Property owner continues fight with board

By Cheryl Chumley

Published: August 5, 2008

For Nokesville property owner Gilberto Guel, the fight to build a home on his 16-plus acres of Rural Crescent land has just begun.

Denied the ability to hook up to an existing sewer line at a July appeal to the Board of Supervisors—and therefore, effectively denied the ability to construct a single-family home, as he said he planned when he bought the land in 2005—Guel brought his case to the board again Tuesday, requesting the six present members consider a change of heart.

"I ask humbly that you         reconsider," Guel said, during a brief citizens' time address. "I've been paying $4,400 a year on this property, and I've been taxed as if I'm able to build a single-family [home]."

Though he can't build a residence, he can still construct a church, a school or a park, according to statements from county officials at last month's appeal.

Guel's attorney, Gifford Hampshire from Blankenship & Keith, spoke Tuesday in greater detail, calling the board's previous 5-3 vote to uphold staff recommendations and deny sewer a hook-up to his client an errone-ous interpretation of the         Comprehensive Plan that amounted to a regulatory taking. Hampshire also ad-dressed the statements of some on the board who said that Guel should have known at the time of land purchase that he would not be allowed sewer hook-up, and the resulting denial was a reminder of the need to conduct due dili-gence, as well as a simple albeit tough lesson of caveat emptor—let the buyer beware.

"When my client purchase the property," he said, "a different Comp Plan was in effect ... and [Guel] did have reasonably backed expectations that he could connect."

Moreover, Guel added, "both properties to the left and right of mine are both hooked up to the sewer line."

Supervisors were unmoved by the request for reconsideration. County attorney Ross Horton said the board could vote to hear the case again as long as a motion to reconsider was made by one who had previously denied Guel's appeal. Vice chair John Stirrup, R-Gainesville, along with supervisors Michael May, R-Occoquan; Frank Principi, D-Woodbridge; and Maureen Caddigan, R-Dumfries—four of the five who denied Guel's appeal at last month's meeting—sat silently when the moment to motion arrived, and board matters       proceeded a minute later.

Chairman Corey Stewart, R-at large, the other voice who chimed against Guel's appeal in July, was not pre-sent Tuesday.

In a brief interview following the citizens' time session, Hampshire said state code requires that he file a demand letter to the board outlining the full extent of his client's grievances prior to taking any court action. Once this letter was sent—and Hampshire guessed that would occur within the next week or so—supervisors have a "reasonable amount of time" to reply, he said.

Guel, for his part, was clear in his intent to continue the matter through court.

Staff writer Cheryl Chumley can be reached at 703-670-1907.