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Culpeper board, Supervisor Tom Underwood take steps to settle complaint arising from controversy over group home Date published: 9/4/2010
BY DONNIE JOHNSTON
The Culpeper County Board of Supervisors and Supervisor Tom Underwood have resolved a complaint made to the Virginia Fair Housing Office that involved a controversial group home proposed in an upper-middle-class neighborhood. In a conciliation agreement, neither the board nor Underwood admitted any wrongdoing, but both agreed to mild penalties. In April, supervisors unanimously passed a resolution declaring that month as Fair Housing Month. On Wednesday of this week, Underwood participated in a fair housing seminar in Richmond, one that he said was not directly relevant to the complaint filed almost exactly a year ago. That complaint filed by the Rappahannock-Rapidan Community Services Board resulted from public discussions that occurred at a Board of Supervisors meeting on Sept. 1 of last year. The RRCSB had put a contract on a foreclosed two-story house in the Village at Griffinsburg subdivision that it planned to use as a group home. When word of the proposed sale spread, residents--some concerned that recently released convicts would be placed there--complained to Underwood, their supervisor. Further, a number of the homeowners demanded that the issue be brought up at the supervisors' next meeting. There they vented their frustrations and reservations, most complaining that the RRCSB had left them in the dark about its plans. At the meeting, RRCSB Executive Director Brian Duncan said four mentally challenged adults would live in the home under 24-hour supervision. Attorney Ed Gentry, who lives in the neighborhood and spoke out at the meeting as a resident, said a group home was against neighborhood covenants, which strictly forbid unrelated families from living in the same house. Supervisors took no action, but a week later learned that the RRCSB had filed a complaint with the Virginia Fair Housing Office against the board, Underwood, Gentry and the Village at Griffinsburg homeowners association. At about the same time, the RRCSB dropped its contract on the house. It later bought a house in another neighborhood. The RRCSB complaint alleged that those it named had violated the Fair Housing Act and acted to prevent the RRCSB from acquiring the Village at Griffinsburg property. While others spoke at the meeting, Underwood said he was told that he and Gentry were singled out because they hold state licenses--Underwood in real estate and Gentry in law.
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