1:45 p.m. EDT, June 18, 2013
GLOUCESTER — Ware Neck resident Judith Doyel won a small victory in Gloucester County Circuit Court on Tuesday when a judge granted her request to divide a single property with two homes on it over the objections of county officials.
But her victory was tempered when County Attorney Ted Wilmot said he would appeal the case to the Virginia Supreme Court, a move that will cost Doyel thousands more in legal fees and an unknown amount of time waiting out the legal process.
Doyel and her attorney, Bob Hicks, had successfully convinced visiting Judge Walter J. Ford to grant the request to divide equally 7.4 acres on Marshfield Road in Ware Neck. Doyel has been trying to sell the property with two homes on it since December 2011.
A contract on the property a year ago was nullified, however, because an appraiser couldn't find any comparable properties to arrive at a value and no mortgage companies would lend the purchaser money to finance the sale, according to court testimony.
Doyel applied to subdivide the property and filed an application with the county last year, but it was denied by Planning Director Anne Ducey-Ortiz. In court, Ducey-Ortiz testified that as much as she wants to help Doyel, she is supposed to enforce county ordinances.
In Doyel's case, those zoning ordinances in her area prohibit lots of less than five acres with homes on them and bars private roads such as Marshfield serving more than 3 lots; the road serves five.
A farmhouse and a manufactured home were on the property prior to the enactment of the county's zoning and planning ordinances in 1998.
Hicks told Ford that Doyel isn't asking to put anything new on the property. The homes have separate driveways, septic systems, wells and even addresses and keeping them has become a financial hardship for her.
In his ruling, Ford said that Doyel has been deprived of her right to sell her property and "that's a hardship."
Wilmot's move to appeal the case caught Doyel and Hicks by surprise.
"It makes no sense," Doyel said.
http://www.dailypress.com/news/gloucester-county/dp-tsq-mid-gloucester-civil-trial-0620-20130618,0,913620.story Link to Daily Press original story.
This is typical of Gloucester County government. This article lacks detail in regards to the ordinance in question. We have shown numerous times on this site that Gloucester County has little to no regard for state law when making local ordinances and have made a number of local ordinances in violation of state law. Could this be another area where the county has done just that?
Maybe someone should sue Ted Wilmot for the hardships he is creating here. This is also part of the reason Louise Theberge was voted out recently. The people of Gloucester County are tired of these kinds of cruel politics and have made it well known that we are not going to take it anymore. It would seem to us that there is a grandfather clause in this case seeing as the homes existed on the property prior to the 1998 zoning ordinance. Is Judith Doyel just being milked here?
This is your county tax dollars working against a citizen of Gloucester. Send Ted Wilmot an email letting him know not to waste your tax dollars like this. His email address is ewilmot@gloucesterva.info
This is your county tax dollars working against a citizen of Gloucester. Send Ted Wilmot an email letting him know not to waste your tax dollars like this. His email address is ewilmot@gloucesterva.info
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