The Mathews County Board of Zoning Appeals approved one request for a variance, denied another and tabled a third during the board’s monthly meeting last Wednesday.

Morris Ward of Cardinal was granted a variance to reduce the minimum lot area of 2.5 acres required in the Rural Zoning District on two different properties, to 0.975 acre on one lot and 1.16 acres on the adjacent one to enable the property to be subdivided.

Both lots under consideration were created prior to adoption of the zoning ordinance and both had already been developed, with one lot consisting of 0.47 acre and the other of 1.665 acres. The variance was essentially a boundary line adjustment in order to correct a situation in which the boundary line for one parcel bisected portions of the non-conforming structures already existing at the site.

Planning and Zoning Director James Knighton said he could not grant administrative approval of the request because of the decrease in size that would occur with an ex...