Cox v. Prince George's County

586 A.2d 43, 86 Md. App. 179, 1991 Md. App. LEXIS 56
CourtCourt of Special Appeals of Maryland
DecidedFebruary 27, 1991
Docket432, September Term, 1990
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 586 A.2d 43 (Cox v. Prince George's County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Special Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cox v. Prince George's County, 586 A.2d 43, 86 Md. App. 179, 1991 Md. App. LEXIS 56 (Md. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

GARRITY, Judge.

This appeal concerns the granting of a special exception to the zoning of an 88.27 acre tract of land in Prince George’s County. The special exception was approved by the District Council and that action was affirmed by the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County (Salmon, J.).

The appellants are four individuals who own property which abuts or is adjacent to the land in question. They present the following issues for our review:

1. Whether the District Council adequately rendered findings of fact with respect to the standards set forth by the Prince George’s County Code for a special exception.
2. Whether the record supports the Council’s conclusion that the appellees met all appropriate standards.
3. Whether the District Council considered the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Protection Program.

Facts

The subject property is located in the Fort Washington area, and it lies on both sides of Riverview Road with about 1,800 feet of shoreline on the Potomac River. For purposes of this case, the property consists of three parcels: Parcel A, a 43.5 acre, undeveloped wooded parcel known as Tent Landing; Parcel B, a 23.6 acre tract of open land improved by a barn and poolhouse known as the Bower property; and Parcel C, a 19.9 acre parcel called the Airstrip, improved by *182 two residences, a hangar and an active private airstrip with an orchard along both sides of the runway.

The property was purchased by the Marriott Corporation to build a life care community for the elderly. The proposed special exception is for the development of a medical-residential campus. The residents of this proposed community, which is to be called “Falcon’s Landing,” are to be members of the Air Force Retired Officers Community (AFROC). The medical-residential campus is to consist of 350 dwelling units, representing a mixture of 34 dwelling units located in single-story cottages and 316 dwelling units located in four four-story buildings; a health center consisting of 52 personal-care beds and 73 long-term beds in a fifth four-story building, a dining room, a community center, and ancillary uses including a beauty/barber shop, multi-purpose room, library/reading room, coffee shop, arts and crafts space, health club as well as administrative offices and space for other services. The application for this special exception met with much resistance from the neighboring community. Consequently, this application has a lengthy procedural history.

In general, a special exception application passes through three administrative levels before reaching the District Council, with which rests the ultimate decision whether to approve the application. In chronological order, the levels are: the Technical Staff of the Prince George’s County Planning Board, the Prince George’s County Planning Board, and the Office of the Zoning Hearing Examiner. The Staff is required to make a report and recommendation for the record on each application for spécial exception. Zoning Ordinance of Prince George’s County, § 27-311. The Planning Board is responsible for deciding whether to adopt the Staff’s recommendations and forwarding them to the District Council. Prior to the Council’s making a decision, the Hearing Examiner must hold a public hearing. Zoning Ordinance, supra, §§ 27-126 to 27-130, § 27-313. The Examiner must file then with the District Council a written decision containing specific findings of basic facts, *183 conclusions of law, and a recommended disposition of the case. Zoning Ordinance, supra, § 27-127(c).

In the case at hand, the Technical Staff initially recommended denying the application for the medical-residential campus special exception. This recommendation was based on the Staffs conclusion that the plan was not in harmony with the purpose of the zoning ordinance, that it would prove detrimental to the use and development of adjacent properties and that it did not comply with applicable regulations. The Staff relied upon these facts in reaching its conclusions: the failure to establish architectural integration; the inadequacy of the existing road capacity; noncompliance with design standards and parking and loading space requirements; noncompliance with the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area Program; and density disparity between the planned use and neighboring properties. Adopting the Staffs analysis and recommendation, the Planning Commission denied the application.

During three days of hearings, the parties presented testimony to the Zoning Hearing Examiner, who advised remanding the application to the Planning Commission for a revised site plan incorporating certain recommendations. These included that no buildings be erected in the Resource Conservation Overlay (R-C-O) 1 portions of the property, no dwellings over three stories in height, an overall density of dwelling units no higher than permitted for clusters in the R-80 zone, 2 at least a 150 foot wide buffer on the north side of the property, no retail sales or services on the site, no recreational vehicle storage on the airstrip portion and computation of employee parking needs. In its conditional grant of the special exception, the District Council relied *184 almost exclusively on the Examiner’s written decision. With the exception of the three-story height limitation, 3 the conditions imposed by the Council responded to the Examiner’s recommendations.

I.

In Prince George’s County, no contested application for special exception may be granted or denied except upon written findings of basic facts and written conclusions. Md.Ann.Code. art. 28, § 8-123 (1990); Zoning Ordinance, supra, § 27-141. The appellants contend that the District Council’s written decision falls short of this requirement. This decision must be tested in light of Zoning Ordinance, §§ 27-317 4 and 27-374, for therein lie the basic facts and conclusions the Council must express. 5 Entzian v. Prince *185 George’s County, 32 Md.App. 256, 261, 360 A.2d 6 (1976); cf. Ocean Hideaway Condo. v. Boardwalk Plaza, 68 Md. App. 650, 655-656, 515 A.2d 485 (1986); Heller v. Prince George’s County, 264 Md. 410, 412-413, 286 A.2d 772 (1972).

Specifically, appellants contend that neither the District Council nor the Hearing Examiner made factual findings regarding impairment of the Master Plan, compatibility with the neighborhood, road capacity, and functional integration. We do not agree.

In Turner v. Hammond,

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Bluebook (online)
586 A.2d 43, 86 Md. App. 179, 1991 Md. App. LEXIS 56, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cox-v-prince-georges-county-mdctspecapp-1991.