Mayor of Annapolis v. Kramer

Hammond, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The trial court reversed the action of the Mayor and Aider-men of the City of Annapolis in denying the application of the appellee for the rezoning of some six acres of land from residential to commercial, and the City of Annapolis appealed. The land in question is part of a tract of about seventeen acres which was partly within the corporate limits of Annapolis and partly subject to the jurisdiction of Anne Arundel County, when the appellee and her late husband acquired it in ²³³ 1951 as tenants by the entireties. The land runs for some three thousand feet along the south side of Edgewood Road east of Bay Ridge Road (into which Edgewood Road dead-ends), with an average depth of two hundred fifty feet.

In 1952 the seventeen acres became subject to four zoning classifications. Under County zoning it was heavy commercial for one hundred fifty feet east of Bay Ridge Road, and for the next approximately one thousand fifty feet (with the exception of a small wedge of land in the City of Annapolis which was zoned for a community shopping center) was agricultural. The remaining eighteen hundred feet were within the limits of Annapolis and were zoned residential C, a classification intended primarily for single or multiple housing not in excess of eight dwelling units per acre. The Mayor and Aldermen of Annapolis decided to straighten its boundary line by annexing the subject land by means of the amendment of its charter in the exercise of the power granted municipal corporations by Sec. 4 of Art. XI-E of the Constitution of Maryland and Code (1957), Art. 23A, Secs. 11 through 19.

On December 10, 1956, a resolution was adopted, pursuant to the direction and requirements of Sec. 13 of Art. 23A, to become finally effective January 30, 1957, which, according to the stipulation of the parties, “changed the boundary line between the City of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County to conform to the southern boundary of plaintiff’s [appellee’s] property thereby incorporating all of plaintiff’s property into the city.” The stipulation also recites that in Sec. 2 of the resolution there was language which states “that plaintiff’s [appellee’s] property to a depth of 150 feet from Bay Ridge Road shall be zoned as commercial and the balance as residential C.” Sec. 19 (p) of Art. 23A (in effect in 1956), dealing with annexation of contiguous lands by a municipal corporation, provides that the powers given to municipal corporations “by Art. 11E of the Constitution, by this article, and by Article 66B (of the Code),” shall not be deemed to authorize any municipal corporation to exercise planning and zoning jurisdiction or power within any political subdivision in which any such jurisdiction or power is exercised by any state, regional or county ²³⁴ agency or authority. The section makes an exception, however, as follows: “Except that where any area is annexed to a municipality authorized to have and having then a planning and zoning authority, the said municipality shall have exclusive jurisdiction over planning and zoning within the area annexed * * Sec. 19 (d) of Art. 23A requires publication of a “public notice” of the annexing resolution for not less than four weeks in a newspaper of general circulation “briefly and accurately describing the proposed change and the conditions and circumstances applicable thereto.” It then provides that the “public notice” shall specify “a time and place at which a public hearing will be held by the legislative body on the resolution.” Subsection (e) which follows provides that following the public hearing the public body may enact the annexing resolution which shall not become effective until at least forty-five days after final enactment. Code (1957), Art. 66B, Secs. 4 and 6 (which relate to incorporated towns containing more than 10,000 inhabitants) and Secs. 21 (d) and 21 (f) (which relate generally to counties, towns, villages and other incorporated political subdivisions) provide, respectively, (1) for public hearings after fifteen days’ notice as a prerequisite to the exercise of original zoning (Secs. 4 and 21 (d)), and (2) that the planning authority involved shall make recommendations for the boundaries of the original zoning districts after holding a public hearing, and that the legislative body shall not hold its final hearing or take action until it has received the final recommendation of the planning group (Secs. 6 and 21 (f)). These provisions must be complied with.

Walker v. Talbot County, 208 Md. 72 . Cf. Mayor and