Halle Companies v. Crofton Civic Ass'n

661 A.2d 682, 339 Md. 131, 1995 Md. LEXIS 92
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedJuly 17, 1995
DocketNo. 129
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 661 A.2d 682 (Halle Companies v. Crofton Civic Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Halle Companies v. Crofton Civic Ass'n, 661 A.2d 682, 339 Md. 131, 1995 Md. LEXIS 92 (Md. 1995).

Opinion

KARWACKI, Judge.

In this case, we shall analyze the authority of the Anne Arundel County Board of Appeals to impose a condition upon the grant of a special exception when that condition was not sought during earlier proceedings before the county administrative hearing officer.

I

This case originated from applications filed with the Anne Arundel County Department of Planning and Code Enforcement by the Halle Companies and its totally owned enterprise, Chesapeake Terrace (referred to collectively hereafter as “Halle”). Specifically, in 1990, Halle sought administrative approval for sand and gravel landfill operations. Those operations were to be conducted on approximately 108 acres of land located near the intersection of Routes 3 and 424, in Odenton, Maryland.1 Of the 108 acres subject to the special exception [135]*135request, only 35 acres of previously cleared property was proposed for sand and gravel extraction. Halle also sought approval for rubble landfill operations to be conducted at that same location on approximately 482 acres (including the 108 acres for the sand and gravel landfill). Of the 482 acres, only 150 acres of previously cleared property was contemplated for landfill use, to be accomplished through the sequential filling of a number of small cells on the property. Halle’s applications for special exception and variance approval were denied by Anne Arundel County’s administrative hearing officer.

Halle appealed that decision to the Anne Arundel County Board of Appeals (“the Board”), which heard the appeal de novo, pursuant to § 603 of the Anne Arundel County Charter.2 Evidence produced at the sixteen administrative hearings held over seventeen months demonstrated that the site was within a resource extraction area on the master plan of the County, was the subject of an existing special exception granted for a sand and gravel operation, and that the subject property had been mined off and on for 40 years. The site was likened to a moonscape, and photographs of the site showed debris, deep ravines, and erosion on the property.

Photographs of the property showed trees falling into eroding ravines which were 30-45 feet deep, abandoned sediment basins, and unclaimed excavation pits. Illegal dumping, target shooting, and hunting regularly occurred on the property. After its site inspection, the Board observed that “because of previous mining which has occurred on this property, the land is cratered virtually up to the property line.”

Halle offered expert testimony on subjects including traffic impact and road improvements, environmental protection and wetland preservation, hydrology and ground water contamination, land use planning and development, civil and environmen[136]*136tal engineering related to landfill development, and acoustical engineering. Each expert testified at length and addressed the impact of the landfill and sand and gravel operations at the site upon vicinal properties. The County and the protestants claimed that harsh environmental impact on the Patuxent River and the surrounding wetlands and floodplain would result, and further asserted that their primary concern was traffic. Patuxent Road access required truck travel along “a bad curve ... referred to as a reverse horizontal curve,” and also “would require disturbing major wetlands.” Questions were raised as to “the relationship of the landfill to the 100 year flood plain on Patuxent Road,” and the potential threat of Patuxent Road access to residential communities north and west of the site.

Due to these concerns, Halle suggested an alternate access to the site from Conway Road at the first of the Board’s sixteen hearings. Conway Road access would alleviate both the wetlands and traffic problems raised by the County and the protestants. It was also a shorter access route, would affect fewer people overall, and would direct the traffic further from the Patuxent River. The County Department of Public Works evaluated the proposed Conway Road access and concluded that such access was preferable because it addressed the traffic and environmental concerns.

The County argued that the Board could not consider the access from Conway Road because Halle could not propose an alternative entrance after having filed the initial appeal. The Board rejected the County’s argument:

“Although the County argues that the Petitioners could not suggest this alternative entrance after filing the initial appeal (an argument which this Board rejects), the County also indicated in its closing argument that the Conway Road entrance is a much better choice because it avoids the wetlands and the heavier traffic on Patuxent Road as well as directing the traffic further from the Patuxent River. This Board has often accepted modifications to an initial plan when the modifications were offered during the hearing process. There does not appear to be any reason that the [137]*137proposed use of the Conway Road entrance must be rejected by this Board.”

After three months of deliberation, an on-site visit by the members of the Board to the property, and a review of the record taken as a whole—consisting of more than 2,000 pages of transcribed testimony and voluminous documents—the Board determined that the landfill would advance the public welfare of the County. It recognized the need for the landfill, concluded that its location was well suited to the use, and determined that the special exception and variance proposals would benefit the vicinal community by reclaiming and restoring previously mined ravines and properties “cratered” up to the property line. Accordingly, the Board granted the special exception and variance requests, subject to eight specific conditions.3

Petitioners, several community associations led by the Crofton Civic Association and eighteen individual property owners, sought judicial review of the decision of the Board in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County. The circuit court [138]*138granted Anne Arundel County’s motion to intervene and, after oral argument, reversed the decision of the Board, holding that the Board exceeded its de novo authority by imposing the Conway Road access as a condition of its special exception and variance approvals, as the Conway Road access went beyond the scope of the original application.

The circuit court concluded that the condition of access from Conway Road was a “so-called” condition and not a proper one, because it in effect substantially augmented the property “touched” by Halle’s application:

“The central question, then, which this Court must resolve is whether the Board had the authority under its “de novo” power to address the Conway Road access even though it was not part of the original application.
* * % * * 5ÍC
“[Halle] argues that the introduction of the Conway Road access was simply a new issue which the Board had every right to consider. The Court agrees with [Halle] that the Board, pursuant to its de novo power, can address new issues. Boehm [v. Anne Arundel County, 54 Md.App. 497, 459 A.2d 590 (1982)]. It cannot, however, indiscriminately entertain matters which in effect change the nature of the original controversy or application.

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Bluebook (online)
661 A.2d 682, 339 Md. 131, 1995 Md. LEXIS 92, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/halle-companies-v-crofton-civic-assn-md-1995.