DATE: Thursday, July 26, 1990 TAG: 9002030661
PAGE: B-3 EDITION: City
SECTION: Area/State LENGTH: 71 lines
SOURCE: By Randolph P. Smith
Times-Dispatch staff writer
MEMO: (lsb)

CURRIN ABSTAINS FROM VOTE ON ZONING

The chairman of the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, C.F. Currin Jr., abstained in a zoning case yesterday that would have benefited one of his business partners.

At a supervisors' meeting in June, Currin had said he intended to vote in the case, which involved allowing a law office to move into a historic house in Centralia. The house, built in 1889 and known as Circle Oaks, is owned by James T. Waddill IV, who is one of Currin's two partners in a Chester real estate firm.

But by the time it was Currin's turn to speak at yesterday's hearing, a majority of the supervisors had declared their intention to vote against the rezoning request.

Currin said he didn't think allowing the large two-story frame house to be used as a law office would erode the residential character of Centralia, one of Chesterfield's oldest communities. But he acknowledged that the votes weren't there to approve the rezoning.

The denial was the second defeat for Waddill, who has twice been rebuffed in attempts to convert Circle Oaks into a business.

Less than three months after Waddill bought Circle Oaks in May 1989, he asked the Board of Zoning Appeals for a permit to allow a catering business to operate out of the house. The board later turned him down after a strong turnout by Centralia residents who were opposed to the requested exception to the zoning laws.

Yesterday's case was filed late last year by lawyer Stephen L. Bryant, who wanted to run his practice out of Circle Oaks. To appease neighbors, Bryant even offered to live on the property.

But Centralia residents took a hard stand against the rezoning, saying that allowing a business to operate out of Circle Oaks would encourage other people in the area to sell their houses for business uses. That, they argued, would start a cycle that would end Centralia's 100-year history as a residential community.

"This is a stable residential area unless ransition is injected into it," the Rev. John D. Holmes said. "We, the citizens of the area, need protection from becoming a ransition area."

The crucial vote was cast by Maurice B. Sullivan, the Midlothian District supervisor. Harry G. Daniel of ale District and Jesse J. Mayes of Matoaca District had already agreed with the residents that allowing Circle Oaks to become a business would not be proper.

Sullivan said he was concerned that a residential owner might not be able to afford to maintain historic homes. "Sometimes the only way those homes will be preserved is by doing something like we're looking at here. But there is nothing that says 1990 is the time to do this."

Bryant's rezoning request was rejected 4-0 with Currin abstaining.

Also yesterday, the supervisors stuck by their November decision to restrict commercial development along Courthouse Road until plans to widen that overburdened two-lane highway are completed.

Marteen Associates had proposed building two office buildings and a convenience store with gas pumps on Courthouse Road at Reams Road.

The rezoning request had been pending since December 1987 and was delayed primarily so county staff could draw up a development plan for the Courthouse Road corridor.

That plan was essentially shelved Nov. 8 when the supervisors voted to follow the current land use plan for the area until the expected widening of Courthouse Road is financed and scheduled. The area plan calls for only residential development along Courthouse Road.

"Until that transportation network is finalized, we are creating a bigger problem if we add to the commercial and residential development along Courthouse Road," Geoffrey H. Applegate, the Clover Hill supervisor, said.