Use for building

Use for building

still 'on table'

for Town Council

By MARKSCOLFORO

Rappahannock N«w, Staff Writer

Having purchased the old library building on Gay Street for use as a Town Hall, the Washington Town Council is grappling with the question of what restrictions it will put on the building’s use.

At the council’s regular monthly meeting last Wednesday, Town^Attomey Frank Reynolds outlined some ofthe issues involved in deciding how to use the building, among them a deed restriction placed on the property when the county conveyed it to the town.

The Town Hall is in a residential zone, on the edge of a mixed-use zone but resi- ' dential nonetheless, said Mr. Reynolds. Assuming that the town does intend some kind of use, he presented the council with three options: rezone the building to mixed-use or - services zoning, amend the Zoning Ordinance to allow the use of town governmental uses in residential areas or exempt the town itself from its own Zoning Ordinance. Mr. Reynolds said he recommends exempting itself from its own laws.

He said the problem with rezoning the building is that it “opens up Gay Street to claims for further rezoning.” Changing the ordinance to allow government buildings in residential zones creates new problems. If only the town government is allowed, the county may feel discriminated against. If all government buildings are allowed in residential areas, there could be multiple sales of homes for use as state and county offices, eroding the neighborhood feel of residential zones.

Exempting itself from its own Zoning “ Ordinance is what the county did when putting in the Amissville landfill, Mr. Reynolds pointed out.

Town resident Diane Bruce, also the Circuit Court clerk, told the council that deed restrictions imposed by the county limit the

Set TOWN COUNCIL, p. A-6