Souza v. Columbia Park & Recreation Ass'n, Inc.

⁶⁵⁷ WENNER, Judge. Appellants, Anthony R. Souza and Roseanne S. Souza, purchased Lot 243, Section 1, Area 2, in the Village of Hickory Ridge, Columbia, Maryland, in 1979. The lot was shown on a recorded plat 1 of the Hickory Ridge Subdivision, and was purchased with the knowledge that the property was subject to the “Hickory Ridge Village Covenants,” recorded at Liber 559, folio 437 of the land records of Howard County. Section 8.01 of Article VIII of the Hickory Ridge Village Covenants provides in pertinent part: Without the prior written approval of the Architectural Committee: (a) No lot shall be split, divided, or subdivided for sale, resale, gift, transfer or otherwise; The Souzas wanted to divide their lot into four smaller parcels and in accordance with the covenants sought the approval of the Architectural Committee.

The Committee denied the Souzas’ request to subdivide the lot, and its decision was appealed to the Hickory Ridge Appeals Board. The Board upheld the decision of the Committee. Nonetheless, the Souzas obtained subdivision approval from Howard County 2 and recorded a plat subdividing the property. 3 The Columbia Park and Recreation Association, Inc., et al., appellees, filed suit in the Circuit Court for Howard County to enforce the restrictive covenants and sought an injunction directing the Souzas to re-join the parcels to recreate the original Lot 243. The Circuit Court (Nissel, J.) granted the relief sought by appellees and this appeal followed.

We shall affirm. ⁶⁵⁸ The Souzas argue, as they did below, that the covenant prohibiting subdivision of their lot unless approval is obtained from the Committee is unenforceable since it contains no criteria explaining how an application to subdivide will be evaluated. Moreover, they contend that the denial by the Committee and the Board of their request for subdivision approval was arbitrary and unreasonable, and as such it was error for the trial court to affirm those decisions. We think it important to note at the outset that appellants purchased a platted lot in an already subdivided area of a well-known planned community, a community in which they had lived for several years prior to purchasing Lot 243. The Deed, Agreement and Declaration of Hickory Ridge Village Covenants clearly state that the covenants “shall run with, bind and burden the Property ...” and “shall be binding upon (i) the Grantee, her heirs, executors, administrators and assigns____” In addition, appellants agree that the covenants apply to and govern their use of their lot; they only question the enforceability of the covenants and the propriety of the actions of the Committee and the Board.

I. As we have observed, appellants argue that the covenant in question contains no criteria for the evaluation of applications to subdivide and should, therefore, be declared unenforceable. We agree with the trial court that in accordance with Kirkley v. Seipelt, 212 Md. 127 , 128 A.2d 430 (1957) such covenants are enforceable provided that “any refusal to approve ... would have to be based upon a reason that bears some relation to the other buildings or the general plan of development; and this refusal would have to be a reasonable determination made in good