Highland Supervisors Hear Building Permit Complaint From Monterey Resident David Botkin

Monterey, VA – At this month’s regular Board of Supervisors meeting, Monterey resident David Botkin asked to address the Board regarding the cancellation of his building permit. Mr. Botkin was issued a buiding permit in July 2010 to put a building on his property in Monterey. However, he says due to circumstances beyond his control, he was unable to complete the construction before his permit expired this year. He asked the Supervisors to reinstate his permit. Mr. Botkin goes on to describe events that prevented him from making progress on the building.

“November 11th [2010], I found out I had to have surgery on my shoulder and I was out of work for 13 weeks; they wouldn’t let me do anything” says Botkin. “On March the 15th, 2011, my wife was hospitalized for 4 days with pneumonia and other complications. On March the 26th, we set the poles for the building. On April the 1st, Jim Whitelaw [Highland County Zoning Administrator] come out and hand delivered me a letter stating that my permit had been expired and was cancelled on March 30th, 2011 and put a stop order on us.”

In response to Supervisor Rexrode’s question of whether Mr. Whitelaw was asked to attend the meeting that evening, County Administrator Roberta Lambert responded that he was notified. County Attorney Melissa Dowd tells Mr. Botkin that the Supervisors can take no action on his request. She continues by noting that there is a procedure for such circumstances.

“The process is that if he disagrees with the decision made by the Zoning Administrator, then I think there is an appeals process” says Dowd.

Ms. Dowd accepted Mr. Botkin’s written request to appeal the cancellation of his building permit and said she would see that the Board of Zoning Appeals was notified so that the appeal can be heard at the Planning Commission meeting on April 28th.

In other business, Supervisor Rexrode reported to the Board on his recent discussions with the Virginia Department of Transportation regarding the construction of a temporary entrance to the swimming pool off Route 220. Rexrode says VDOT will start the process to get a permit for the temporary entrance for use this summer. He says they want to be sure that the temporary entrance will not interfere with the permanent entrance to the pool.

The next regular meeting will be Tuesday, May 3, at 7:30 PM in the Modular Conference Center in Monterey.

Story By

Heather Niday

Heather is our Program Director and Traffic Manager. She started with Allegheny Mountain Radio as a volunteer deejay. She then joined the AMR staff in February of 2007. Heather grew up in the Richmond, Virginia, area and now lives in Arbovale, West Virginia with her husband Chuck. Heather is a wonderful flute player, and choir director for Arbovale UMC. You can hear Heather along with Chuck on Tuesday nights from 6 to 8pm as they host two hours of jazz on Something Different.

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