The Mathews Board of Supervisors, meeting last Thursday, June 18, voted unanimously to take no action on a conditional use permit that would allow Robert Blake of Tabernacle Road to live permanently in a travel trailer on his 1.28-acre family homeplace because, according to the opinion of the county attorney, it is “a by-right use of his residential property” and thus doesn’t require a CUP. This ended a lengthy ordeal for Blake—one that had elicited a great deal of public interest, with numerous residents attending the May supervisors’ meeting to support allowing Blake, who is 73 years old, to live out the rest of his life in his travel trailer. The trailer has no running water or septic system, but uses a vault privy, approved by the Virginia Department of Health, for septic waste. The board at the time discussed various lengths of time to extend the CUP to allow Blake to remain living in the trailer as long as he lives, but did not want to issue a permit that would allow a travel tra...