Report Title:

Social Service Facilities; Public Hearings

 

Description:

Requires a public hearing whenever a private operator seeks to establish a social service facility in a residential neighborhood.

 

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

846

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO social service FACILITIES.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. Chapter 46, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§46- Social Service facilities; public hearings. (a) No county may issue a permit to a private operator to establish a social service facility in a neighborhood zoned for residential use unless the private operator hosts a public hearing that meets the requirements of this section.

(b) The private operator shall give notice, at least fifteen days in advance of the public hearing, to all persons residing within one city block of the proposed social service facility, to the neighborhood board, if any, covering the affected residential area, and to the county agency that will issue any permit to the operator of the social service facility. Every person attending the public hearing shall have the opportunity to be heard.

(c) For purposes of this section, "social service facility" means any facility used to provide living accommodations or care services, including group homes, halfway houses, boarding houses, homes for children, the elderly, battered children and adults, recovery homes, independent group living facilities, hospices, convalescent homes, nursing homes, and sanitariums."

SECTION 2. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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