6. a. In conducting its investigations pursuant to section 5 of this act, a licensing authority shall hold a public hearing, at which the applicant, the operator or proposed operator and all other parties in interest including members of the general public, shall be entitled to be heard upon the merits of the application and the suitability of the premises proposed for licensing. The time and place of the public hearing shall be determined within 30 days of receipt of the application, and shall be communicated to the applicant in sufficient time to enable compliance with the publication requirement under section 4 of this act.

b. No license shall be issued which would result in increasing the total number of persons authorized to be residents in rooming or boarding houses within the municipality to (1) more than 100 in a municipality having a population of 20,000 or fewer, or (2) to more than one-half of one percent of the population in any other municipality; but nothing in this subsection shall warrant refusal of a license or license renewal for premises where a rooming or boarding house has been in lawful operation prior to the enactment of this act.

c. No license shall be issued for premises when any part of the boundary line of the premises is within 1,000 feet of the boundary line of any other premises for which a license is in force; in the case of a municipality with a population greater than 100,000, according to the latest federal decennial census, this standard may be increased to 2,000 feet, at the discretion of the licensing authority; but nothing in this subsection shall warrant refusal of a license or license renewal for premises where a rooming or boarding house has been in lawful operation prior to the enactment of this act.

d. Any municipality with a population greater than 100,000 according to the latest federal decennial census may refuse to grant a license for any rooming and boarding house to be situated in a neighborhood zoned as single family residential.

L.1993,c.290,s.6.