A crowd of Peach Point and Fickle Fen Road residents filed out of Mathews County’s historic courthouse Tuesday night amid widespread rumblings of displeasure and a couple of shouts of “shame on you” and “corruption” following approval by the Mathews Board of Supervisors of a conditional use permit for a private airstrip on 29 acres near the 28 homes in the neighborhood.
The vote for approval of the CUP, granted to Port Haywood resident Joe Perdue, was split 3-2, with supervisors Tom Bowen and Dave Jones casting the dissenting votes. The decision followed a joint public hearing with the Mathews Planning Commission, which had earlier voted against recommending that supervisors approve the application. That vote was split, as well, 4-3, with commission members Donald Morgan, Byron Rauch, Doug Wilton and Harry Meeks voting against the airstrip.
Perdue explained, as he had during two prior public hearings on the same issue, that the current airstrip he has, which is just 1,800 feet from the...