YOUNGSTOWN — A Mahoning County Common Pleas magistrate and a judge have ruled against the attempt by Green Township landowner Thomas Hough to reopen a bike trail eminent domain case that was resolved at a trial in June.

Hough’s lawyer, Molly Johnson, asked Magistrate Timothy Welsh and Judge R. Scott Krichbaum to eliminate their decisions to grant a right of way to the Mill Creek MetroParks on a former railroad bed Hough owns for use as a bike trail, and to affirm the jury’s decision to grant Hough about $6,000 more than the MetroParks offered for the right of way.

Johnson cited a new state law regarding recreational trails that Gov. Mike DeWine signed June 30 as part of the 2022 state budget bill as the reason for asking for their decisions to be vacated.

The change in state law outlawed the use of eminent domain to acquire property for a park district in Mahoning County for recreational trails, such as the MetroParks bikeway. Eminent domain is also known as appropriation.

Johnson argued that the new state law rendered the court’s decisions meaningless because the new state law would prevent the MetroParks from ever creating the trail.

Welsh’s decision stated that the budget bill “seemingly prohibits a park district from appropriating property by eminent domain” for a bike trail, but the judgments Hough wants to be eliminated took place before the law became effective.

The MetroParks stated in a recent filing that the state budget bill takes effect Sept. 19.

Welsh’s entry states that there is nothing in the state budget bill suggesting that it takes effect prior to Sept. 19 and that the new eminent domain law “has no application to the case at bar whatsover.” Their rulings were issued in June.

“Nothing in the statute expressly declares it to be retroactive and, as such, it has no application herein,” the ruling states.

The MetroParks also indicated in a recent filing that it believes the new law is unconstitutional, saying it “arbitrarily and unlawfully targets (the Mill Creek MetroParks) to restrict its power of eminent domain” and “violates the Ohio Constitution’s mandate for uniform operation of laws.” The filing noted that the legislation may affect one other park district in one other county, but “not all 88 counties in Ohio are affected by it.”

The filing cited the new state law a “disingenuous attempt to restrict the eminent domain powers of (the Mill Creek MetroParks) to the exclusion of most other park districts” and “renders the legislation unenforceable.”

The magistrate and judge did not discuss constitutionality in their rulings.

The properties the MetroParks is trying to acquire would complete the final 6.4-mile, third phase of the MetroParks bikeway in southern Mahoning County — from Western Reserve Road to the Mahoning County line at Washingtonville.

A MetroParks attorney said there are six eminent domain cases not yet resolved by settlement and eight that are resolved by settlement or trial.

Phases I and II run through Austintown, Canfield and Canfield Township. The Mahoning County bikeway is part of the 110-mile Great Ohio Lake-to-River Greenway that will begin on the shores of Lake Erie and travel south to the banks of the Ohio River in East Liverpool.