Prohibit the use of eminent domain for recreational trails

As Introduced

136th
General Assembly

Regular
Session
S. B. No. 361

2025-2026

Senator Schaffer

To
amend section 163.01 of the Revised Code
to
prohibit the use of eminent domain for recreational trails.

BE
IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:

Section
1.
That
section 163.01 of the Revised Code be amended to read as follows:

Sec.
163.01.
As
used in sections 163.01 to 163.22 of the Revised Code:

(A)
"Public agency" means any governmental corporation, unit,
organization, instrumentality, or officer authorized by law to
appropriate property in the courts of this state.

(B)
"Private agency" means any corporation, firm, partnership,
voluntary association, joint-stock association, or company that is
not a public agency and that is authorized by law to appropriate
property in the courts of this state.

(C)
"Agency" means any public agency or private agency.

(D)
"Court" means the court of common pleas or the probate
court of any county in which the property sought to be appropriated
is located in whole or in part.

(E)
"Owner" means any individual, partnership, association, or
corporation having any estate, title, or interest in any real
property sought to be appropriated.

(F)
"Real property," "land," or "property"
includes any estate, title, or interest in any real property that is
authorized to be appropriated by the agency in question, unless the
context otherwise requires.

(G)
"Public utility" has the same meaning as in section 4905.02
of the Revised Code and also includes a public utility owned or
operated by one or more municipal corporations, an electric
cooperative, and an agency holding a certificate of public
convenience and necessity granted by the federal energy regulatory
commission.

(H)(1)
"Public use" does not include any taking that is for
conveyance to a private commercial enterprise, economic development,
or solely for the purpose of increasing public revenue, unless the
property is conveyed or leased to one of the following:

(a)
A public utility, municipal power agency, or common carrier;

(b)
A private entity that occupies a port authority transportation
facility or an incidental area within a publicly owned and occupied
project;

(c)
A private entity when the agency that takes the property establishes
by a preponderance of the evidence that the property is a blighted
parcel or is included in a blighted area.

(2)

"Public
use" does not include any taking of property for use as a trail
for hiking, bicycling, horseback riding, ski touring, canoeing, or
other nonmotorized forms of recreational travel.

(3)

All
of the following are presumed to be public uses: utility facilities,
roads, sewers, water lines, public schools, public institutions of
higher education, private institutions of higher education that are
authorized to appropriate property under section 3333.08 of the
Revised Code, public parks, government buildings, port authority
transportation facilities, projects by an agency that is a public
utility, and similar facilities and uses of land.

(I)
"Electric cooperative" has the same meaning as in section
4928.01 of the Revised Code.

(J)
"Good faith offer" means the written offer that an agency
that is appropriating property must make to the owner of the property
pursuant to division (B) of section 163.04 of the Revised Code before
commencing an appropriation proceeding.

(K)
"Goodwill" means the calculable benefits that accrue to a
business as a result of its location, reputation for dependability,
skill or quality, and any other circumstances that result in probable
retention of old, or acquisition of new, patronage.

(L)
"Municipal power agency" has the same meaning as in section
3734.058 of the Revised Code.

(M)
"Port authority transportation facility" means any facility
developed, controlled, or operated by a port authority for the
purpose of providing passenger, cargo, or freight transportation
services, such as airports, maritime ports, rail facilities, transit
facilities, and support facilities directly related to any airport,
maritime port, rail facility, or transit facility.

Section
2.
That
existing section 163.01 of the Revised Code is hereby repealed.