When a Process Breaks Down

Vol. III, No. 320 - Troy's Gas Station Moratorium Goes Under the Microscope

Nobody walked into Monday night’s Community and Economic Development Committee meeting expecting a 45-minute conversation about a gas station.

The agenda item was expected to be routine — a 90-day extension of a moratorium on new gas station applications while the city finishes work on its new Unified Development Code. The committee recommended it’s passage. But before it did, a Cincinnati attorney and a local architect sat down in front of council and described something worth paying attention to.

Their client, Troy Station LLC, has spent roughly $600,000 and nearly three years working toward a gas station at the southeast corner of South County Road 25A and Dye Mill Road. They got the zoning changed specifically for this project in July 2023. They went through multiple rounds of engineering review with city staff — civil, structural, mechanical, electrical. Miami County Building Department issued a building permit. The Troy Fire Department approved the plans. By every practical measure, they were done.

Then the moratorium went into place. And because a formal online application and fee had never been filed — the last clerical step in Troy’s development process — the city determined their client was not a protected “applicant” under the moratorium’s language. Construction is now on hold with no firm end date.

Staff were not wrong on the technicality. No application had been filed. No fee had been paid. But the story doesn’t end there — and that’s what makes it worth understanding.

Troy’s Development Process Has Two Tracks

Troy offers something most cities don’t: an informal pre-application review process where developers work through engineering and design with city staff before filing anything official. The intent is good. It saves developers from submitting plans only to get them kicked back for corrections, which costs time and money. City staff in Monday’s meeting described it as a service — a way to make the process more efficient for everyone.

The problem is that this process exists nowhere in Troy’s zoning code.

The code’s formal application section — Section 1135.06 — describes what a complete application requires: site plans, lot dimensions, drainage information, proposed uses, and a fee. It says the Zoning Administrator has 10 working days to act on a complete application. What it does not describe is the informal review track that preceded the formal one in this case, or what legal weight, if any, that track carries.

One of the issues at play is that the proposed development doesn’t have the right permitting from the Bureau of Underground Storage Tanks (BUSTR). It’s an interesting tidbit. Should certain uses require outside licenses or permits before a local zoning permit is issued? Do future gas station operators need their BUSTR permit before they can get a local zoning permit? How about child care centers? Should they only be able to get a permit once the facility is in the process of being licensed by the state?

For Planned Developments, the code is explicit: pre-application conferences are encouraged, but staff representations are not binding. That disclaimer exists in writing for PD projects. It does not exist for standard commercial development like this one. Developers operating in good faith on the informal track have no written notice that the emails, plan reviews, and comment cycles they are participating in carry no legal standing.

The Definition Problem

Here is where it gets complicated in a way that matters.

Troy’s zoning code defines “application” in Section 1133.02 as including “all written documentation, verbal statements and representations, in whatever form or forum, made by an applicant to the City of Troy.” That is a broad definition. Under its plain language, a strong argument could be made that the first engineering drawing emailed to city staff in August 2023 was part of an application.

But the city interprets the definition narrowly — no online form, no fee, no application. That interpretation is legally defensible. But it sits in direct tension with what the code actually says, and it left a developer who followed the city’s own informal guidance without the legal protection the moratorium was designed to preserve for people already in process.

The code also contains a telling detail on fees. Section 1135.09 states that if a project begins before fees are paid, the fees are doubled — not denied. That language contemplates work proceeding before payment and provides a financial remedy, not a procedural one. Is the fee the starting line, or just a formality at the end of a process that has already begun? In this case, that question cost an investor months of delays and counting.

What This Means for Troy

One of the stated purposes of Troy’s zoning code — Section 1131.02(s) — is “to enhance the predictability and profitability of private investments made in the City.” That is not a developer’s argument. That is the city’s own commitment, written into its foundational land use document.

The Troy Station situation is not a story about bad actors. City staff were trying to be helpful. The developer was trying to follow the process as it was presented to them. The moratorium was a legitimate policy action. But when those three things collided, the gap between Troy’s informal practice and its written code produced a result that serves no one well — not the developer, not the city’s credibility as a place to invest, and not the residents who depend on predictable, fair governance.

The Unified Development Code review now underway is the right opportunity to close that gap. Council should direct staff to answer four specific questions before the new code is adopted: What formally triggers a pending application? What legal effect, if any, does pre-application review carry? Is the fee the starting line, or just a formality at the end of a process that has already begun? And how will future moratoriums define who is already in process?

These are not abstract policy questions. One investor found out the hard way that Troy doesn’t have clear answers. The UDC is the chance to make sure the next one doesn’t have to.

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