The successful drive to put annexation reform to a statewide vote angers lawmakers and worries townships, and even some cities aren't thrilled about the turn of events.

        A new annexation law, scheduled to take effect Friday, was put on hold Thursday when opponents gathered enough signatures to force a referendum. Now Ohioans will have to decide next fall whether they want the law enacted.

        Three decades in the making, the new rules aim to give townships more say and less financial pain in annexations.

        County commissioners would be able to factor in the impact on the surrounding community when deciding contested cases. If such annexations are approved, cities would have to pay townships for the economic loss for 12 years.

        “It will level the playing field,” said pro-township attorney Don Brosius, a Columbus lawyer who helped draft the rules.

        Some cities in Warren County — Ohio's second-fastest-growing county and a hotbed of annexations — opposed the new law. Still, they did not actively support the referendum drive led by Westerville, near Columbus.

        “It's a double-edged sword for us,” Middletown City Manager Ron Olson said. “The law that's been stalled is not good for us. At the same time, we have a one-owner annexation (in Franklin Township) that would benefit under the new law.”

        The new rules would give counties virtually no veto power over 100 percent owner-supported annexations of land adjacent to cities.

        Still, cities had rushed to annex under the old law, with Lebanon filing 15 annexations for a total of more than 600 acres Thursday.

        When it all shakes out, Mr. Brosius insists, the new law will encourage cooperation between cities and townships instead of pitting them against each other.

        “Townships have to realize that they are going to see primarily 100 percent annexations,” he said. “If they are not willing to cooperate with their municipal neighbors, the developers are going to set the rules (and) annex 500 acres at a time.”

        But it will be hard for cities and townships to come together as long as the law remains unresolved, said state Rep. Tom Raga, R-Deerfield Township.

        The old law will stay in effect while the 231,829 signatures gathered by opponents of the new law — 30,000 more than required — are verified and the referendum is scheduled for November 2002.

        “This is a very confrontational approach by these very few cities,” he said.

        David Rawnsley, a resident of western Turtlecreek Township, which is hemmed in by Lebanon, Mason and Middletown, worries that surrounding cities will take advantage of the delay to keep grabbing land.

        “Whether or not the new law was a vast improvement, at least it was a step in the right direction,” Mr. Rawnsley said.

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