Board of Lucas County Commissioners

Liquor Permit — State License with County Notice and Hearing

Every retail liquor permit in Lucas County is issued by the Ohio Department of Commerce, Division of Liquor Control — ORC 4303.26(A) puts applications for regular permits with the division, and requires an applicant for a new permit to pay 'a processing fee of one hundred dollars when filing application for the permit'. Lucas County's role is procedural but real, and it is the part a licensee in an unincorporated township should plan for. For a new class C or D permit, or a transfer of its ownership or location, where the premises is outside the corporate limits of a municipal corporation, no permit issues until the division has notified the clerk of the board of county commissioners and the fiscal officer of the board of township trustees and given an opportunity for a complete hearing on the advisability of the issuance or transfer. That hearing is held at the division's central office unless the board of county commissioners or the board of township trustees asks in writing for it to be held in the county seat, which for Lucas County is Toledo. The division must also notify the chief peace officer of the political subdivision, who may appear and testify, and a separate notice-and-hearing right runs to a school, church, library, public playground or township park within 500 feet of the proposed premises. Objections may not rest on local zoning that prohibits alcohol sales in an area zoned commercial or industrial. On wet and dry questions, Ohio works at precinct level rather than county level: ORC 4301.32 confers the privilege of local option on 'the electors of an election precinct', and the Division of Liquor Control's own release of 29 April 2025 describes 'the local option election law, reflected in precinct-level ballot questions'. Precinct-specific status comes from the Lucas County Board of Elections on (419) 213-4001.