The Mathews County Planning Commission, meeting Tuesday evening in the historic courthouse, voted unanimously to seek outside legal counsel before taking any action on a proposal to exempt the county from zoning and subdivision requirements for county-owned property, and to pause at least 60 days before making a decision on the request.
At its June meeting, Mathews supervisors (by a 3-2 vote) sent a resolution to planners seeking to exempt the county from its own zoning requirements.
At the heart of the matter is the future of the Hole in the Wall Waterfront Grill, the Gwynn’s Island restaurant property owned by the county and currently leased to tenants Mac Casale and Dean Tsamouras. At present, the county and the tenants have eight more years on a lease of the property, which was first signed in 2016, said supervisor Tom Bowen, who serves as liaison to the planning commission.
“It’s a really bad deal and we have no one to blame but ourselves,” planner Robb Riddle said of the lease. T...