Parr v. Bradyhouse

Sloan, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Sebastian B. Regester had a tract of land containing 52.87 acres located within the City of Baltimore, on which he had lived and run a dairy business for many years until his death in 1936. The property is now owned by his widow, Bertha Regester, but she discontinued the business, and has leased the property to James G. Brady-house, who is conducting thereon a riding academy. The property is bounded by Regester Lane, Brehm’s Lane, and Herring Run Park, and is located in what is designated as a residential use district under the Zoning Ordinance, No. 1247.

The business of Mr. Regester, having been established before the adoption of the Zoning Ordinance, March 30th, 1931, was not affected by the classification of that ordinance, but under its provisions, in the event of its discontinuance, could not be succeeded by a business of lower classification. Lipsitz v. Parr, 164 Md. 222 , 164 A. 743 ; Landay v. MacWilliams, 173 Md. 460, 464 , 196 A. 293 ; Roach v. Board of Zoning Appeals, 175 Md. 1 , 199 A. 812 ; Chayt v. Board of Zoning Appeals, 177 Md. —, 9 A. 2nd 747. The territory in which the Regester property is located is a residential use district, from which farms are not excluded; it is a place where the city and the country meet. Riding academies are not mentioned in the list of exclusions in a residential use district, and the appellees’ contention is that it should not be given a lower classification than livery stables and milk distributing businesses, which are amongst those forbidden unless established at the passage, of Ordinance No. 1247, March 30th, 1931.

When Bradyhouse rented or leased from Mrs. Regester, he ignored the Ordinance No. 1247, on the theory that his use of the property for a riding academy took the same classification as the milk distributing and dairy business carried on for many years by Mr. Regester, in which he had continued to the time of his death. William A. Parr, buildings engineer of Baltimore, to whom ²⁴⁷ application for