Hoffman Brothers asks Prince George’s County examiner to validate 1967 use-and-occupancy permit

Hoffman Brothers Towing Inc. asked the Prince George’s County Zoning Hearing Examiner on June 18 to validate a use-and-occupancy permit issued Dec. 18, 1967, for its Laurel property at 7808 Sandy Spring Road (formerly 1421 Sandy Spring Road), saying company investments and active towing contracts depend on the permit.

The company’s owner, Garner Gorley, testified that Hoffman Brothers “tows strictly for the Prince George County Police Department and also for Laurel City Police Department,” and that the business has relied on the 1967 permit for decades while maintaining county and state licenses. Senior land planner Eddie Diaz Campbell, testifying for the applicant, said planning staff have taken the position that the 1967 permit was issued in error because the property is in the county’s rural residential zoning category, where towing and used-car sales are not permitted uses under today’s code.

Why it matters: Validation would preserve licenses, ongoing county towing contracts and the company’s investments in vehicles and staff, the applicant said. County planning staff’s view that the permit was issued in error raises a legal question about whether the historic permit can be validated or treated as a…