COLUMBUS — In a decision that has implications for municipalities statewide, the Ohio Supreme Court said Wednesday that Canton can bar manufactured homes from its city limits.

        With a 6-1 ruling, the justices reversed an appeals court decision and reinstated a trial court declaration that part of a 1998 state law regulating trailer parks is unconstitutional.

        The Supreme Court said the law infringed on the Ohio Constitution's provisions that give municipalities the power to make their own governmental decisions.

        “This statute, which attempts to limit the ability of political subdivisions to zone their communities as they see fit, strikes at the heart of municipal home rule: the orderly planning of a city,” Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton wrote in the court's majority opinion.

        Craig Chessler, an assistant law director for Canton, called the ruling a local issue with statewide implications.

        “It was a victory on many levels,” Mr. Chessler said. “It is a recognition by the Supreme Court of the home-rule authority that municipalities have.”

        In 1998, Canton amended its city code to prohibit manufactured homes.

        “Our main concern was about the effect that manufactured homes would have on property values in a well-established area,” Mr. Chessler said.

        That same year, the Legislature enacted a law that in part forbade municipalities from barring manufactured homes from areas where other single-family homes were permitted.

        An exception allowed private landowners to prohibit various structures, including manufactured homes, through deed restrictions.

        Canton attorneys argued that the exception helped suburbs but not older cities.

        “Canton wasn't in a position to prohibit them through deed restrictions, so we had to use zoning,” Mr. Chessler said.

        The city filed a lawsuit in Stark County Common Pleas Court.

        The trial court sided with the city. The state then appealed.

        The 5th Ohio District Court of Appeals reversed the trial court's ruling, saying the state statute was considered a “general law” that trumps municipal ordinances.

        With Wednesday's ruling, the Supreme Court established a test for determining whether a state statute is a general law. The justices said the test should be used for analyzing whether home-rule rights were violated.

        Under the new test, a state statute is a general rule only if it:

        • Is part of statewide and comprehensive law.

        • Applies to all parts of the state and operates uniformly throughout the state.

        • Sets forth police, sanitary or similar regulations, rather than only granting or limiting the power of a municipality to do so.

        • Prescribes a rule of conduct upon citizens generally.

        The court then determined that the state statute did not pass all four parts of the test, mainly because the law did not treat all areas of the state equally.

        Justice Paul Pfeifer dissented.

        He said: “Laws are uniform when they apply to all similarly situated people; they need not apply to every single person in every single circumstance no matter what.”

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