So … Crozet’s Square Has been Fenced Off

by Jim Duncan on May 14, 2010

Mostly.

A fence? So soon?

Update: The Crozet Gazette and the Daily Progress provide well-researched stories this morning.

If anyone would be willing to share a copy of the proposed contract, please email me.

Can’t we all get along?

Now what?

To Crozetians: let’s be nice, respectful and considerate of each other as we fight & jockey for the few spaces. I saw an elderly woman trying to get to Parkway Pharmacy today and she had to park much further from the pharmacy than she wanted. Me? I’ll ride my bike whenever possible.

Julie Bercik of NBC 29 reports:

Buckingham Branch Railroad blocked-off a parking lot in Crozet Friday afternoon that has been used by people there for a generation. It came as a shock to business owners who thought there was still time to work out an agreement for the spaces.

Thursday night business owners were offered a contract by BBRR, which leases the property, spelling out everything they need to do if they want to continue parking in “The Square.” Apparently that deal unraveled just hours after it was offered. They were told they had till May 21 to make a decision, but less than 24 hours later a fence is up.

Bianca Spinosa at the Newsplex:

Officials with the Buckingham Branch Railroad and Crozet Square business owners had their first opportunity to talk face-to-face Friday afternoon. Both side say they’re open to negotiations, but they didn’t expect to make a decision so soon.

So, Friday afternoon was the first time they talked? The fence seems even more unreasonable now.

This is why I think the swift fencing is unreasonable:

Ruscher said the railroad company acted too abruptly.
“I haven’t even had a chance to read the contract,” Ruscher said.

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  • Edward Strauss

    Unreasonable? Did you read the agreement the merchants were asked to sign? When you are offered something for nothing, especially something
    you claim you want, you should take it. Once you get our useless Supervisor involved you are going to get politics and nothing else. The one thing that should not be overlooked is that the County wants the Railroad to give them the land. Why should they? What have they done to deserve it? So, if you take the time to read the facts what is really
    “unreasonable”??? And, as the tract housing grows and the number of people here increases parking will become more of a problem…

  • Janet House

    Is there a reason there is no fence between the parking lot and the rails? I wonder if the community agreed to provide a barrier and responsibility, if that would be agreeable.

  • John
    • http://www.realcrozetva.com Jim

      Thanks so much, John.

  • Ron_Crozet

    As usual Edward Strauss is totally off the wall with spewing misinformation (what a moron). Ann Mallek has been on top of it and told us Thursday night that actually the railroad may NOT EVEN own that property after all. The title business is a mess, and the land was owned by a family that “deeded” it to the rail ONLY during use for passenger service, but would revert back to the original owners if the service would end. That actually happend YEARS AGO. Now there are no legit descendants…..

  • Ron_Crozet

    So, in other words, our Sup is doing a GREAT job, and BBR has no liability for that lot most likely or not even CSX- as they do not even own a proper title. They could thus easily wash their hands off that liability and hand the lot to the county, who could then turn it in to a more decent parking lot.

  • SBE

    I agree with Janet – why don’t the store owners construct a fence for the BBRR and then be able to use the lot. At the very least we should try to get them to move that ugly orange fence back a dozen feet to get one row (or even parallel) parking there.

  • Edward Strauss

    Hmm… A real keyboard hero. Our Supervisor is not doing anything. CSX who owns the property was being paid by the County until the property
    was leased by Buckingham Branch Railroad. Then the payments stopped.
    So are you saying that the people who pay to lease the property have no
    say in the use of it , or, that the stores on the square have the right to use it for free, or, that Buckingham Branch Railroad does not know what they
    are doing either. But you do, hiding behind a keyboard… The store owners
    were offered a chance to construct a barrier in order to use the lot but, they would have to pay for it. The link to the contract posted above says
    it all. How much farther do you want them to bend over backwards???

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