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Jordan Towing6/12/2002
945-46; Bulluck, 283 Md. at 512-13, 390 A.2d at 1124." Id. at 495-97, 769 A.2d at 921-22 (footnote omitted) (alteration in original).
III. Discussion
In the case sub judice, the Board of Appeals, the administrative agency whose decision is being reviewed, reached the proper result in that appellant's license should not have been granted. The record before the Board of Appeals establishes that the DPM did not apply the proper need standards as interpreted under the Baltimore County Code when granting appellant's towing license. The proper basic need standards for the DPM, or Mr. Freeman, to have applied when considering appellant's towing license should have been the "Need Criteria" detailed supra. This is how the Baltimore County Code need provisions have consistently been interpreted. Therefore, the outcome of the case sub judice rests upon the error of the DPM in not applying the proper standards to appellant's towing license application. The Board of Appeals was correct in finding the actions of the DPM to be unlawful.
In Pollard's, supra, a towing license case arising out of Baltimore County, the intermediate appellate court recently and clearly indicated the proper standards to apply when issuing licenses to conduct towing operations in Baltimore County. The court in Pollard's discussed the "eight need criteria" and established that the criteria, even though unpublished in the Baltimore County Code, are the standards to be used in a towing license case. Judge Moylan, writing for that court, specifically referenced the Board of Appeals' opinion in that case where the Board of Appeals noted "based upon prior practices, these eight criteria have become established criteria in which the department has established the `need' factor, and upon which the towing companies have relied in filing for a towing license." Pollard's, 137 Md. App. at 294, 768 A.2d at 140.
There have also been towing cases before the County Board of Appeals for Baltimore County where the Board of Appeals either reversed the DPM granting of a towing license or upheld the denial of a towing license because the need criteria were not satisfied.
In order for a new license to issue, it must first be established that any license issued results from, or would result from, the satisfaction of a need proven by an assessment of the eight need criteria related to population, growth potential, number of accidents, response times, complaints, etc. It is the submission of the application which triggers the DPM and, in turn, the BCPD to assess the need for additional towing services in that particular geographical area pursuant to the established "Need Criteria." Mr. Freeman acknowledged to Mr. Jordan, and in his testimony before the Board of Appeals, that these criteria have become established standards for the DPM to use when assessing the "need" factor under section 24-229, which states that "new licensed towers shall be approved by the department of permits and licenses based upon the need for additional service." (Emphasis added.)
The record that was before the Board of Appeals establishes that the license approval in the instant case was flawed from the start. Appellant, when presenting its license application to the DPM, based its claim of need not upon actual need for additional towers in Baltimore County, but solely upon its minority status as an African-American business wanting to serve a district with a substantial African-American population currently without a minority-owned towing company and that this lack of minority participation was unfair. Thereafter, the record reflects that when appellant's application, basing need solely upon its minority status, was submitt
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