The Mathews County Board of Supervisors wrangled for a long time Tuesday night over an application for a conditional use permit for a retail business in a Buckley Hall Road residence in the Mathews Court House area.

Facing a crowd of people gathered in support of the applicant, the board members defeated one motion on a 3-2 vote before finally approving the matter 3-2 with an additional condition attached.

Applicant Janice Jones owns Roane’s Antiques, which has been located for a number of years in a cottage on Main Street. She and her husband, David, applied for the permit so she could move her shop into their much larger home at 10344 Buckley Hall Road, while he moves his home-based property development business to the Main Street location.

At issue, as discussed during last month’s public hearing on the matter, were the objections of neighbors John and Meryl Clark, who contended that approval to allow a bustling business to use the entrance they share with the Joneses would disturb their right to quiet enjoyment of their home and create a traffic hazard, and the objections of the Nelson and Emerson families, who said they owned the driveway on the other side of the property, planned to build a residence on the vacant lot served by the driveway, and expressed concern that having a business located next door would devalue the property.

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