexation thereof to the township or the erection of the territory into the new township, and as to the apportionment of the indebtedness.(E) Wherever territory has been detached from a municipal corporation and attached to a township or created into a new township, the board of township trustees of such township, or, if such township has become a municipal corporation or been annexed to any municipal corporation, the legislative authority of the corporate successor of the township may, by ordinance, duly passed, contract, through its proper officers, with the municipal corporation from which the detachment was originally made, to apportion the indebtedness of the original territory in the manner provided in this section. Such a contract shall be made by ordinance or resolution, duly passed by the legislative authority of the municipal corporation or board of township trustees, and the effect of the contract shall be the same as if such apportionment was originally made by the board of county commissioners, as provided by this section.Amended by 130th General Assembly, HB 72,§1, eff. 1/30/2014.Effective Date: 10-30-1989 .