§281-57  Preliminary hearing; notice ofpublic hearing.  (a)  Upon the filing of the investigator's report upon anyapplication the liquor commission may hold a preliminary hearing and upon suchpreliminary hearing it may deny the application.  A notice of preliminaryhearing on a previously denied, refused, or withdrawn application shall begiven seven days before the preliminary hearing to any person who submitted awritten request for notice.

(b)  If no preliminary hearing is had or if theapplication is not denied upon a preliminary hearing, the commission shall fixa day for the public hearing of the application (other than an application foran alcohol license or a license in classes 8 to 10 and 13) and shall givepublic notice of the hearing at least once in each of two consecutive weeks, inthe county, the date of the hearing to be not less than forty-five days afterthe first notice.  The notice shall require that all protests or objectionsagainst the issuance of the license applied for shall be filed with theadministrator of the commission at or before the time of hearing.  Beforegiving the notice the commission shall collect from the applicant the cost ofgiving the public notice or require a deposit to cover the same.

(c)  Immediately upon the commission's fixing aday for the public hearing of the application, the applicant shall mail anotice setting forth the time and place of the hearing on the application toeach of the following:

(1)  Not less than two-thirds of the owners andlessees of record of real estate and owners of record of shares in acooperative apartment or to those individuals on the list of owners as providedby the managing agent or governing body of the shareholders associationsituated within a distance of five hundred feet from the nearest point of thepremises for which the license is asked to the nearest point of such realestate or cooperative apartment; provided that in meeting this requirement, theapplicant shall mail a notice to not less than three-fourths of the owners andlessees of record of real estate and owners of record of shares in acooperative apartment situated within a distance of one hundred feet from thenearest point of the premises for which the license is asked.  Notice by mailmay be addressed to the last known address of the person concerned or to theaddress as shown in the current real property tax record of the person or theperson's agent or representative;

(2)  In counties with a population of five hundredthousand or more, not less than two-thirds of the registered voters residingwithin, and small businesses situated within, a distance of five hundred feetfrom the nearest point of the premises for which the license is asked; providedthat in meeting this requirement, the applicant shall mail notices to not lessthan three-fourths of the registered voters residing within, and smallbusinesses situated within, a distance of one hundred feet from the nearestpoint of the premises for which the license is asked.  This paragraph shall notapply to applications for class 2, class 4, class 12, and class 15 licenses.  Anotice sent pursuant to this paragraph shall be addressed to the"occupant" of the residential unit or small business; and

(3)  For each condominium project and cooperativeapartment within the five hundred-foot area, one notice of the hearing shall besent by mail addressed "To the Residents, Care of the Manager",followed by the name and address of the condominium or cooperative apartmentinvolved.

The notices required under this subsection shall bemailed at least forty-five days prior to the date set for the hearing.  Nopromotional information shall be allowed on, or accompany the notice.  Beforethe hearing, and within seven business days of having mailed the notices, theapplicant shall file with the commission an affidavit that the notices havebeen mailed in compliance with this subsection.  In addition to the affidavit(which shall be made available within the same seven-business-day period withproof of having mailed the notices), the applicant shall include both a masterlist of one hundred per cent of addressees and addresses required by paragraphs(1), (2), and (3), and another mailing list consisting of the portion ofaddressees and their respective addresses who were mailed the notice purposelyneeded to meet the requirements of paragraphs (1), (2), and (3).  Theaffidavit, master list, and mailing list shall be made available within sevenbusiness days (of the mailing of the notice by the applicant) by the commissionfor public review upon request.  For purposes of this section, "masterlist" means every owner and lessee who would otherwise be required toreceive notice of the public hearing according to the requirement of paragraphs(1), (2), and (3), even if they were not actually included in the two-third orthree-fourths requirement (as the case may be) of paragraph (1) or (2), andevery condominium project and cooperative apartment qualifying in paragraph(3).  When the requirements of this section have not been met, the commissionmay cancel the hearing or continue the public hearing subject to the provisionsof this section.

(d)  For purposes of this section, notice toone co-owner and one co-lessee of real estate shall be sufficient notice to allco-owners and all co-lessees of that real estate; and one notice is sufficientto an owner or lessee of multiple parcels; except that one notice shall be sentto each individual unit of a cooperative apartment as provided in this section.[L Sp 1933, c 40, §32; RL 1935, §2601; am L 1935, c 105, §11; RL 1945, §7253;RL 1955, §159-56; am L 1965, c 181, §1 and c 258, §1; HRS §281-57; am L 1975, c55, §5; am L 1979, c 105, §27; am L 1980, c 256, §3; am L 1982, c 39, §1 and c296, §1; am L 1984, c 123, §1 and c 269, §4; gen ch 1985; am L 1990, c 171,§18; am L 1994, c 227, §1; am L 1998, c 2, §83; am L 2001, c 257, §6; am L2007, c 53, §6; am L 2008, c 168, §13; am L 2009, c 184, §9]

 

Case Notes

 

  State and county entities, as owners of real property, areincluded as owners for both notice and protest purposes as set forth under thissection and §281-59.  111 H. 234, 140 P.3d 1014.

  For purposes of conducting a public hearing on a liquorlicense application, the notice provisions of this section control over thosein §91-9.5.  118 H. 320, 189 P.3d 432.

  Where a public hearing pertaining to the issuance of a liquorlicense was statutorily required under §281-52 and this section, andpetitioner's legal rights, duties, and privileges were determined based on thepublic hearing regarding the decision to grant or deny a liquor license topetitioner, the public hearing was a "contested case" hearinggoverned by chapter 91; thus, (1) petitioner was entitled to judicial reviewunder §91-14, (2) §91-11 applied to proceedings on petitioner's application forliquor license, and (3) the liquor commission did not comply with §91-11.  118H. 320, 189 P.3d 432.