Opinion ID: 2313631
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Heading: In The Beginning ...

Text: In Village of Euclid, Ohio v. Ambler Realty Co., 272 U.S. 365, 395, 47 S.Ct. 114, 121, 71 L.Ed. 303 (1926), the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Euclid's (a suburb of Cleveland) comprehensive zoning ordinance against a challenge brought by a local landowner. Forever named Euclidean zoning, the type of zoning regulations enacted by Euclid represented a fairly static and rigid form of zoning. Mayor & Council of Rockville v. Rylyns Enterprises, Inc., 372 Md. 514, 534, 814 A.2d 469, 480 (2002) (Rylyns) . Generally, by means of Euclidean zoning, a municipality divides an area geographically into particular use districts, specifying certain uses for each district. `Each district or zone is dedicated to a particular purpose, either residential, commercial, or industrial,' and the `zones appear on the municipality's official zoning map.' Rouse-Fairwood Dev. Ltd. P'ship v. Supervisor of Assessments for Prince George's County, 138 Md.App. 589, 623, 773 A.2d 535, 555 (2001) (quoting 5 ZIEGLER, RATHKOPF'S THE LAW OF ZONING AND PLANNING § 63.01 (4th Ed. Rev. 1994)). Euclidian zoning is designed to achieve stability in land use planning and zoning and to be a comparatively inflexible, self-executing mechanism which, once in place, allows for little modification beyond self-contained procedures for predetermined exceptions or variances. Rylyns, 372 Md. at 534, 814 A.2d at 481. Baltimore County is a charter county pursuant to Article XI-A of the Maryland Constitution. United Parcel Serv., Inc., 336 Md. at 581, 650 A.2d at 232. As a charter county, Maryland Code (1957, 2005 Repl. Vol.), Article 25A, § 5(X)(1)(i) authorizes Baltimore County to enact local laws for the protection and promotion of public safety, health, morals, and welfare, relating to zoning and planning. See also Earl E. Preston, Jr., Inc., 322 Md. at 501, 588 A.2d at 776 (noting that a charter county was authorized to divide the county into use districts and to determine which uses would be permitted within each district as a matter of right (permitted uses) and which uses would only be permitted under certain conditions (special exceptions)); Glascock v. Balt. County, 321 Md. 118, 121, 581 A.2d 822, 824 (1990) (stating that Maryland Code (1957, 2005 Repl. Vol.), Article 25A, § 5(X) grants Baltimore County its authority to enact a zoning ordinance). The zoning device at the heart of the present case, the special exception, [19] introduces some flexibility to a fairly static and rigid Euclidean zoning scheme. See Rylyns, 372 Md. at 541, 814 A.2d at 485 (2002) (Another mechanism allowing some flexibility in the land use process, without abandoning the uniformity principle, is the `special exception' or `conditional use.'). The special exception adds flexibility to a comprehensive legislative zoning scheme by serving as a middle ground between permitted uses and prohibited uses in a particular zone. Permitted and prohibited uses serve as binary, polar opposites in a zoning scheme. A permitted use in a given zone is permitted as of right within the zone, without regard to any potential or actual adverse effect that the use will have on neighboring properties. A special exception, by contrast, is merely deemed prima facie compatible in a given zone. The special exception requires a case-by-case evaluation by an administrative zoning body or officer according to legislatively-defined standards. That case-by-case evaluation is what enables special exception uses to achieve some flexibility in an otherwise semi-rigid comprehensive legislative zoning scheme. [20]