Maryland Reclamation Associates, Inc. v. Harford County

994 A.2d 842 (2010)

Purchase the Printed Copy at bsmsphd.com

Nature of the Case

To access this section all you need to do is click here and register.

Facts

P contracted to purchase property with the intent to construct and operate a rubble landfill. It began the process of obtaining a rubble landfill permit from the Maryland Department of the Environment. The property's inclusion in the Harford County Solid Waste Management Plan, however, was made subject to twenty-seven conditions, including a minimum landscape buffer of 200 feet. P received Phase I permit approval from the Department of the Environment. P then filed with the Department the necessary reports and studies for Phase II and Phase III approvals. Allegedly relying on the property's inclusion in Harford County's Solid Waste Management Plan and the Department of the Environment's Phase I approval, Maryland Reclamation consummated the purchase of the Gravel Hill Road property on February 9, 1990, for $732,500. Four days after the settlement date, newly appointed Harford County Council President Jeffrey D. Wilson and Council Member Joanne Parrott introduced in the County Council Resolution 4-90, which provided for the removal of P's property from D's Solid Waste Management Plan. While the litigation over Resolution 4-90 was pending, Bill 91-10 was introduced in the Harford County Council, on February 12, 1991, as an emergency bill. Bill 91-10 proposed to amend the requirements for a rubble landfill by increasing the minimum acreage requirements, buffer requirements, and height requirements. On April 2, 1991, Bill 91-16 was introduced and would authorize the County Council to remove a specific site from the County's Solid Waste Management Plan if the site does not comply with certain zoning ordinances, if a permit has not been issued by the State Department of the Environment within eighteen months of the site being placed in the County's Solid Waste Management Plan, or if the owner of the site has not placed the site in operation within the same eighteen-month period. Bill 91-16 was passed by the County Council, signed into law by the County Executive on June 10, 1991, and is codified as § 109-8.4 of the Harford County Code. On May 14, 1991, Resolution 15-91 was introduced in the Harford County Council. This resolution purported to interpret Harford County law and determine that the Gravel Hill Road site was not in compliance with county law; the resolution went on to remove the site from the County's Solid Waste Management Plan. P filed a complaint seeking a Declaratory Judgment and Injunctive Relief against D. An interlocutory injunction preventing enforcement of Bills 91-10, 91-16, and Resolution 15-91 against P was issued. On February 28, 1992, the State Department of the Environment issued to Maryland Reclamation a permit to operate a rubble landfill on its property. It was conditioned upon P's compliance with all local land-use requirements. Eventually, it was held that zoning estoppel did not apply as P did not have a valid use permit as required by state vested rights precedents. Ten years later and now this was the third time before the court on the same matters, P appeals and asks that zoning estoppel be applied.