## Facts

- A professional builder contracted to purchase a residential lot in Anne Arundel County; only one lot remained at issue on appeal.
- Part of the lot lay within the Chesapeake Bay Critical Area buffer near wetlands, triggering strict setback limits under Critical Area rules and county zoning.
- When it contracted to purchase, the builder knew it would need variances to build the desired house.
- The builder applied for variances from (1) the Critical Area buffer setback and (2) applicable zoning provisions.
- The County Board of Appeals denied the variances, reasoning that any hardship was “self-created” because the wetlands and regulations preexisted the purchase and the builder bought the property intending to maximize development despite the restrictions.

## Issues

1. Whether the Board applied an erroneous legal standard for Critical Area variances.
2. Whether the Board’s finding of “self-created hardship” was legally erroneous.
3. Whether acquiring property with knowledge that a Critical Area buffer variance will be sought constitutes “self-created hardship” that bars a variance.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals reversed the intermediate appellate court and held the Board committed legal error in treating the hardship as self-created on the facts presented.
- The court held that purchasing the property with knowledge of existing Critical Area restrictions and an intent to seek a variance does not, by itself, constitute a self-created hardship.
- The court directed that, on remand, the Board must apply the controlling Critical Area variance standards established in prior Court of Appeals decisions governing Critical Area variances.
- The case was remanded for further proceedings consistent with the court’s opinion (requiring reconsideration under the correct standards).

## Legal Principles

- Critical Area variances must be evaluated under the controlling Maryland standards articulated in the Court of Appeals’ prior Critical Area variance cases (including Belvoir Farms, White, and Mastandrea).
- “Self-created hardship” is not established per se by a purchaser’s knowledge, at acquisition, of land-use restrictions or the need to apply for a variance.
- A self-created hardship generally requires affirmative conduct by the owner that causes the hardship, rather than hardship attributable to the lot’s preexisting physical/environmental constraints and regulatory setting.

## Conclusion

The court rejected a per se rule that knowledge of Critical Area restrictions at purchase automatically makes a variance hardship self-created, reversed the reinstatement of the Board’s denial, and required reconsideration under the governing Critical Area variance standards.


Richard Roeser Pro. Builder, Inc. v. Anne Arundel Cnty., 368 Md. 294, 793 A.2d 545 (2002)