Sapero v. Mayor of Baltimore

Henderson, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This appeal is from an order affirming a decision of the Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals of Baltimore City denying an application for a special exception or variance under sec. 36(b) of the City Ordinance so as toi permit the erection of a building on a vacant lot in a residential district, to be used for stores and offices. The lot in question is an irregular one at the southeast corner of Fallstaff and Reisterstown Roads. We had before us the lot at the northeast corner in Baltimore v. Sapero, 230 Md. 291, but the physical characteristics of that lot were very different.

We pointed out that the location of Fall-staff Road by the City authorities at a 45 degree angle had left only 12 feet of the frontage on Reisterstown Road zoned commercial, and that a filling station was located on the adjoining property. We affirmed the trial court’s holding that on the evidence presented the appellee would be deprived of any reasonable use of the property, unless the variance were granted. In the instant case it was shown that the property along Fall-staff Road and Reisterstown Road to the south and east from the corner is solidly residential, although to the north on Reisterstown Road it is almost solidly commercial. Across Reisterstown Road the property is residential down to a shopping center several blocks away.

Thus Fallstaff Road is a natural boundary between the two zones. A public elementary school is located on the south side of Fallstaff Road a block and a half away. In the process of locating Fallstaff Road the southeast lot gained what the northeast lot lost. There is nothing in its physical aspects that would prevent its use for residences of one kind or another.

The testimony is uncontradicted that the houses on adjoining properties to the south and east are occupied as residences or apartments. The lot in question has a frontage of more than 97 feet on Reisterstown Road and 160 feet on Fall-staff Road, with a fifteen foot alley in the rear.