A group of Solomons property owners won a victory Thursday, Sept. 6 when the Calvert County Board of Appeals ruled that a county zoning officer erred when denying a proposal to construct a commercial pier on the Patuxent River.
“This is about a contractual right,” said V. Charles Donnelly, representing Solomons One LLC, the venture hoping to construct either a commercial pier or a cruise ship pier in front of property he owns. According to documents presented during the case hearing, a contractual right to construct such a pier was granted to the original property owners by the Maryland Roads Commission (now the State Highway Administration) back in 1957. The state requested the granting of a right-of-way in front of the properties. The original property owners released their oyster leasing rights and subjugated their riparian rights within the right-of-way.
The agreement, said Donnelly, is recorded in Land Records for Calvert County. Donnelly noted that the original Solomons Town Center Master Plan “identified and recognized” the existing pier rights when the document was first approved in 1986. In 1998, the state transferred the deeds of right-of-way to the county.
The pier rights, said Donnelly, “just disappeared” when the master plan was updated in 2009. The current plan places a moratorium on the proliferation of additional commercial piers.
“It is my opinion that improvements made and attached to riparian land are additions to the land and are subject to a county zoning power,” stated Yolanda Hipski of the Calvert Department of Community Planning and Building, the zoning officer who denied Donnelly’s application. “As such the county has the authority to reasonably regulate, through zoning, wharves and piers, because these riparian rights are considered extensions of the shore land.”
“Does zoning trump a contract?” Board of Appeals Chair Susie Hance Wells asked. “Are we premature in hearing this?”
Assistant County Pamela Lucas defended Hipski’s decision. “It was not arbitrary, it was not vague, it was well thought out,” said Lucas.
In her letter to Donnelly, Hipski also contended the deeds he (Donnelly) provided to the department’s Technical Advisory Group “do not support ownership asserted in the application.” Hipski requested Donnelly and his associates submit a boundary survey.
The board subsequently met for several minutes in executi
