Opinion ID: 2209492
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Self-created Hardship

Text: We stated in White, 356 Md. at 48-49, 736 A.2d at 1082, quoting from our earlier case of Aspen Hill Venture v. Montgomery County Council, 265 Md. 303, 313-14, 289 A.2d 303, 308 (1972), that: `we must not forget the underlying principle that, Such ordinances [zoning ordinances] are in derogation of the common law right to use private property as to realize its highest utility, and while they should be liberally construed to accomplish their plain purpose and intent, they should not be extended by implication to cases not clearly within the scope of the purpose and intent manifest in their language. Landay v. Board of Zoning Appeals, 173 Md. 460, 466, 196 A. 293 (1938).' [Alteration in original.] In Landay, 173 Md. at 465, 196 A. at 295-96, we noted that `[i]n a constitutional sense, the only justification for the restrictions ... on the use of private property is the protection of the public health, safety, or morals.' In a case somewhat similar to the case sub judice, Richard Roeser Professional Builder, Incorporated v. Anne Arundel County, 368 Md. 294, 297 n. 3, 793 A.2d 545, 547 n. 3 (2002), decided after the Board's and the lower court decisions in the present case, we initially noted in a footnote: It is a relatively common practice throughout the State, and has been for decades, that buyers contract to buy properties with contingencies that make consummation of the contract conditioned on the granting of variances.... Additionally, in such instances in respect to `area' variances, we have never held that such a practice, by itself, constitutes a `self-created' hardship. Then, in Roeser, 368 Md. at 303-04, 793 A.2d at 551, quoting from Arden H. Rathkopf & Daren A. Rathkopf, The Law of Zoning and Planning § 58.22, 141-48 (Edward H. Zeigler, Jr. revision, vol. 3, West 1991), we stated: `In other words, because a purchaser of property acquires no greater right to a variance than his predecessor, he should not be held to acquire less.