B&B permit

B&B permit

approved

by board

i •

Castleton proposal

had riled neighbors

By SHARON KILPATRICK

Rappahannock New* Staff Writer

The Board of Zoning Appeals has voted unanimously to approve a special use permit for Carol Frances to operate a bed and breakfast in the house she rents on Route 618 near Castleton.

At last Wednesday’s meeting Ms. Frances said she had met with neighbors who had urged her to withdraw her application. She submitted a letter in which she said she would allow her neighbors to review the operation of her bed and breakfast after a six-month period.

In the letter she said she would allow them to consider whether there was any visual impairment, loud or annoying noise, trespassing or invasion of their privacy, and whether she responded quickly to complaints. She also said she would get liability insurance.

“I’ve gone about as far as I could without withdrawing my application,” she said.

She said she had had three inquiries from people interested in staying at her place since the Planning Commission hearing a week earlier.

Charles Coombs said Ms. Frances’s letter was “nice” but it didn’t “overcome the main objection. It’s the first step in the breakdown of a residential neighborhood,” he said.

Stonewall-Hawthom representative Sid Gottlieb noted that the area is zoned agricultural, not residential.

James Cannon said he had bad experiences with a bed and breakfast that had closed but had formerly been open in property adjoining his family’s farm. He said guests had brought dogs that trespassed on his property and chased a herd of cows during the calving season. He said in another incident children staying at the bed and breakfast had thrown trash, including bottles, from the roadside onto the road.

Ms. Frances said she did not plan to rent to people with dogs or children.

The BZA members ddHded the

See B&B, p. A-3