The term paper township refers to a civil township under Ohio law that nominally exists for certain purposes but does not act as a functioning unit of civil government. Such townships usually exist on paper as a legal fiction due to municipal annexation. Formation Almost all territory within Ohio is at least nominally part of a township. Whenever a township falls entirely within a single municipality, or is coextensive with a single municipality, the township government is automatically abolished and consolidated with the municipal government under . This condition can be met in multiple ways: A municipality may annex territory until it becomes coextensive with the township. For example, the City of Cincinnati was originally located in Cincinnati Township in Hamilton County; the city annexed the township's remaining unincorporated territory in 1834. A township may be incorporated wholesale as a municipality. For example, in 1955, the residents of Van Buren Township in Montgomery County voted to incorporate as the Village of Kettering. A municipality may withdraw from its surrounding township, creating a township coextensive with the municipality that only exists on paper for the purpose of satisfying the requirement that the entire county lies within a township. Under other provisions of state law, a township can exist nominally in rump form without a government if the remaining unincorporated portion of a township does not meet the requirements for incorporation or annexation. In limited cases, territory may fall in no township when either: a township successfully petitions under to create a new township exclusive of that part included in municipalities; or a township merges into a municipality under through . Withdrawal In a legal procedure known as withdrawal, a municipality may request that the board of county commissioners modify the overlapping township's boundaries to exclude the municipality, and erect a new township coextensive with the municipality. The township effectively never exists because its government is immediately abolished. This legal fiction is common among the state's largest cities and popular among cities and villages in southwestern Ohio, where township government is seen as redundant to municipal government and a cause of higher taxation. A city or village that overlaps with multiple townships only needs to create a single paper township to withdraw from each township. Because Ohio law does not forbid townships from being located in multiple counties, a municipality in multiple counties may petition multiple county boards of commissioners to create