State Supreme Court Hears Old School Arguments
By DORIE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave
October 17, 2013
A three-judge panel at the Virginia Supreme Court in Richmond heard arguments October 15 by the civic group Old School Cape Charles. The group’s attorney, Kevin Martingayle, told the court that the Town of Cape Charles failed to follow its own code by letting the school in Central Park fall into disrepair. Citizens should have standing to raise concerns about the sale of a public building and parkland, he argued.
“The Town manufactured its own crisis and then used it as an excuse to sell the property,” Martingayle said. He termed it “remarkable” that the Town used its own failures to enforce its code as the excuse for disposing of historic property. Martingayle told the court that he could find no precedent in law for the Town’s actions.
The Old School group is contesting the Town’s “gifting” to a developer of park property valued on the tax rolls at $900,000. Northampton Circuit Court Judge Revell Lewis ruled last February that Town citizens had “no standing” to question the divestment of Town property.
The Supreme Court now must decide whether the case has sufficient import to merit an appeal. The court considers if errors were made in a ruling, and also whether an an area of law is unsettled and in need of clarification. “Many aspects of Old School’s cases have no legal precedent, which makes them more appealing to the judges,” Martingayle told the Wave. [Read more…]
Official Wrangling Over Old School Continues (in Fine Print)
By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave
October 16, 2013
When Cape Charles Town Council meets Thursday (October 17), the Old School in Central Park will be on the agenda yet again – more than two years after Town Council began secret negotiations with a developer to give away the property.
This time, Council will consider whether to override a decision by the Town Manager not to allow an appeal by the civic group Old School Cape Charles regarding issuance of a Certificate of Appropriateness to the school developer.
Town Manager Heather Arcos and Town Planner Rob Testerman write that they “will reject the appeal unless otherwise directed by Council.” They present several reasons why, perhaps the most controversial being that “An appeal must be filed with the Zoning Administrator, but OSCC filed the appeal to the Town Clerk.”
The appeal, filed by OSCC President Wayne Creed, quoted Town Zoning Ordinance Section 8.15: “the decisions of the Historic District Review Board may be appealed to the Town Council.”
But Arcos and Testerman contend that Section 8.34 of the Zoning Ordinance “further explains the steps to give notice of an appeal. An appeal must be filed with the Zoning Administrator, but OSCC filed the appeal to the Town Clerk. The appeal is addressed to the Town Council,” they write. Their memo does not mention whether they obtained advice from the Town’s attorney on the issue. [Read more…]
TOWN COUNCIL: Extra-Cost Recycling Not Recommended
CAPE CHARLES WAVE
October 16, 2013
Cape Charles Town Council meets 6 p.m. Thursday, October 17, at St. Charles Parish Hall.
On the agenda is a vote on a garbage collection contract with Davis Disposal, the sole bidder. Cape Charles currently has no provision for curbside recycling pickup. In its bid, Davis Disposal offered optional recycling pickup every other week at a cost of $5 per household per month. However, the recycling would include only paper products and #1 and #2 plastics (no glass).
Davis did not offer any rate reduction for garbage pickup even though with recycling the amount of regular refuse collected would necessarily be less. Town staff has recommended that Council accept the Davis bid on garbage collection but not exercise the curbside recycling option.
Other items on Thursday’s agenda include updates on repairs to the fishing pier, new Washington Avenue sidewalks, Harbor density zoning, and the Old School in Central Park (read separate story here).
The Town information packet may be read by clicking here.
TUESDAY 10/15: Historic Review Board to Hear Requests
The Cape Charles Historic District Review Board will meet 6 p.m. Tuesday, October 15, at Town Hall to consider requests to add a dormer to the rear of the house at 219 Jefferson Avenue and to construct an addition to the rear of the building at 309 Mason Avenue. [Read more…]
COMMENTARY: Old School Gets Its Day in Supreme Court
By DEBORAH BENDER
October 14, 2013
Tomorrow the Old School Cape Charles civic group will get a second chance at justice. On Tuesday, October 15, the Virginia Supreme Court will hear an appeal of a lower court decision allowing the historic school in Central Park to be given to a developer.
Those who have been reading the Wave know the sad story of the Town’s secret negotiations and purported “sale” of the school for $10. One can barely buy lunch for $10, but our Town Council sold valuable town property –including the Town’s only two basketball courts — for that “price.”
But it gets worse: Not only did they sell the school for $10, they then gave the developer $41,000 in insurance money for earthquake damage not noticed until three months after the fact.
The Town bumbled about for several months trying to issue a legally acceptable rezoning and conditional use permit, which they were never quite able to do.
The Town signed a contract and enacted an ordinance to sell the school to Echelon Resources. But when Mayor Sullivan signed over the deed, it was to Charon Ventures — an entity that was never mentioned in the contract or the Town ordinance.
Town residents who value public property and care about the local children thought better of the school than to give it away. They formed a group and named it Old School Cape Charles. Old School set to work alerting townspeople through signs, leaflets, and petitions. In reaction, Town Planning Commissioners have spent months working on the Town’s sign ordinance to ban protest signs. [Read more…]
LETTER: Thanks to Town Staff for a Job Well Done
October 11, 2013
DEAR EDITOR,
As the 2013 Mid-Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin Unusual Mortality Event (UME) Investigation continues, close to 700 strandings have been collected so far. The tentative cause of the UME is being attributed to cetacean morbillivirus, based upon preliminary diagnostic testing and discussion with disease experts. Of 93 dolphins tested to date, 84 were confirmed positive or suspect positive for morbillivirus.
These studies involve several NOAA laboratories and science centers, stranding network members, non-profit research organizations, and academic partners, yet it is important to note that the important data needed would not have been collected without local boots-on-the-ground members of coastal communities like ours. Here is the rest of the story:
We are lucky enough to have a Town Manager and Public Works staff that has been very effective in the handling of dolphin strandings here in Cape Charles. There have been several strandings in and around our harbor, with two dolphins actually landing on our beaches. In both cases, Town Manager Heather Arcos instructed Pete Leontieff of our public works staff to secure the dolphins as best as possible (there’s no handout or standard operating procedure for this) and then contact the Virginia Aquarium. After the technicians were able to conduct the testing and gather the data, Pete and his crew disposed of the dolphins according the specifications supplied by the Aquarium staff. [Read more…]
WHO WE ARE: Combat Veteran Not Jaded By War
Post 56 member Chad Isabelle in Afghanistan 2004
By JOE VACCARO
American Legion Post 56
October 9, 2013
During this Year of the Veteran at the American Legion Post 56, we’re reminded that the persons we call friends and the organizations we belong to are usually a good indicator of who we are or what we aspire to be.
Some people might call these relationships character building. Character building usually begins at home and becomes a finely honed skill in places like church, school and military service. General Dwight D. Eisenhower once stated that character was “everything in leadership” but real character was basically “integrity”.
Throughout the years, military service has become a gristmill for “character building” where men and women are placed in difficult to almost impossible circumstances yet triumph over their circumstances.
The concepts of character and integrity are interwoven throughout a service member’s career whether they serve three years or 33 years. The idea of sacrificing one’s personal needs for the greater good for all isn’t a new concept. If you don’t believe that, ask former combat veteran and American Legion Post 56 member Chad Isabelle. [Read more…]
VACATION RENTALS: License to Kill the Golden Goose?
By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave
October 7, 2013
According to Cape Charles merchants, this year’s tourist season was the best in memory. But if Town officials enforce their vacation rental rules, they could kill the goose laying the golden eggs.
Cape Charles has five bed-and-breakfasts with 18 bedrooms, and two hotels with 22 rooms, for a total of 40 rooms offered to the public. Those 40 rooms obviously are not the anchor for tourist accommodation in Cape Charles. Families, often staying a week or longer, rent whole houses, and in almost every case these homes are privately owned.
According to a report compiled by former Town Planner Tom Bonadeo, the Town is comprised of 958 houses, of which 402 are used for vacation rentals. Without these individually owned properties, the Cape Charles tourist trade would hardly exist. But Town policies, if enforced, could decimate this cottage industry.
For an example of a Town that has successfully discouraged private vacation rentals, one need look no farther than Chincoteague. Even though Chincoteague hosts multiples of tourists more than Cape Charles, the number of private vacation homes for rent in Chincoteague is only a small fraction of those in Cape Charles.
Why? Perhaps because Chincoteague has enacted a very restrictive ordinance: private houses offered for vacation rental are required to provide one off-street parking space for each bedroom in the house. And the parking spaces cannot be in the front yard. That severely restricts rental opportunities for homeowners, but it doesn’t hurt the tourist business as a whole, because Chincoteague has a Best Western, a Hampton Inn, a Rodeway Inn, Comfort Suites, and many, many more condos and villas. Perhaps commercial innkeepers don’t want competition from private homeowners, and the Town of Chincoteague appears to have accommodated their wishes. [Read more…]
