Hearing examiner hears request to rezone 4110 Suit Road after applicant cites decades-old map error

Maureen McNeil, the Prince George's County Zoning Hearing Examiner, opened the Aug. 7, 2024 hearing on Zoning Map Amendment (ZMA) 2023-002, identifying the applicant as Suit and Forest OI LLC and the subject property as 4110 Suit Road in District Heights. The applicant seeks to rezone 14.19 acres from a split RSF-95/IE designation to industrial (IE) for the entire parcel.

Matthew Gordon, counsel for the applicant, told the examiner the split zoning originated from a 1985 District Heights master plan that located a road alignment through the property. Gordon said subsequent agency referrals and later master-plan work removed the roadway from transportation plans, but the split zoning remained on the maps, a drafting or translation error the applicant says should be corrected. "We came to find out that there was a mistake that's been made, really since the late 19 nineties," Gordon said.

Witnesses for the applicant included Dan Berger, director of development for Open Industrial, who described Open Industrial's ownership and the property's condition when purchased in January 2022, and Kevin Foster, a certified land planner who reviewed master plans and zoning history. Foster testified that the split zoning followed the centerline of the planned roadway in the 1985 plan and that the 2009/2010 transportation and subregion plans removed the interchange from the highway recommendations, but the 2010 sectional map amendment that implemented the 2010 master plan did not change the property's split zoning.

Foster said the site has environmental constraints and is inside a military noise zone, making residential reuse impractical. He testified that rezoning to industrial would allow cleanup under a commercial-use remediation standard, permit landscape buffers, and better align uses with nearby industrial parcels. "I think it's probably a public interest for the health, safety, welfare of the public," Foster said, describing cleanup and reduced residential exposure to airport noise as public benefits.

People's Zoning Council counsel Stan Brown acknowledged the applicant's arguments but raised procedural and documentary questions (certificate of good standing, ethics affidavits), which counsel agreed to supply. Brown also informed the hearing of a Maryland appellate opinion (County Council of Prince George's v. Robindale Land) issued Aug. 6, 2024, that the parties said could affect whether the 2021–2022 countywide map amendment constitutes a governing sectional map amendment for mistake claims. The examiner left the record open for a certificate of good standing and gave parties an opportunity to file a short written argument responding to the new appellate decision.

The hearing remains pending the parties' filings. The examiner directed the applicant to provide the outstanding certificate of good standing within a week and said the record will close after required items are received.