Opinion ID: 2630730
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Applicability of K.S.A. 12-736

Text: Our standard of review on a statutory question such as this is de novo. Cooper v. Werholtz, 277 Kan. 250, 252, 83 P.3d 1212 (2004). No deference is due an administrative agency's interpretation of a statute if it conflicts with legislative intent. Chevron U.S.A. v. Natural Res. Def. Council, 467 U.S. 837, 842-43, 81 L. Ed. 2d 694, 104 S. Ct. 2778 (1984); Fisher v. Kansas Crime Victims Comp. Bd., 280 Kan. 601, 605, 124 P.3d 74 (2005); see also Fieser v. Kansas Bd. of Healing Arts, 281 Kan. 268, 130 P.3d 555 (2006). The most fundamental rule of statutory interpretation and construction, to which all other rules are subordinate, is that the intent of the legislature governs if that intent can be ascertained. We must give effect to that intent, which the legislature is initially presumed to have expressed through the language it used. When a statute is plain and unambiguous, there is no need to resort to statutory construction. Pieren-Abbott v. Kansas Dept of Revenue, 279 Kan. 83, 88, 106 P.3d 492 (2005); State v. Sodders, 255 Kan. 79, Syl. ¶ 4, 872 P.2d 736 (1994). An appellate court merely interprets the language as it appears; it is not free to speculate and cannot read into the statute language not readily found there. GT, Kansas, L.L.C. v. Riley County Register of Deeds, 271 Kan. 311, 316, 22 P.3d 600 (2001). If, on the other hand, a plain reading of the text of a statute yields an ambiguity or a lack of clarity, statutory construction becomes appropriate. In such circumstances, a court must move outside the text of the provision at issue and examine other evidence of legislative intent, such as legislative history, or employ additional canons of statutory construction to divine the legislature's meaning. State v. Robinson, 281 Kan. 538, 132 P.3d 934 (2006); Board of Lincoln County Comm'rs v. Nielander, 275 Kan. 257, 265, 62 P.3d 247 (2003). K.S.A. 12-736 first explicitly sets forth the public policy behind its enactment, which predated the Act governing civil commitments of sexually violent predators by 6 years. See L. 1994, ch. 316, sec. 1 et seq; L. 1988, ch. 142, sec. 1. [P]ersons with a disability shall not be excluded from the benefits of single family residential surroundings by any municipal zoning ordinance, resolution or regulation. K.S.A. 12-736(a). This bill that eventually became the statute was introduced in 1986 on the heels of the United States Supreme Court's decision in Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center, Inc., 473 U.S. 432, 87 L. Ed. 2d 313, 105 S. Ct. 3249 (1985). In that case, the operator of a group home for mentally retarded adults challenged a zoning regulation excluding such homes from among the permitted uses in a residential area. The Court held that the regulation was not supported by any rational basis; rather, it appeared to rest on an irrational prejudice against the mentally retarded, which violated the Equal Protection Clause. City of Cleburne, 473 U.S. at 448-450. To further the policy underlying the Kansas statute, subsection (e) of K.S.A. 12-736 prohibits municipalities such as Leavenworth County from excluding group homes for the disabled from areas zoned for single-family residences. It also prohibits municipalities from requiring special use permits for such homes if permits are not required for single-family residences with the same zoning classification. Any municipality provision to the contrary is invalid. K.S.A. 12-736(e). Because Leavenworth County Zoning and Subdivision Regulations  even without the amendments made by Resolution 2005-31  require a special use permit for a group home when they do not require it for a single-family residence zoned R Rural District, we must decide whether the legislature intended K.S.A. 12-736(e) to apply when the residents of a group home for disabled individuals will be transitioning sexually violent predators. The Whitsons argue that they applied for licensure of a group home, that SRS issued a group home license within its authority, and that 24130 Golden Road qualifies as a group home under the statute. See K.S.A. 12-736(b)(1). They also argue that Hendricks is a person with both a physical and a mental disability within the meaning of the statute, see K.S.A. 12-736(b)(3), and that he is suitable for placement because he will not pose a danger to others, as long as he resides in the structured environment to be provided by the Whitsons. The Board argues that K.S.A. 12-736 does not apply to the property at 24130 Golden Road because it is not a group home within the meaning of that statute; rather, it is a Sexually Violent Predator Treatment Program Transitional Living Facility. The Board also argues that Hendricks was not intended to be protected under K.S.A. 12-736(c)(1) because, in addition to being physically disabled, he is mentally ill, a sexually violent predator, and a danger to others. The statute defines a group home as any dwelling occupied by not more than 10 persons, including eight or fewer persons with a disability who need not be related by blood or marriage and not to exceed two staff residents who need not be related by blood or marriage to each other or to the residents of the home, which dwelling is licensed by a regulatory agency of this state. K.S.A. 12-736(b)(1). The facility proposed by the Whitsons for 24130 Golden Road is licensed by SRS and is designed to hold eight or fewer persons with disabilities, as well as staff. Viewing it at a high level of generality, it is a group home as that phrase is defined by the plain language of the statute. The statute defines disability as a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more of such person's major life activities; a record of having such an impairment; or being regarded as having such an impairment. K.S.A. 12-736(b)(3). There was certainly evidence in the record to support a finding that Hendricks qualifies as a person with a disability under the plain language of the statute. Again, we view the definition at a high level of generality. Our inquiry does not end there, however. The facility proposed for 24130 Golden Road is not only a group home for Hendricks and other persons with one or more disabilities. It is, as the Board asserts, transitional living for persons who have been adjudicated sexually violent predators, persons deemed so dangerous to the general population of our state that the United States Supreme Court has held their indefinite civil commitment constitutional, as long as they are provided treatment for their mental abnormality while their freedom is restricted. The plain language of the statute does not address the peculiar circumstances of these individuals. Indeed, at the time the statute was enacted, there was no Sexually Violent Predator Act on the books to guide the legislature's deliberations. And the legislature has not seen fit to amend the statute to include specific provisions on group homes for transitioning sexually violent predators since the Act governing their commitment became law. We are nevertheless able to discern the legislature's most likely intent regarding transitioning sexually violent predators from the remaining text of the statute. Like the district court judge, we regard the plain language of subsection (c) as a clear manifestation of the legislature's attitude toward group homes for persons viewed as potentially harmful to their neighbors, i.e., mentally ill persons who have not been evaluated to determine dangerousness, community corrections participants, parolees and probationers, and those in a state mental institution after a finding of mental disease or defect excluding criminal responsibility. See K.S.A. 12-736(c)(1) and (2). Even if one of these persons also qualifies as a person with a disability as that term is defined by the statute, he or she is ineligible for placement in a group home protected from housing discrimination by K.S.A. 12-736(e). In short, a municipality is free to completely exclude group homes for disabled persons with the additional characteristics set out in subsection (c) or to impose restrictions on them that cannot be imposed on group homes for the merely disabled. We have no serious doubt that the legislature would treat group homes for disabled transitioning sexually violent predators in exactly the same way. As the district court judge noted, the legislature could not have been more clear about its desire to incapacitate sexually violent predators when it enacted the civil commitment process to which Hendricks has been subjected: The legislature finds that there exists an extremely dangerous group of sexually violent predators who have a mental abnormality or personality disorder and who are likely to engage in repeat acts of sexual violence if not treated for their mental abnormality or personality disorder. Because the existing civil commitment procedures under K.S.A. 59-2901 et seq. and amendments thereto are inadequate to address the special needs of sexually violent predators and the risks they present to society, the legislature determines that a separate involuntary civil commitment process for the potentially long-term control, care and treatment of sexually violent predators is necessary. The legislature also determines that because of the nature of the mental abnormalities or personality disorders from which sexually violent predators suffer, and the dangers they present, it is necessary to house involuntarily committed sexually violent predators in an environment separate from persons involuntarily committed under K.S.A. 59-2901 et seq. and amendments thereto. K.S.A. 59-29a01. Finally, we note our recognition of the dilemma facing SRS. It will no doubt be difficult to find a Kansas community willing to permit the location of transitional housing for sexually violent predators within its territorial boundaries, even if the predators have physical disabilities that make them far less likely to reoffend. Yet SRS must arrange for such housing under the treatment program required by the United States Supreme Court to justify indefinite civil commitment of these predators based on their general propensity to be dangerous in the future. We trust that SRS will call the dilemma to the attention to the only branch of state government empowered and equipped to address it: the legislature.