Opinion ID: 2011601
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Located directly across Georgia Avenue from a town house development.

Text: In Knudsen v. Montgomery County, 241 Md. 436, 217 A.2d 97 (1966), we held that the R-T zone, like the R-H zone, Beall v. Montgomery County, 240 Md. 77, 212 A.2d 751 (1965), is a Non-Euclidian or floating zone. Accord and harmony with the surrounding zoning are essential to its validity. Since this compatibility with the balance of the neighborhood must exist it can hardly be said that the granting of such a rezoning is evidence of a substantial change in the character of the neighborhood. Indeed it would seem that any R-T rezoning, in which compatibility has been determined, would operate to increase the stability of the neighborhood and add permanence to its character. While it is true that the Council, in its resolution creating the R-T zone opposite the Artery tract, made no mention of compatibility, finding, instead, that there had been a sufficient change in the character of the neighborhood to warrant the classification, we cannot say that the R-T rezoning was not, in fact, compatible with the surrounding R-60 and R-90 zoning. The recommendations of the technical staff and the Planning Board, in that case, are not in this record and, since their procedures are not in issue here, we shall assume they considered the matter of compatibility and found it to exist. Perhaps attention should be drawn to the fact that the Council's resolution (in the R-T matter) was dated 1 December 1964, 7 months before we decided Beall, supra . In this context what we said in Bujno v. Montgomery Co. Coun., 243 Md. 110, 220 A.2d 126 (June 1966) takes on added significance. As Judge Barnes, for the Court, put it: The appellants also seek to distinguish Beall from the case at bar on the ground that in Beall the Technical Staff, the Planning Board and the Council all indicated that the application complied with the purposes of the R-H zone whereas in the case at bar, the Technical Staff and Planning Board did not indicate this and the Council sought to justify its action by a finding that there had been sufficient change in the character of the neighborhood. We point out that the order of the Council in the case at bar was filed on December 18, 1964, several months before our decision in Beall which was decided on August 27, 1965, so that the Council did not have the benefit of the Beall opinion in which we indicated there should be a finding that the proposal for R-H zoning complied with the purposes of that zone. Although it is most desirable that the Council should find specifically that the proposal does comply with the R-H zone purposes, this finding may be inferred from the Council's opinion even though, as a matter of abundant caution perhaps, it also found that there had been a sufficient change of conditions in the neighborhood to justify the proposed reclassification. Id. at 118-19. It cannot be said, of course, that the creation of the R-T zone did not effect some change. Whatever change did take place, however, must be assumed, absent persuasive evidence to the contrary, to have been compatible with the residential character of the neighborhood. We do not think it can be considered as evidence which would make the issue of substantial change in the character of the neighborhood fairly debatable.