Court overturns lead-safe ordinance

Ohio’s Sixth District Court of Appeals on Tuesday overturned a lower court’s permanent injunction, in part, on the city’s controversial lead-safe rental ordinance.

It’s a decision both city officials and property owners have been waiting on for months, and one that comes after Toledo City Council passed a new lead-safe housing ordinance to replace the 2016 law in question.

The higher court found that Lucas County Common Pleas Judge Linda Jennings erred in June 2018, when she ruled the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department did not have the authority to enforce the lead law. It found she also erred in her ruling that the law discriminated against owners of smaller rentals because it only required properties with one to four units — and home child care centers — built before 1978 to be tested for lead hazards.

“The classifications are rationally related to the ordinance’s goal, which is to help prevent lead poisoning in the city,” the court’s decision states.

The court did find Judge Jennings correctly ruled that the definition of “owner” in the city’s ordinance violates equal protection because it is too broad.

Because the decision is only partially in favor of the city, the case will be sent back to Lucas County Common Pleas Court for a judge to decide whether any attorney fees should be awarded.

“We always expected the Court of Appeals would side with the City of Toledo, and we are obviously glad it did so today,” city Spokesman Ignazio Messina said in a written statement Tuesday. “Now we can take the important steps necessary to implement our law and make sure our citizens are safe from the dangers of lead poisoning.”