Pomponio's application as non-common open space homesites.  In addition, Pomponio included a golf course.


4
On June 21, 1989, Pomponio formally submitted a preliminary subdivision plan (the Plan) for review and approval by the Planning Commission of Fauquier County.  In late June of 1989, James Green, the member of the Board of Supervisors from Clover Hill's magisterial district, commented negatively about Pomponio's proposed subdivision plan during an interview with the local newspaper.  Pomponio has alleged that Green had not yet reviewed the Plan, but stated, "[I]f there is any way to cut it or slow it down, I'm all for it."   Thereafter, defendant McNear conducted a review of the Plan and wrote a memorandum, dated July 14, 1989, to Mike Finchum, Planner.  The McNearand in the complaint, as is at once apparent, the record supports no more than a difference of opinion in this garden variety zoning dispute.


7
Pomponio vehemently contends that McNear purposefully misconstrued the zoning ordinance.  Whether the zoning ordinance was incorrectly construed is the central question in the case.  Pomponio asserts that his interpretation is correct and further asserts that because McNear sent the Commission his July 17 memorandum and then met with the Commission to discuss amending the local ordinance two days prior to the Commission's consideration of the Plan, the Commission knew that McNear had made false and misleading legal statements about the Plan.  The Commission nonetheless voted to disapprove the Plan on August 31, 1989.  For their part, the defendants argue that