Vogel v. McCosh

Barnes, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The appellees, James N. McCosh, Mary Ann McCosh, his. wife, and Betsy W. LeBrun, as owners of a 9.64 acre tract of ³⁷² land in the Ninth Election District of Baltimore County filed an application on June 10, 1963 to rezone that tract from its existing zoning of R-10 (Residence-One family) to R-A (Residence-Apartments) and for a special exception to use the property for elevator apartments. The 9.64 acre tract (the subject property) is bounded on the north by Judges Lane, on the east by Bellona Lane, on the south by a tract of land, improved by a dwelling, and presently zoned R-10 the south boundary of which is Bellona Avenue 1 and on the west by 40 acres of undeveloped land presently zoned R-10. On the east side of Bellona Lane, across from the subject property, Ruxton Towers, a large high rise apartment on land zoned R-A has been recently constructed.

To the east of Ruxton Towers is Charles Street, a dual lane highway which gives access to Baltimore City. East of Charles Street there are three separate tracts of land, all of which have been recently rezoned for apartment use. To the north of Judges Lane is a tract of land zoned R-10, the owners of which did not object to the application involved in the case at bar, and still farther north is the Baltimore County Beltway. The Zoning Commissioner concluded that there had been sufficient changes in the area to justify the requested reclassification, that Bellona Avenue would apparently become the equivalent to a service road to serve apartments on either side of Bellona Avenue, and was not a boundary between zones and that the application should be granted.

He granted the reclassification and the special exception on November 1, 1963. An appeal was taken to the County Board of Appeals of Baltimore County (the Board) and the Board heard the appeal on July 2, 1964. At this hearing the developer testified that it was proposed to erect a 20 story high rise apartment building which would cover approximately 4% (actually 3.85fo) of the subject property; that there would be 250 apartment units—a density of 26 units per acre—and that there would be 320 parking spaces of which 50 would be under cover and 270 exposed ; ³⁷³ that there would be attractive landscaping which would include the preservation of the existing large trees; and, that there would be a swimming pool constructed to the north of the proposed apartment building. There was also testimony before the Board of various changes in the neighborhood which changed its character since the adoption of the comprehensive zoning map in 1955.

The principal thrust of the argument of the protestants against the granting of the application was because it would allegedly create a traffic hazard. The protestants produced a well-qualified expert Jerome B. Wolff who testified that in his opinion a traffic hazard would result from the proposed construction. The applicants produced a well-qualified expert Joseph D. Thompson who testified that in his opinion no such traffic hazard would be created. Although Mr. Wolff’s testimony was somewhat more detailed and explicit than was Mr. Thompson’s