Buker v. Town of Sweden

In Buker v. Town of Sweden, 644 A.2d 1042, 1042 (Me. 1994), a property owner appealed the town planning board's denial of his application for a conditional use permit for removal of water. The property owner argued that that the planning board should be estopped from denying the permit because the owner had relied to his detriment on the planning board's assertion that it would consider his permit application under a different category. Id. at 1044. The Law Court rejected the argument, reasoning that because "we have held that equitable estoppel can be asserted against a municipality only as a defense, the property owner "improperly brings the claim of equitable estoppel as an affirmative cause of action." Id.