GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2001
H	1
HOUSE BILL 1220
     

 
Short Title:	Community Residences/People With Disability.	()	
Sponsors:	Representative Holliman.	
Referred to:	Health.	
April 12, 2001

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to rename family care homes under Chapter 168 of the general statutes as community residences for persons with a disability; to prohibit spacing limitations on Community residences for persons with a disability; and to make technical changes.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  Article 3 of Chapter 168 reads as rewritten:
"Article 3.
"Community Residences for Persons With a Disability.
"§ 168-20.  Public policy.
The General Assembly has declared in Article 1 of this Chapter that it is the public policy of this State to provide persons with a disability the opportunity to live in a normal residential environment.
"§ 168-21.  Definitions.
As used in this Article:
(1)	'Community residence for persons with a disability' means a community-based residence with support and supervisory personnel that provides room and board, personal care and habilitation services in a family environment for not more than six resident persons with a disability.
(2)	'Person with a disability' means a person with a temporary or permanent physical, emotional, or mental disability including but not limited to mental retardation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism, hearing and sight impairments, emotional disturbances and orthopedic impairments but not including mentally ill persons who are dangerous to others as defined in G.S. 122C-3(11)b.
"§ 168-22.  Community residence for persons with a disability; zoning and other purposes.
(a)	A community residence for persons with a disability shall be deemed a residential use of property for zoning purposes and shall be a permissible use in all residential districts of all political subdivisions. No political subdivision may require that a community residence for persons with a disability, its owner, or operator obtain, because of the use, a conditional use permit, special use permit, special exception or variance from any such zoning ordinance or plan, or comply with any spacing requirement that limits the placement of a community residence for persons with a disability within a certain distance from an existing community residence for persons with a disability.
(b)	A community residence for persons with a disability is deemed a residential use of property for the purposes of determining charges or assessments imposed by political subdivisions or businesses for water, sewer, power, telephone service, cable television, garbage and trash collection, repairs or improvements to roads, streets, and sidewalks, and other services, utilities, and improvements.
"§ 168-23.  Certain private agreements void.
Any restriction, reservation, condition, exception, or covenant in any subdivision plan, deed, or other instrument of or pertaining to the transfer, sale, lease, or use of property which would permit residential use of property but prohibit the use of the property as a community residence for persons with a disability is, to the extent of such prohibition, void as against public policy and shall be given no legal or equitable force or effect."
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective October 1, 2001.