Acorn alleged that Baltimore County's rezoning of its property to Rural Residential amounted to an unconstitutional taking, in violation of both the state and federal constitutions; it filed suit in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County seeking a declaratory judgment based on its allegations. Baltimore County filed a Motion to Dismiss Acorn's Complaint.

The Court, in granting Baltimore County's Motion to Dismiss, held that Acorn had failed to exhaust applicable state administrative remedies; therefore its claim, alleging that Baltimore County had violated the state constitution, was unripe for review. Specifically, the Court stated that a party seeking a declaratory judgment must first exhaust whatever avenues for relief are available under state law prior to filing suit. Such administrative exhaustion requirement, applies to zoning suits against Maryland's counties. Baltimore County property owners wishing to challenge a zoning classification/ reclassification are required to first petition the Baltimore County Board of Appeals ("Board of Appeals"), which Acorn failed to do, therefore its claim alleging violation of the state constitution was dismissed.

However, Acorn was not required to exhaust state administrative remedies prior filing its Complaint alleging that the rezoning amounted to an unconstitutional taking in violation of the federal constitution. Nevertheless, the Court held that Acorn's federal constitution claim was also unripe. The Court, citing Williamson County Reg'l Planning Comm'n v. Hamilton Bank of Johnson City, 473 U.S. 172, 186 (1985), stated "a claim that the application of government regulations effects a taking of a property interest is not ripe until the government entity charged with implementing the regulations has reached a final decision regarding the application of the regulations to the property at issue." In other words, Acorn's claim was not ripe because the Board of Appeals had not ruled with finality on whether to retain the zoning change that Acorn alleged created an unconstitutional taking. The Board of Appeals had not made such a ruling because Acorn had never submitted a petition for zoning reclassification, as it was required to do pursuant to Maryland Law, therefore there was no final administrative action for the Court to review.