Judges say Worcester commissioners failed to explain decision
A state appeals court says the Worcester County Commissioners must take a second look at a contractor’s commercial rezoning bid for a site off Route 113, finding the board failed to meaningfully analyze the evidence or explain its decision.
The three-judge Appellate Court of Maryland upheld a Worcester County Circuit Court order throwing out the denial and sending the rezoning request back for further consideration.
“Because the County Commissioners failed to articulate any factual basis for their denial, judicial review is impossible,” wrote Judge Brett Wilson in the court’s July 24 opinion.
Wilson also wrote that the commissioners’ unsupported conclusions, failure to consider the Planning Commission’s record, and refusal to make required findings rendered their decision “arbitrary, capricious, and unlawful under Maryland law.”