Maazel’s

Maazel’s

application

tabled for

one month

BY GERALD OCHS

Rappahannock News Special Writer

At last week’s meeting of the Rappahannock County Planning Commission, Commissioners voted unanimously to table the Special Exception application by Loren and Dietlinde Maazel to convert a temporary school facility to permanent use, and to increase maximum school enrollment to 115. The Maazels’ reaction to the Planning Commission action and public comment, according to a spokesman, was a careful consideration of the issues raised at the hearing, and it is possible that this consideration will lead to the modification of the application.

The Maazels have provided the Hearthstone Whole Family Learning Center with land and facilities for the school, and the school is independently owned and operated. Most of the issues raised at the hearing are germane, but Chairman Werner Krebser’s suggestion that the Maazels put their land into scenic easement in exchange for the Commission’s positive consideration may not be, said Maazel friends. They seem to agree that the safety issues raised will to be addressed, but the voluntary easement issue is one that the Maazels are no doubt investigating in the context of land conservation and estate planning.

The Maazel’s Castleton Farms comprises nearly 500 acres, and is zoned and used for agriculture, but also houses the school facility and a concert hall used largely for the benefit of the Maazel’s Chateauville Foundation charitable causes. The original Special Exception permits, said Maazel’s attorney Doug Baumgardner, allowed for a temporary site for , the school with a capacity of thirty students, which was later increased to forty.

The site was temporary, he noted, because the school was to move to a permanent site in Castleton Meadows with a capacity of seventy-five full time students, but the permanent facility is