Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in Section 45.32 of Am. Sub. H.B. 117 of the 121st General Assembly, 146 Ohio Laws 900, 1805, as subsequently amended, or in Chapter 3311 of the Revised Code, no educational service center shall be required to merge in order to achieve any prescribed minimum average daily membership if such a merger will cause the territory of the resultant joint educational service center to comprise more than eight hundred square miles.