Villa vote sparks suit in Bedford County

BEDFORD — A Bedford County woman is suing the Board of Supervisors for its approval last month of a planned retirement home community on Oakwood Street that has drawn much opposition.

Peggy Vereen, whose home borders a 27-acre parcel where Oakwood Villas Retirement Homes, LLC plans to locate, filed a suit in Bedford County Circuit Court last week.

The board’s 4-3 approval on Feb. 11 was the final stage in a lengthy process to regulate the homes. Many citizens spoke against the plan because they felt rezoning their single-family neighborhood to a PRD (planned residential) area would drastically disrupt the serenity of their street.

Steve Grant, an attorney who represents the homes’ developer, said the project would meet a definite area need for senior housing.

Bedford City officials also were involved in the approval process, since 17 acres of the parcel is within city limits.

Vereen, who protested the homes before the board and city council, said she chose not to pursue litigation against the city because she is a county resident.

She would not make further comments on the litigation and deferred questions to Edward Natt, her Roanoke-based lawyer, who could not be reached on Tuesday.

The lawsuit, which also names Oakwood Villas Townhomes, LLC as a defendant, claims that the developer’s application was defective, failed to include a legal description of the property and did not have an open-space plan.

It also states the county did not adequately give published notices regarding the rezoning and the board’s public hearing that related to it, and that it failed to meet setback requirements set forth by the county’s zoning ordinance.

County Attorney Carl Boggess would not comment on the suit Tuesday, but did say he plans to file a response next week.

The suit’s claim was that the supervisors approved a zoning change that does not line up with the character of the area around Oakwood Street.

“The proposed use of PRD as a multi-family dwelling community is incompatible with the surrounding low-density residential uses,” the suit states. “As a consequence of the arbitrary and capricious acts of the board in granting the rezoning, the court should set aside the action and declare the rezoning null and void.”

Chairman Steve Arrington cast the deciding vote in the Feb. 11 approval. A count within the suit states that Jack Cundiff, the property owner of the parcel where the homes are locating, was on Arrington’s advisory board for reelection.

Arrington said Tuesday that the advisory board has never met since it formed in 2003 and he hasn’t spoken to Cundiff since that time. He has not received any contributions from Cundiff, according to campaign finance reports in the Bedford County Registrar’s Office.

He said he has been in the home construction business for 38 years and has always set aside his professional life from public office. His tiebreaking vote was based on the merit of the project in helping the county and city grow and meet housing needs, he said.

“I think it was a good project,” Arrington said Tuesday. “I still do.”