A crowd of Cobbs Creek residents showed up Tuesday night at the joint Mathews County Planning Commission and Mathews County Board of Supervisors meeting to protest a request for a change to the zoning ordinance, only to be told the applicant had withdrawn the request.

Nevertheless, those in attendance had their say about the matter, which was a request to add motels as a conditional use in the county’s waterfront residential and rural zoning districts.

The amendment was requested by Mike Dershowitz of Pennsylvania, who owns property on the Piankatank River adjacent to the Cobbs Shores subdivision. His property consists of a main house with four bedrooms, a pool house with two bedrooms, and a converted garage with several guest quarters, a pub lounge, a conference center, and a gym.

Dershowitz, who was not present at Tuesday’s meeting, operates a permitted, by-right short-term rental at the site, called Winding Waters Estate, and is restricted to renting the entire property to...