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B&B request
passed with
restrictions
Tourist home is tag
Robert Bridges’ application to run a bed and breakfast to handle overflow guests from the Bleu Rock Inn eight to 10 weekends a year ran into a flurry of controversy at the Planning Commission Sept. 16.
Mr. Bridges has been taking in guests from the Bleu Rock. He applied for a special use permit to continue doing so legally.
When the planners took up the application, County Administrator John McCarthy told them that he had received a telephone call opposed to the application from Loren Anderson. Mr. McCarthy said there was also a letter in opposition from Kerri Wagner of Sycamore Hill House, a bed and breakfast operated just outside Washington.
Mrs. Wagner’s letter states:
“As a full-time, professional B&B operator, I am against granting a license to casually operate a bed and breakfast a few weekends per year. Merely renting rooms does not make a B&B. Almost without exception, each B&B running now in Rappahannock County is run full-time, as a professional business (not a hobby), and as the primary or only occupation of the proprietor. In addition, those of us accredited by...national/state groups...are subject to extremely stringent rules of operation, facilities requirements, periodic inspections, and other specialized criteria. It is doubtful a casual operation such as the one proposed would meet those requirements.”
Mr. Bridges said, “The application speaks for itself. When the Bleu Rock overflows, it is too late to call other B and Bs. They asked if we would take these people.” He said he did not serve breakfast. His customers go back to the Bleu Rock for breakfast.”
He said his house has four bedrooms, each with a private bathroom, that his children and grandchildren use when they visit, but these rooms are normally empty. He said there is also an apartment built over a garage that is rented.
Phil Irwin, owner of Caledonia Farm Bed and Breakfast, also opposed the application. He said he was founder of the Rappahannock Bed and Breakfast Guild and an officer in the Foothills Travel Association and the Bed and Breakfast Association of Virginia, “My retirement has been dedicated to hospitality,” he said.
“I object to putting people up in a less than profesSee
Request, Page A-2
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