A spat over a shared driveway in Poolesville could set a precedent in which private homeowners associations’ rules override local zoning authority across Maryland, city officials said.
The fight involves Poolesville neighbors who share a 250-foot-long, 10-foot-wide driveway in a suburban subdivision. One set of neighbors, Drs. Robin Mevissen and Thomas McInnes, have been operating an optometry practice out of their home since 2006, according to court records.
Their neighbors, Don and Linda Barnes, said having customers and deliverymen driving up their shared driveway six days a week from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. hurt their property value and intruded on their privacy and security.
The optometrists secured special permission from the city to operate their home business, despite the fact that a neighborhood covenant prohibited that. The city imposed restrictions that the doctors build additional parking spaces and limit the number of customers who visit each day, court records show.
The Barnes appealed to Montgomery County Circuit Court, asking the court order the city to reconsider. Their attorney, Christopher Hitchens, said there likely wouldn’t be a problem if there weren’t a shared driveway. “That’s the crucial issue,” he said.
Judge Joseph Dugan Jr. sided with the Barneses, saying that the city’s attorney, Alan Wright, erred when he told the zoning board to ignore the covenants in making their decision.
“I mean, that’s what covenants are,” Dugan said in court. “They’re restrictions that everybody agrees on for the overall well-being of the neighborhood and the value of the homes in that neighborhood.”
City officials have appealed the decision to the state Court of Special Appeals and asked for the Maryland Municipal League, a statewide group that lobbies for local governments, to support their case in what they said could be a statewide precedent. A spokesman for the MML said the organization was currently reviewing the case.
In court, city attorney Wright said that if Poolesville’s officials couldn’t grant special exemptions to zoning rules that went against neighborhood covenants, there would be a “impermissible delegation of their legislative authority” to developers who write the covenants and the homeowners associations who adopt them.
“You would basically nullify the authority of the town of Poolesville to legislate, to create zoning and decide what uses are permitted and not permitted,” Wright said.
