Council members voted to extend that moratorium for another six months, through June 30.
City Manager Quincy Pope said the extension will allow staff to complete updates to the city’s zoning code as it relates to group home regulations.
“There’s currently a draft update to the existing regulation, with staff reviewing the document with planning commission and other effected entities, (including) the police department, fire department, and school district,” Pope said. “(This will) allow staff additional time to ensure the draft regulations reflect our intent prior to bringing any proposals before city council.”
The city of Trotwood began experiencing an increasing number of group home proposals and openings in 2022, prompting council to pass an ordinance prohibiting group homes and daycares from opening within 500 feet of one another, a move that Deputy City Manager Stephanie Kellum said curbed the inflow of applications some.
But when the city of Dayton extended its group home moratorium in January 2025, Trotwood received more group home applications that same month than in the entire year of 2024, city staff said at the time.
Group home regulation has also been a prominent issue on the state level, with Dayton-area Reps. Andrea White, R-Kettering, and Phil Plummer, R-Butler Twp., having a hand in a bill that sets operational standards for these facilities.
Ohio House Bill 315, which went into effective last April, sets up reporting requirements to the state when a child under the care of a group home receives emergency medical care or when law enforcement officers have investigative interactions with the foster child.
It also mandates that, when a delinquent child gets placed in a group home, the group home gets notification for how that child came to be adjudicated delinquent.
The bill also tells the Ohio Department of Children and Youth to divide the state into regions, determine the ideal number of group homes in each region, and establish incentives to help draw group homes into those regions, potentially cutting down on the over-saturation Montgomery County has experienced in recent years.
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