Harford County People's Counsel v. BEL AIR REALTY ASSOCIATES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP

RAYMOND G. THIEME, JR., Judge,

Ret’d, Specially Assigned.

This matter highlights the tension' between the rule of law and the nebulous concept of an agency’s discretion to implement the goals a statute was meant to achieve.

The Harford County People’s Counsel appeals the decision of the Circuit Court for Harford County reversing a decision of the Harford County Board of Appeals (Board). In this zoning case, the Board, adopting a decision by a Zoning Hearing Examiner, rejected an interpretation of the deceptively innocuous phrase “directly accessible” by the Harford County development regulations…