DATE: Sunday, July 8, 1990 TAG: 9001310870
PAGE: B-1 EDITION: City
SECTION: Area/State LENGTH: 133 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO
SOURCE: By Randolph P. Smith
Times-Dispatch staff writer
MEMO: (lka)

ZONING REQUEST PUTS FOCUS ON CURRIN

The chairman of the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, C.F. Currin Jr., may cast the tiebreaking vote in a zoning case that would benefit one of his business partners.

Currin has already said he intends to vote in the case, which involves a historic house in Centralia owned by James T. Waddill IV. Currin, Waddill and George P. Emerson Jr., a construction company president, are partners in a Chester real estate firm that carries all their names in its title.

They also are principals in the group developing Riversbend on the James, a 1,324-acre residential, commercial and office project on the west side of Interstate 295, north of state Route 10.

Currin and Waddill were partners in the real estate business before Emerson joined them several years ago. The pair's business dealings date to at least 1983, when they formed a partnership that bought a controlling interest in a 124.6-acre parcel that is now part of Riversbend.

Waddill owns Circle Oaks, a two-story frame structure that is Centralia's oldest home, built in 1889. The 3,000-square-foot house was expanded early in this century and features a wraparound double-tier portico.

Circle Oaks was granted historic status by the Board of Supervisors in July 1988. It is one of five designated historic homes in Centralia, which is among the earliest suburban settlements south of Richmond.

One of Circle Oaks' three outbuildings housed the east Chesterfield branch of the American Red Cross in 1918, and hospital supplies and Christmas packages were wrapped there for troops overseas.

But Circle Oaks has been a lightning rod of controversy in Centralia since Waddill bought the house last year from F. Hampton and Beverly Davis, who spent $40,000 renovating it and led the historic designation drive in Centralia. Less than three months after Waddill paid $215,000 for Circle Oaks in May 1989, he appeared before the Board of Zoning Appeals with a request to permit a catering business to operate out of the house.

The board later turned him down on a 3-1 vote after a strong turnout by Centralia residents opposed to the requested exception to the zoning laws.

Now, Chesterfield lawyer Stephen L. Bryant has a rezoning request pending before the Board of Supervisors to turn Circle Oaks into a law office. Waddill still owns the property, but Bryant has an option to buy it.

Bryant originally wanted to rezone the Circle Oaks from residential to office use. Centralia residents protested, saying that once the property was rezoned, it could be used for any type of office use. So Bryant changed his application in March to rezone it from residential to agricultural with a conditional use to permit law offices. He did that, he said, to show "I had no ulterior motive in purchasing the property and zoning it as such."

But that change hasn't won peace with Centralians, most of whom are opposed to Bryant's plans. "It's not Mr. Bryant we're opposing. It's any business that might move in there," said Anne Tennille, the leader of the opposition to the rezoning request. "We don't want business because we don't want to let the precedent be set," explained her brother, Tom.

"Once commercial and business comes into a neighborhood, taxes start to go up. Then one piece of property is offered for sale. It's bought and turned into a lawyer's office. The next piece of property up the road is offered for sale. It's bought and turned into a doctor's office.

"Our main concern is that Circle Oaks will become a steppingstone; that Circle Oaks will become the first piece of property on the west side of the railroad tracks to fall into this commercial and business zoning (cycle)," Tennille said. Two businesses already operate on Centralia Road, west of the railroad tracks. But one originally was the hamlet's post office (which was transferred to Chester in 1954) and the other was zoned for business use in the early 1970s.

Since then, Centralia has remained a small, quiet community where many families have lived for decades. The Tennille family, for example, moved there in 1917.

Many residents feel threatened by Waddill's efforts to get a business into Circle Oaks. Margaret C. Robertson, who owns the historic two-story frame house directly across Centralia Road from Circle Oaks, said, "Mr. Bryant is a new front for the same old scheme."

The Davises, the former owners, have offered to buy the house back from Waddill to keep it a residence, Ms. Tennille said. Chesterfield's planning staff and Planning Commission have sided with the residents and recommended that Bryant's rezoning request be turned down.

William D. Poole, the county's chief of development review, said his staff opposed the zoning change "because of the probable precedent it would set and the likelihood that might send a signal to other property owners in the area to continue to change their community."

A change to permit office use at Circle Oaks also would violate the county's central area land use plan, which designates the area for residential use only.

Enter Currin.
At the June 27 supervisors meeting, when Bryant's rezoning request first came up, Currin declared that one of his partners owned the house.

"I do not have any financial interest in this house, nor property, nor any property around that house," Currin said.
"In the past, on certain occasions when I had property with my partners, I did disqualify myself because I knew that act or certain things had happened and there was a possibility that I would be part of it.

"In this case, I can assure everyone I have no intention -- never had and never will have any intentions -- to do anything with this property. And so, therefore, I contacted (County Attorney Steven L.) Micas and he says I legally can vote and so I intend on voting."

Currin then listened to the arguments for and against the zoning change with the four other supervisors. In the course of normal procedure, Currin, as chairman, is the last board member to express his opinions during the debate before a vote. In Bryant's case, two supervisors had already come out firmly against the rezoning: Harry G. Daniel, who epresents Dale District, where Centralia is located; and Jesse J. Mayes, the Matoaca District supervisor. Both said the zoning change would undermine the residential character of Centralia. That spelled serious trouble for the rezoning request. If Currin had abstained from the case and the two other supervisors -- Geoffrey H. Applegate of Clover Hill and Maurice B. Sullivan of Midlothian -- voted for it, the Bryant zoning could be left in limbo.

The county attorney previously has ruled that a tie vote on a zoning matter means the case is carried over to successive board meetings until a majority is formed. In other matters, a tie vote defeats an issue. Cast in the role of possible tiebreaker in a case involving his business partner's property, Currin pressed to delay the vote.

"I think it would behoove" Mr. Bryant to ask for a 30-day deferral, Currin said, "if nothing else but for Mr. Bryant to get together with the opposition and discuss it." There was a suggestion that Bryant might actually live in Circle Oaks and also use the home for a small law office, although Bryant said his practice involved three lawyers and four staff members. "A lot of things could happen in 30 days that might solve a lot of problems," Currin said. Daniel eventually went along with Currin's suggestion for a deferral, and now the case will return at the July 25 supervisors' meeting.