Portage Lakes, OH

Summit County exempts construction sounds from its noise nuisance code only between 7:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Outside that window, construction noise can be cited as a nuisance under…

Summit County labels 65 dBA daytime and 55 dBA nighttime as the 'Maximum Noise Level Recommendations' for residential areas, and 67 dBA daytime and 62 dBA nighttime for non-residential…

Summit County §509.08(b)(1)A prohibits frequent, habitual use of a radio, stereo, loudspeaker system, or other sound-reproduction device that creates unreasonably loud and disturbing…

Summit County's noise nuisance code sets 'night time' as 9:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. on weekdays and 9:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m. on weekends and holidays. During those hours, loud radios…

Summit County §509.08(b)(2) prohibits keeping any animal that, by frequent and habitual barking, howling, or yelping, creates unreasonably loud and disturbing noises disturbing the…

Summit County §509.08(b)(3) bars operating any vehicular radio, stereo, or noise-making device in public or private places that disturbs the neighborhood's peace. Vehicle sound audible…

In unincorporated Summit County, a posted truck loading zone can only be used for the actual, expeditious loading or unloading of materials, and that stop cannot run longer than thirty…

Ohio law lets officials remove abandoned junk motor vehicles. Under ORC 4513.63 a vehicle left on private property 48 hours or more without permission, three-plus years old, wrecked…

Unincorporated Summit County bars standing or parking in sixteen specific places, including in front of driveways, within 10 feet of a fire hydrant and within 20 feet of a crosswalk at…

Summit County Code Sec. 505.24(a) bars anyone convicted of a felony offense of violence, or a felony under ORC Chapters 959, 2923 or 2925, from owning, possessing, or living with an…

Summit County Code Sec. 505.24(b) requires anyone covered by the county's felon dog-ownership restriction, a person convicted of a qualifying violent or drug felony, to microchip for…

Summit County requires every dog owner, keeper, or harborer to keep the dog physically confined on the owner's premises by leash, tether, fence, or secure enclosure, or under the…

Summit County classifies dogs as nuisance, dangerous, or vicious based only on documented behavior, never on breed. Sec. 505.21(a) defines each category by what a dog has actually…

Ohio Revised Code Sec. 935.02, applied within unincorporated Summit County by Sec. 505.31, bars anyone from possessing a dangerous wild animal on or after January 1, 2014, and…

Ohio requires every beekeeper to register their apiary annually with the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ORC 909.02). Summit County sets no separate hive rule; local coop-style limits…

Summit County's animal control chapter puts one targeted duty on cat owners: keep a female cat confined at home while she is in heat, or leashed and accompanied if she leaves. Cats are…

Summit County Code Sec. 521.10 caps rank vegetation, defined as weeds or grass eight inches or higher, on any improved property countywide. The county declares noxious weeds and rank…

Summit County has no countywide tree-removal permit; regulation exists only inside the streamside Riparian Setback under Code Chapter 937. There, damaged or diseased trees may be…

Summit County's Subdivision Regulations do not require rain barrels or rain gardens, but Sec. 1106.07(b) formally encourages low-impact design, bioretention, rain gardens, rain…

Summit County's subdivision regulations require every Landscape Plan submitted for a Major Residential Subdivision in the unincorporated county to work at least 30% native trees…

A residential hot tub or spa with a safety cover meeting ASTM F1346 is exempt from the pool barrier requirement under the Residential Code of Ohio. Public spas are licensed and…

Private residential pools are not licensed by the county; only PUBLIC swimming pools need a license. Summit County Public Health licenses and inspects about 300 public pools each year…

A backyard campfire or recreational fire is allowed in Summit County without a permit when it burns clean seasoned firewood, is not used for waste disposal, and stays three feet or…

Under Ohio's 2022 fireworks law (ORC Chapter 3743), adults may discharge 1.4G consumer fireworks on their own or authorized property on designated holidays, unless the local township…

Open burning is prohibited in restricted areas of Summit County except for allowed recreational fires and limited yard-waste burning outside cities and villages. Ohio EPA rule OAC…

Ohio bans open burning of brush, weeds, and grass outside municipalities from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. during March, April, May, October, and November (ORC 1503.18). Before any legal burn near…

Ohio requires approved smoke detectors in every dwelling unit, installed just outside all sleeping rooms and audible in the bedrooms with doors closed (ORC 3781.104 and the Residential…

Summit County, Ohio is not in a mapped wildfire-hazard zone like the western U.S., so there are no county wildland-urban-interface (WUI) codes. Instead, Ohio's Division of Forestry…

Summit County levies a lodging excise tax of 5.5% on hotels, motels, rooming houses and other lodging furnished to transient guests, under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 5739. The county…

Summit County does not cap short-term-rental occupancy. Occupancy limits come from municipal STR ordinances and building/housing codes. Akron, for example, limits STR occupancy to two…

Summit County does not cap the number of nights a property may be rented short-term. Any annual night cap is a municipal choice. Most Summit County cities do not impose one; check your…

A detached storage building or garage larger than 200 square feet on a residential lot in unincorporated Summit County needs an accessory structure permit, and the commercial threshold…

Summit County has no countywide accessory dwelling unit (ADU) rule. In Ohio, incorporated cities and villages zone themselves, while townships zone unincorporated land under ORC…

Summit County sets no tiny-home rule. Whether a tiny house or tiny home on wheels is allowed depends on your city, village, or township zoning under ORC Chapter 519 and on Ohio…

In-home child care is licensed by the State of Ohio (Department of Job and Family Services / Department of Children and Youth) under ORC Chapter 5104, not by Summit County. A Type B…

A retaining wall four feet or higher in unincorporated Summit County needs an accessory structure permit from the Building Official. Residential projects pay a $45 non-refundable…

Summit County Code Sec. 521.07 bans any electrified fence and any barbed wire fence that abuts or sits adjacent to a public sidewalk. Barbed wire is still allowed as a top strand on a…

Disputes over a shared boundary fence in Summit County are governed by Ohio's partition-fence statute, ORC Chapter 971. Livestock owners must enclose bordering fields with a preferred…

Summit County Code Sec. 513.17(h)(2) makes it a minor misdemeanor for an adult use consumer to use cannabis in public areas. The same penalty applies to a vehicle passenger who smokes…

Summit County bans skateboards, roller skates, sleds and similar toy vehicles from county roadways under Code Sec. 311.03, except when crossing at a crosswalk or riding on a street…

Summit County bars carrying an opened container of beer or intoxicating liquor in any public place, in a vehicle on any street or lot open to public travel, or on the premises of most…

Summit County's only codified loitering offense targets loitering to solicit paid sexual activity. Under Sec. 533.091, no one may beckon to, stop, or interfere with another person in…

Summit County's countywide noise ordinance treats refuse collection as exempt from its nuisance-noise rules only when the collection happens between 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Outside…

Ohio bans open dumping of solid waste statewide, and the ban reaches unincorporated Summit County directly under ORC 3734.03: no one may dispose of solid waste by open burning or open…

Summit County's minor's curfew bars anyone under 18 from streets and sidewalks in ten designated townships between 11:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. unless accompanied by a parent or guardian…

Summit Metro Parks, the county park district under ORC Chapter 1545, bars entering or remaining in a park except at posted times. Staying after hours, once ordered to leave by a…

No parade, assemblage or procession (other than a funeral) may use a Summit County street or highway, or block off any street area, without a permit from the County Executive, approved…

Private work that opens, moves across, or drains into a Summit County road right of way needs a permit from the County Engineer first. Section 903.01 sets a thirty-dollar road opening…

Summit County bars anyone from blocking a sidewalk with merchandise, goods, material or equipment beyond a one-hour delivery or pickup window under Code Sec. 521.04. The same section…

Summit County Code Sec. 521.06 puts sidewalk, curb and gutter upkeep on the property owner or occupant, not the county. Whoever owns or occupies land abutting a public sidewalk must…

Summit County Code Chapter 741 requires a license from the Office of Consumer Affairs before anyone regularly buys, sells, exchanges or receives secondhand items, or deals in…

Summit County Code Chapter 749 requires a permit from the County Auditor, issued only after Health Officer approval, before anyone operates a massage establishment anywhere in the…

Summit County recognizes three classes of electric bicycles under Sec. 301.24, sorted by motor wattage and top assisted speed. Class 1 and 2 e-bikes may use bicycle-only and shared-use…

Summit County caps low-speed micromobility devices, including rental and shared e-scooters, at 20 mph on public streets, sidewalks, and shared-use paths. Riders must be at least 16 to…

Unincorporated Summit County requires a floodplain development permit before any construction, filling, grading, or watercourse alteration in a special flood hazard area. The Chief…

In Summit County's unincorporated special flood hazard areas, new homes and substantial improvements must have their lowest floor, including any basement, elevated to or above the…

Summit County's Comprehensive Storm Water Management chapter requires any development or redevelopment in the unincorporated county to control runoff volume, rate and quality. The…

Summit County requires a Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan for any project in the unincorporated county that disturbs one acre or more of soil, from subdivisions to farm building…

Summit County declares noxious weeds and rank vegetation over eight inches a public nuisance on improved township property, and on the right-of-way portion of non-improved township…

A Summit County resident or business can legally shut the door on peddlers and solicitors by posting a sign. Section 775.11 lets any owner or occupant display a "No Soliciting" sign…

Anyone who peddles, hawks, solicits or canvasses door-to-door in Summit County needs a license from the Office of Consumer Affairs before making a single sale. Section 775.02 makes the…

Sec. 1106.08(a) of Summit County's Subdivision Regulations requires every external light fixture, pole, wall-mounted and parking-lot light in a new Major Residential, Commercial or…

Sec. 1106.08(a)(2) of the Subdivision Regulations requires every light fixture chosen for a Summit County subdivision to minimize glare and light trespass onto adjacent properties, and…

Summit County licenses every itinerant vendor, peddler, hawker and canvasser, including mobile food operators like ice cream and snack trucks, through the Office of Consumer Affairs…

Summit County keeps mobile vendors away from schoolchildren and off the clock. Section 775.07(b) bars any itinerant vendor from parking or stopping to sell within 200 feet of a school…

When the Building Official finds a building or structure unsafe, unsanitary or a fire hazard, Summit County can issue a written Condemnation Order requiring repair or demolition within…

In unincorporated Summit County, a township's board of trustees, not the county, can order abatement of vegetation, garbage, refuse or other debris on a vacant lot it finds to be a…

In unincorporated Summit County, no building or structure may be constructed, altered, removed or demolished, and no equipment or fixture regulated by the Building Code may be…

Plumbing work regulated by Ohio's adopted Plumbing Code needs a permit from the Summit County Building Official before it starts. Residential plumbing permits cost $60 non-refundable…

Summit County's Building Official inspects work at specific points during construction to confirm Building Code compliance, and every inspection report must be in writing. Before a…

Summit County adopts Ohio's current Building, Mechanical, Plumbing and Residential Codes by reference, and any electrical work regulated by those codes needs a permit from the Building…

Summit County Building Standards sets a frost line depth of 38 inches, the deepest in Ohio we have found, and it governs Akron, which has had no building department of its own since…

Summit County sets no countywide lot-coverage or maximum-building-footprint rule. The percentage of your lot that structures may cover is set by your city, village, or township zoning…

Summit County Building Standards states your local municipality determines the setbacks off your property line, so front-, side-, and rear-yard setbacks come from your city or township…

Summit County does not cap building heights countywide. Maximum structure height is set by your city, village, or township zoning code. Ohio townships get this power from ORC 519.02…