Court Opinion

ID: 9541085
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:22:37.454566+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:02:33.309243
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION OP
CIRCUIT JUDGE KABUTAN
The principal issue before this court is whether the appellee Zoning Board complied with the rules of procedure established by the Hawaii Administrative Procedures Act. The records of appellee Zoning Board clearly establish that said board complied with its procedural requirement in granting the variance. The granting of the variance was premised on the authority vested in the Zoning Board under the provisions of the Comprehensive Zoning Code, which was promulgated pursuant to the Hawaii Administrative Procedures Act. The appellants are before this court appealing from the decision of the lower court which denied them standing in their effort to collaterally attack the exercise of the discretionary power of the Zon*525ing Board accorded the Board under the Comprehensive Zoning Code.
The procedural requirement in the adoption and promulgation of administrative codes or rules and regulations as defined by the Hawaii Administrative Procedures Act is only definitive and is limited to the imposition of technical procedural requirements on all administrative agencies clothed with rule-making powers which have the effect of law. The language of the appellate procedures contained in said act merely establishes general guide lines and the generality of the language therein is intended to afford the administrative agency concerned to better define and enunciate the rights and character of the “persons aggrieved” or persons who may appeal. Therefore, the definition of the term “persons aggrieved” must necessarily be determined by the Comprehensive Zoning Code. Although the Comprehensive Zoning Code does not specifically define the term “persons aggrieved,” from the context of the provisions relating to the granting of variances, the lower court properly precluded the appellants’ standing. To do otherwise would have subjected codes, rules and regulations of all administrative agencies to collateral attack by any taxpayer, anytime, who does not actively participate nor become a party in the administrative procedure.
For the foregoing reasons, the findings of the lower court should be affirmed.