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CASE <br /> <br />DISCUSSION REGARDING LICENSING GROUP HOMES <br /> By: Zoning Administrator Sylvia Frolik <br /> <br />Background: <br /> <br />The City Council has directed Staff to research the possibility of licensing group foster care homes <br />within the community. <br /> <br />As a brief background on the subject, foster homes are licensed through the Minnesota Department <br />of Human Services (DHS) or the Department of Corrections (DOC). DHS foster homes generally <br />serve the mentally ill, handicapped, or neglected and abused children. DOC foster homes serve <br />children with delinquent behavior that the courts have determined do not require <br />institutionalization. There is an agreement between the DHS and the DOC wherein juvenile <br />delinquents can be placed in a DHS licensed home and vice versa; however, the majority of <br />children in any one foster home must be of the category under which the foster home was licensed -- <br />DHS or DOC. <br /> <br />State law establishes that State licensed residential facilities serving six or fewer persons, a licensed <br />day care facility serving 12 or fewer persons, and a group family day care facility serving 14 or <br />fewer children shall be considered a permitted single family residential use of property. State <br />licensed residential facilities serving from 7 to 16 persons or a day care facility serving from 13 <br />through 16 persons shall be considered a permitted multifamily residential use of property. A copy <br />of this statute is enclosed for your information. <br /> <br />Observations: <br /> <br />Since day care and foster homes are permitted by State statute, the only benefit to local licensing <br />would be the knowledge of their whereabouts. If the concern is with DOC group homes, there is <br />legislation taking affect August 1, 1995 that requires the DOC to notify cities 30 days in advance of <br />license issuance of foster homes coming into the community. State given rights to DOC foster <br />homes are maintained under the new legislation; it doesn't give the City any leverage to recommend <br />State denial of the license. <br /> <br />In addition, there is a possibility that State law prohibits dual licensing. This aspect is being <br />researched and Staff will have an answer for the Finance Committee on April 25. The State statute <br />that gives the Department of Corrections the authority to license foster homes does not contain <br />provisions for any other entity to be involved in that licensing process. <br /> <br />The cities of Andover, Brooklyn Park, Coon Rapids, Plymouth, Minneapolis, and Bloomington <br />were contacted and all of them treat day care and foster homes as Ramsey does. They defer to <br />State guidelines with respect to permitted uses and number of persons served, do not require local <br />licensing, and only require conditional use permits when the foster home proposes to serve more <br />persons for their respective zoning district than established by state guidelines. <br /> <br />If in fact the City can require licensing, then day cares should be included in the requirement so as <br />not to be considered discriminatory. This would be a considerable addition to City Staff workload <br />and without in-house expertise in the area of sociology, any license requirements would most <br />likely be a duplication of the DHS, DOC or Anoka County. Most of the communities contacted <br />agree that regulating foster homes should be left to the State as their occurrence or locations are not <br />highly concentrated and cities do not have the expertise to address the social aspects; and when <br /> <br /> <br />