Stop HB 72 to protect neighbors' say in local development

When residents are empowered, we can do things like keep unwanted polluting industries out of our neighborhood or use local zoning laws to make sure development is consistent with land use plans and neighborhood goals.

When residents are successful, sometimes there’s a backlash, and that’s why House Bill 72 was filed.

HB 72 undercuts a community’s ability to challenge any commercial or residential developments. It does so by requiring large bonds, up to $250,000, to be posted when groups use our legal system to challenge local zoning decisions.

HB 72 has been labeled the “Developers’ Dream.” It would “impose an effective financial barrier on appeals of zoning decisions from Circuit Court to the Court of Appeals. It is blatantly unconstitutional, and a slap in the face of neighbors and neighborhood groups in any county with zoning,” according to the Kentucky Resources Council.

Please take the action in the box to the right. The Senate committee meets on Wednesday, March 1 at noon.

Background from the Kentucky Resources Council

House Bill 72, sponsored by Rep. Jerry Miller, would require posting of an appeal bond by a non-governmental party as a precondition to seeking judicial review from the Kentucky Court of Appeals of a re-zoning decision.

The House-passed version of HB 72 makes clear that the bill is not aimed only at "frivolous" appeals but also to erect financial barriers to meritorious appeals of zoning decisions by homeowners and neighborhood organizations.

As passed by the House, the bill would:

• Require a circuit judge to hold a hearing, on request, when a Notice of Appeal is filed seeking Court of Appeals review of a zoning or other land use decision under KRS Chapter 100.

• If the circuit court determined the appeal to be "presumptively frivolous," a term not fully defined in the bill, a bond up to $250,000 could be required as a condition of appeal.

Even if the circuit court decided the appeal was not frivolous, a mandatory bond of up to $100,000 for any costs would be required to be imposed and prepaid in order to appeal.