Maryland Reclamation Associates v. Harford County
Court of Appeals of Maryland
994 A.2d 842 (2010)
Maryland Reclamation Associates (MRA) (plaintiff) bought land in Harford County (defendant) intending to build a rubble landfill, after the county had — by a narrow, contested four-of-seven vote — included the site in its Solid Waste Management Plan and the state had issued an environmental permit. Hundreds of residents opposed the plan at public hearings, and the county later adopted a new zoning amendment imposing conditions and requiring variances for rubble landfills. When the trial court held MRA had no vested right to build the landfill, MRA invoked zoning estoppel on appeal, claiming it had spent over a million dollars on the land and engineering fees in reliance on the county's earlier planning decision.
Whether an owner or developer may invoke zoning estoppel only if he, relying reasonably and in good faith upon a government act or omission, makes a substantial change in position or incurs such extensive obligations and expenses that it would be highly inequitable or oppressive to enforce the regulation.