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Page Seven THE ZONING REPORT I I tify themselves as such in any case and ex-of- ficio agencies and officers that are parties to ali cases. To be accepted as parties with inter- est, persons must identify themselves for the record and give their home address at the out- set of testimony and provide names and addres- ses on exhibits submitted in the case. The code specifies that parties with interest include the applicant and neighboring property o~vners within the specified distance. Appli- cants can mean an appellant of administrative appeals from the decision of the bui}ding offi- cial or zoning administrator. The code must clarify if neighboring property owners and les- sees required to receive notice in a case are automatically parties with interest throughout the life of a case or become parties onJy if they participate in the hearing or submit ex- hibits and evidence. Ex-officio parties include the planning and zoning offices, the public engineer and traffic engineer, legal counsel and other agencies whose jurisdiction is affected by what happens in specific cases, such as COGs, }{PCs, environmental and health agencies. Parties of interest are entitled to receive the written findings from the examiner and to file appeals. Section 7. Conflict of interest and undue in_flu- ence.-- This section protects the public and parties of interest from conflicts of interest of the hearing examiner in any case and protects the examiner from receiving undue influence /from any person on a case. Conflict of interest involves priva'~e employ- ment or partnership of the examiner, and possi- bly his family and near relatives, for any prop- erly that is the subject of a case heard by the examiner from a year prior to appointment as examiner to a year or two after appointment. Involvement includes representation on behalf of others or negotiation directly or by repre- sentatives on property for personal use or busi- ness gain. The examiner shall not concurrently hold any other appointed or elected office or position with the locality. 'Undue influence prohibits any person from having any contact on a case with the hearing examiner except in the public hearing after the case is filed until the ease is finally teac]red. Persons excluded include members of the elect- ed board and CPC, but the examiner"s o~,n staff is exempted when acting in a c]erica] role in processing cases. No person can visit the site of a case with the examiner unless all other parties are allowed to participate in the ~dsit. Section 8. Acceptance of applications and withdrawals.-- This section describes the pro- cedure for accepting applications when filed, authorizes an application form to be prepared by the examiner and requires applicants to fill it in completely. Some codes give the staff a week to review' and accept or reject applications when filed. This gives staff sufficient time to check prop- erty legal descriptions, required addresses, pri- or case history and to cross-check data sub- mitred by the applicant for consistency. If the staff accepts an application, the c]ock starts for scheduling the public hearing within the number of days specified. If the staff rejects an application, the applicant can insist that it be reviewed by the hearing examiner who can accept or reject it for filing. If rejected by the examiner, the rejection can be appealed for acceptance to the body that hears appeals of examiner actions. Withdrawal of applications is allowed "with- out prejudice," until public notice is sent out advertising the public hearing. AfTer then, withdrawals are allowed "with prejudice." Prej- udice means the zoning code regulations that prohibit resubmission of applications within a specified number of months (12-24) for the property in a denied case. No withdrawals are allowed after the close of the public hearing, Section 9. Appeals.-- The appeals procedure is set forth in the code, specifying the chain of appeals through the local government and when the appeal can be filed with the courts after exhausting all administrative (local government] appeals, in almost all codes, the chain of ap- peals is to the elected board then to the I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I ! January 7, 1994 Issue