Baxter v. Montgomery County Board of Appeals

Per Curiam. The appeal to this Court is from dismissal of an appeal to the Circuit Court for Montgomery County by protestants against the granting by the County Board of Appeals of a special exception for a private educational institution. Section 2-83, Montgomery County Code, 1965 (formerly § 2-88 in the Code of 1960), provides for an appeal from the Board “by any person aggrieved by the decision of the board and a party to the proceeding before it * * The petition of appeal in the Circuit Court alleged both that the appellants, Baxter and Pinion, were “persons aggrieved * * * in that they are owners of property nearby or contiguous [to the subject property] * * * and would be adversely affected by the said decision, in that their property values would decrease and they would be specially damaged by noise and traffic * * and that they were parties to the proceeding before the Board as signers (with appended addresses) of a petition admitted in evidence before the Board ¹¹³ which protested the granting of the special exception and gave reasons for the protest. Judge Anderson held that the signing of the petition of protest received by the Board was not enough to make Baxter and Pinion parties before the Board and that to be parties aggrieved they must have shown as part of the record