Regulation of Use of Publicly Owned Property In Ohio

Is Regulation of Use of Publicly Owned Property An Inherent Exercise of a Municipality's Powers of Local Self-Government Which Include Its Police Powers ? In Vernon v. Warner Amex Cable (1986), 25 Ohio St.3d 117, 25 OBR 164, 495 N.E.2d 374, the Ohio Supreme Court cited that passage from the Perrysburg syllabus and then noted that "the fee to streets within municipalities in Ohio rests in trust in the municipalities for street purposes" and concluded that "the foregoing precedents leave no doubt that the regulation of the use of publicly owned or controlled property is an inherent exercise of a municipality's powers of local self-government, which necessarily include the municipality's police powers." Most recently, in Linndale v. State (1999), 85 Ohio St.3d 52, 706 N.E.2d 1227, the Ohio Supreme Court held that "a municipal corporation's authority to regulate traffic comes from the Ohio Constitution" and struck down a statute that attempted to limit the power of certain municipal corporations to regulate traffic. These precedents would appear to leave little doubt that a municipality's regulation of its own public ways falls within its power of local self-government.