Mayor & Council of Rockville v. Pumphrey

218 Md.App. 160

96 A.3d 859

MAYOR AND COUNCIL OF ROCKVILLE, et al.

v.William A. PUMPHREY, et al.

No. 599, Sept. Term, 2013.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

July 31, 2014.

Debra Y. Daniel (Payman Tehrani, City of Rockville City Attorney's Office, on the brief), Rockville, MD, for appellant.

Soo Lee–Cho (Donna E. McBride, Miller, Miller & Canby, Rockville, MD, Gus Bauman, Beveridge & Diamond, Washington, DC), on the brief, for appellee.

Panel: DEBORAH S. EYLER, WRIGHT, LAWRENCE F. RODOWSKY (Retired, Specially Assigned), JJ.

DEBORAH S. EYLER, J.

This appeal arises from two actions for judicial review filed in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County. In each case, William Pumphrey, on behalf of the Robert A. Pumphrey Funeral Home, and RAP Leasing Corporation (“RAP”) (collectively “Pumphrey”), the appellees, were the petitioners. In the first action for judicial review, Pumphrey challenged a text amendment to the City of Rockville's zoning ordinance enacted by the Mayor and City Council of Rockville (“Mayor and Council” or “the City”), an appellant, which eliminated language permitting the expansion of off-street parking for certain nonconforming uses within Rockville (“the text amendment case”). Pumphrey alternatively sought mandamus relief against the City. In the second action, Pumphrey challenged a decision of the City of Rockville Planning Commission (“the Planning Commission”), an appellant, denying his final record plat application for the consolidation of two adjacent parcels into one lot (“the plat case”).

The circuit court denied the City's motion to dismiss the text amendment case, granted Pumphrey's motion to consolidate the two actions, heard argument, and ruled that the text amendment to the zoning ordinance was invalid because the City acted arbitrarily and capriciously in enacting it. The circuit court further ruled that the Planning Commission's decision to deny Pumphrey's final record plat application was arbitrary, capricious, and unsupported by substantial evidence in the record. The circuit court reversed and vacated the text amendment enacted by the City; ordered a prior text amendment to be reinstated; and reversed the Planning's Commission's order denying the final plat application.

On appeal, the City and the Planning Commission present four questions for review, which we have rephrased:

I. Did the circuit court err by concluding that the enactment of the text amendment was a quasi-judicial act, and not a purely legislative act, and in denying the City's motion to dismiss on that basis?

II. Did the circuit court err by reversing the decision of the Planning Commission in the plat case?

III. If the Planning Commission erred, was the circuit court obligated to remand the plat case to the Planning Commission for further proceedings?

IV. Did the circuit court err or abuse its discretion by consolidating the text amendment case and the plat case?

For the reasons to follow, we conclude that the circuit court erred by denying the City's motion to dismiss the text amendment case and by reversing the decision of the Planning Commission in the plat case. We shall vacate the circuit court judgment and remand with instructions that it enter orders dismissing the text amendment case and affirming the decision of the Planning Commission. Our resolution of these first two issues obviates the need to address the third and fourth issues.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

Since 1930, the Robert A. Pumphrey Funeral Home, f/k/a Pumphrey's Colonial Funeral Home (“Funeral Home”), a family-run business, has operated out of a three-story house located at the corner of West Montgomery Avenue and Williams Street in the West End neighborhood of Rockville.¹ The Funeral Home's address is 300 West Montgomery Avenue and it fronts on that road. In 1977, RAP, a corporate entity owned and operated by the Pumphrey family, purchased the property.

The lot next door, 304 West Montgomery Avenue (“the adjoining parcel”), was purchased by the Pumphrey family in 1961. At that time, it was improved with a large house. The house was demolished in 1970. Since then, the adjoining parcel has been open lawn with a perimeter of screening vegetation between it and a neighboring residential property at 306 West Montgomery Avenue. RAP also is the record owner of 304 West Montgomery Avenue.

The Funeral Home has been a nonconforming use since August 3, 1932, when the first zoning ordinance governing the property was adopted. Presently, it and the adjoining parcel are zoned R–90 HD, Single Unit Detached Dwelling Restricted Residential, Historic District.

The Funeral Home has 17 off-street parking spaces available for visitors, all of which are located in its backyard. Two of the spaces are enclosed in a one-story garage. The other 15 spaces are on an open, paved lot. Access to the parking lot is from a driveway off of Williams Street. When, as is often the case, the parking lot is full, visitors park on Williams Street and other nearby residential streets. For some time, this practice has resulted in complaints from neighbors.

A. The 2010 Text Amendment

In 2010, Pumphrey began to investigate expanding the existing parking lot for the Funeral Home onto the adjoining parcel. City officials informed him that the zoning ordinance prohibited the expansion of nonconforming uses except in very limited circumstances not applicable to the expansion of a parking lot. City officials also informed Pumphrey that he could pursue a text amendment to the zoning ordinance to permit such an expansion.

At all relevant times, the City's zoning ordinance (“the Ordinance”), which is codified at Chapter 25 of the Rockville City Code (“RCC”), and Md. Code (1957, 2010 Repl. Vol.), Article 66B (“art. 66B”),² governed the procedure for text amendments. As pertinent here, section 25.06.02 provides that “any interested person or governmentalagency” may file “[a]n application for an amendment to the text of [the Ordinance].” RCC § 25.06.02.b.1. The application must be submitted to the City Clerk on a form provided by the City's Chief of Planning and be accompanied by a filing fee as determined by the Mayor and Council. RCC § 25.06.02.b.2. The City Clerk must transmit the proposed text amendment to the Planning Commission within five days of receipt of an application. RCC § 25.06.02.d.1. The Planning Commission “may submit a written recommendation to the Mayor and Council.” Id. If it does so, its recommendation becomes part of the record upon the Mayor and Council's consideration of the text amendment. Id.

An application for a text amendment may not be granted unless a public hearing is held by the Mayor and Council. RCC § 25.06.02.f.; art. 66B, § 5.03(c)(1) (before a local legislative body may adopt a regulation, it must hold a public hearing). Before such a hearing, notice of the proposed amendment must be published in “a newspaper of general circulation.” RCC § 25.06.02.c; art. 66B, § 5.03(c)(2). After notice and a public hearing, the Mayor and Council may grant a text amendment “by ordinance” or may deny, dismiss, or allow the withdrawal of the text amendment. RCC § 25.06.02.g.1.

On June 24, 2010, in accordance with these provisions, Pumphrey filed with the City's Department of Community Planning and Development Services (“Department of Planning”) an “Application for Text Amendment” (“the 2010 Application”), with a $3,000 application fee. The 2010 Application was designated TXT2010–00228 by the City Clerk.

The application sought to amend “[e]xisting [t]ext” to “allow expansion of parking of a long standing nonconforming use in a single dwelling unit residential zone.” Specifically, Pumphrey sought to amend Section 25.08.05 of Article 8 of the Ordinance, which governs nonconforming uses in Single Dwelling Unit Residential Zones, to add a new subsection “d.” As proposed by Pumphrey, the new subsection would read:

Additional Off–Street Parking—Where a nonconforming use in a Single Dwelling Unit Residential Zone has been in continual existence on a lot since prior to August 3, 1932, off-street parking for the nonconforming use may be altered, expanded, or enlarged on the lot and/or on an adjacent lot in accordance with the requirements of Article 16 and the Landscaping, Screening and Lighting Manual.

The 2010 Application was forwarded to the Planning Commission for review. On September 17, 2010, the Chief of Planning filed a staff report recommending that the Planning Commission recommend denial of the 2010 Application for two reasons: 1) a general policy against expansion of nonconforming uses and 2) potential adverse impacts on adjoining residential properties. The staff report explained that the purpose of the proposed amendment was to “ facilitate the continuation of the nonconforming use [of the Funeral Home] by expanding the off-street parking onto the adjoining lot at 304 West Montgomery Avenue,” which, it noted, would bring the nonconforming use into closer conformity with development standards by adding 32 off-street parking spaces. Alternatively, the staff report recommended revision of the proposed text amendment to limit its applicability to nonconforming uses in the R–90 zone that were in existence in 1932, when the City first adopted a zoning ordinance. The staff report emphasized that Pumphrey would be required to consolidate its two properties so that the parking was on the same lot as the use being served.

The Planning Commission considered the 2010 Application at a meeting on September 29, 2010, and voted three to two to recommend to the City and Council that the text amendment be denied. The Historic District Commission (“HDC”) conducted a courtesy review of the 2010 Application and also voted to recommend that it be denied.

On October 25, 2010, the Mayor and Council convened for a public hearing on the 2010 Application. The Zoning Administrator introduced the proposed text amendment, explaining that its purpose was to “allow for the...