for determining when a person has obtained a vested right in an existing zoning use: Generally, in order to obtain a vested right in an existing zoning use that -will be protected against a subsequent change in a zoning ordinance prohibiting that use, the owner must initially obtain a valid permit. Additionally, in reliance upon the valid permit, the owner must make a substantial beginning in construction and in committing the land to the permitted use before the change in the zoning ordinance has occurred. Powell v. Calvert County, 368 Md. 400, 411-12, 795 A.2d 96, 102-03 (2002) (quoting O’Donnell v. Bassler, 289 Md. 501, 508, 425 A.2d 1003, 1007 (1981)). The Hearing Examiner, applying this rule, and other settled Maryland t Land Corp., 274 Md. 691, 707, 337 A.2d 712, 721 (1975) (<HOLDING>). MRA attempts to carve out a new category of
holding a zoning authority acts in an arbitrary and capricious manner when it denies a permit meeting the general zoning qualifications solely because of the type of building to be constructed holding that one million dollars in expenditures and a valid building permit did not create vested right in previous zoning classification of the land at issue holding that because zoning restrictions are in derogation of property rights where a term in a zoning ordinance is undefined an ambiguity in that term must be construed in favor of the property owner and the least restrictive use of the land holding a defendant is not vested with a right to be absent from trial holding that expenditures on architectural planning do not create vested right