36-421. Construction or modification of a health care institution

A. A license application for a health care institution shall include architectural plans and specifications or the department's approval of the architectural plans and specifications. These plans and specifications shall meet the minimum standards for licensure within the class or subclass of health care institution for which it is intended. The application shall include the name and address of each owner and lessee of any agricultural land that is regulated pursuant to section 3-365.

B. Construction or modification of a licensed health care institution shall meet the minimum standards for licensure within the class or subclass of health care institution for which it is intended.

C. An applicant shall comply with all state statutes and rules and local codes and ordinances required for the health care institution's construction.

D. A health care institution or its facility shall not be licensed if it is located on property that is less than four hundred feet from agricultural land that is regulated pursuant to section 3-365, except that the owner of the agricultural land may agree to comply with the buffer zone requirements of section 3-365. If the owner agrees in writing to comply with the buffer zone requirements and records the agreement in the office of the county recorder as a restrictive covenant running with the title to the land, the health care institution or facility may be licensed and located within the affected buffer zone. The agreement may include any stipulations regarding the health care institution or facility, including conditions for future expansion of the health care institution or facility and changes in the operational status of the health care institution or facility that will result in a breach of the agreement. This subsection does not apply to the issuance of a license for a health care institution located in the same location for which a health care institution license was previously issued.

E. Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, a health care institution that was licensed as a level 1 psychiatric acute behavioral health facility-inpatient facility as of January 1, 2012 and that is not certified under title XIX of the social security act shall be licensed as a hospital and is not required to comply with the physical plant standards for a general hospital, rural general hospital or special hospital prescribed by the department.

F. An adult behavioral health therapeutic home is not required to comply with the building codes or zoning standards for a health care institution prescribed by the department.

G. The Arizona pioneers' home is not required to comply with subsection A of this section and the physical plant standards for a health care institution prescribed by the department.

H. For the purposes of this section, health care institution does not include a home health agency or a hospice service agency.