Agenda - Planning Commission - 12/03/2009

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0, (j \ ) ......~/ Zoning Bulletin September 25,20091 Volume 31 No. 18 Ordinance Construction-Occupancy permit issues for dwelling unit that has separate leases for each of four individual tenants Neighbors challenge issuance of permit, arguing failure to satisfy zoning code's definition of "family" Citation: Armstrong v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 2009 WL 2178672 (Md. 2009) MARYLAND (07/23/09)-Cresmont Properties Ltd. ("Cres- mont") owned property in the city. Cresmont sought construction and occupancy permits for a proposed apartment complex that would contain 26 dwelling units. Each dwelling unit would have four individuall~ssees. Four individuals would each have a separate lease agreement with Cresmont to rent one bedroom in a suite that con- sisted of. four bedrooms and a common area with a bathroom and kitchen facilities. . The city issued Cresmont's requested construction and occupan- cy permits. Subsequently, a group of neighborhood residents (the "Neigh- bors") opposed to Cresmont's development challenged, among other things, the issuance of the occupancy permit. The occupancy permit authorized 26 "dwelling units." The Neighbors maintained that the permit was not properly issued given that each of the four occupants of each of the 26 apartments had a separate lease. The Neighbors pointed to the city's zoning code (the "Code"), which provided that a "dwelling unit" could be occupied by no more than one "family." A "family" was defined as not more than four unrelated individu- als "living together as a single housekeeping unit in a dwelling unit." The Neighbors contended that four unrelated individuals with sepa- rate leases living in each of Cresmont's apartments was not a "fam- ily." They argued this was because the four individuals would not be a "single housekeeping unit" since each tenant would have a separate lease agreement "tied to" an individual bedroom, and thus Cresmont reserved the right to remove any of them to another suite at any time. The city's Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals (the "Board") concluded thatCresmont's. proposed living arrangement for each of its units satisfied the Code's definition of "family." The Board ob- served that "even though the four occupants ... [would] have sepa- rate lease agreements with [Cresmont], such arrangement [did] not alter the fact that they [would be] living together as a single house- keeping unit ... sharing normal household responsibilities ...." @ 2009 Thomson Reuters 11 81