Like it or not, the CCAC is full of people who are interested in guiding the current and future Crozet. Be informed and involved.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – more Crozetians under the age of 40 need to get involved in these meetings.

(Bolding mine:)

Agenda
1. Agenda Review. (Meg Holden – CCAC Chair)
2. Approval of Minutes from June 16, 2011 meeting.
3. Public Comment.

4. Announcements.
5. Introduction to Lodge at Old Trail project, http://www.lodgeatoldtrail.com (David Hilliard)
6. Discussion about children walking and biking to area schools. (Josh Davis and some area school principals )
7. Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport Runway extension project update. (Bill Schrader)
8. Jarman’s Gap Road VDOT SWM pond at Old Trail Drive. (Bev Thierwechter & Jim Rotherham) (Letter attached to agenda addendum)
9. Sub-committees, ombudsman and supporting members of each. (Meet the CCAC
handout; Meg Holden).

10. Project Updates/Information:

* Recap of Crozet Independence Day celebration: dance – (Mike Marshall)
* Crozet Square/CSX Parking log update (Ann Mallek)
* Jarman’s Gap Road Closing August 22.
* Re-Store’N Station,
* Library parking lot construction, (Tim Tolson)
* StreetScape II and SWM project,
* County Department of Community roundtable discussions on proposed zoning changes.

11. Items not listed on the agenda.

12. Future agenda items (CCAC)
a. Outreach to other county advisory councils.
b. Other items?

Crozet Community Advisory Council agenda – 18 August 2011

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Now … how are we going to pay for it?

Aaron Richardson at the DP reports:

According to the report, Meriwether Lewis Elementary, Crozet Elementary, Monticello High School andWestern Albemarle High School all will need expansions in the next five years. The cost of renovations to Western Albemarle, which the committee recommended accelerating by three years, could run as high as$15 million.

…

“We do see accelerated population growth in the western feeder pattern,” he said. “We are now expecting [Western Albemarle High School] to go beyond its capacities earlier than expected.”

I’m baffled how anyone who’s been here for more than five years can be surprised by the fact that Crozet is growing fast. Crozet’s population in 2000 was 2,820 and the population in 2010 was 5,565.

I wrote more about this at my real estate blog, looking at this “surprise” from the APF angle.

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The Daily Progress picks up on a conversation we’ve had here a few times … what’s up with the Road to Somewhere? Also known as Library Street?

*bolding and links added by me

But construction won’t stop there.

In coming years, Library Avenue will extend to Park Ridge Court, the plans entails, and provide a connection to Three Notch’d Road. Cory Farm Road will be extended into a proposed Eastern Avenue, under the Master Plan, ultimately running from Rockfish Gap Turnpike to Three Notch’d Road.

The new roadways are part of a network of interconnected streets to be built in and nearby downtown Crozet.

“Ultimately, it’s designed to help provide better and easier access to downtown to revitalize that area and help improve the economic vitality,” said Elaine Echols, senior planner with Albemarle County.

My thought: Don’t Hold Your Breath. This sign is from the Cory Farm neighborhood indicating where the Eastern Avenue (not the Eastern Connector , another road in Albemarle that may be built by the time my grandkids are driving flying cars) will go. One day.

The Charlottesville/Crozet area lost the 804 area code June 1, 2001.

1 – It’s an 804 area code
2 – They misspelled “development”

Rather than replace the sign, save the money for a road.

Most people know not to assume that things aren’t going to change.

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This is important stuff folks, that does and will affect the future of our community. The request for any community member to write a story/recap of the meeting remains … I’ll buy you a cup of coffee at Mudhouse, Greenhouse or Trailside as compensation. And I’ll thank you profusely.

Crozet Community Advisory Council
The Meadows, Crozet
Thursday, March 17, 2011
7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Agenda

1. Agenda Review (Mike Marshall – CCAC Chair)
2. Approval of Minutes from January 20, 2011 meeting
3. Public Comment
4. Announcements
5. Downtown Streetscape and storm water projects update (Trevor Henry)
6. Library Design update (Bill Schrader)
7. Welcome to Crozet Sign update (Meg West)
8. Trails plans update (Jessica Mauzy)
9. Outreach to WAHS feeder pattern schools’ PTOs (Mary Gallo and Lucy Goeke)
10. Future agenda items and items not listed on the agenda (CCAC)
11. Officer elections (CCAC)

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Ann Mallek forwarded the following email to me the other day; it contains a lot of good information. What questions do you have for Mrs. Mallek? Will you be asking her these questions on Monday?

Safe routes to school:

The official “kick-off” meeting, required with VDOT, was conducted February 7th ; we have a copy of the fully executed “grant” agreement and notice to proceed. The physical survey has been completed. I was informed that if we want to design in-house (as I had planned) I must submit a “finding of public interest” justification for VDOT approval. We recently completed interviews for our “term” (on-call) contracts for civil engineering and environmental services and will be finalizing our selections this week. I have submitted our procurement process to VDOT to see if it would be acceptable to use one of these “term” contract engineers to prepare the plans. If VDOT says “no” and we decide to use a consultant, then we’ll need to do a separate advertisement for requests for proposals and consultant interviews. It’s unfortunate but it’s all part of the strings (or web) attached to grant funding.

Expected bid time for parking lot on library site:

Site plan review is in progress and will be reviewed by the ARB in March. Construction of the parking lot is stilled anticipated this summer.

Expected moving of utilities for streetscape: underway now?

I have 4 utility easements remaining that I’ve been actively pursuing but progress has been slow. Two for CenturyLink and two for Dominion Power.

Expected work on streetscape?

Phase 2A – Main Street “substantially complete” and contractor is addressing punch-list items from the staff and VDOT inspection. Construction will be complete in March, then we’ll start gathering documents needed to submit for VDOT acceptance.

Phase 2 – Crozet Avenue: Utilities must be moved and all right-of-way acquired before we’ll get VDOT approval to move into the construction phase. I have 5 property owners whom

I’ve been working with to obtain their signatures. One signed on Friday and the documents are being FedEx’d and I’ve been working with owners mortgage company to coordinate their signatures. I’m looking at the feasibility of alternatives to realign a drainage easement, requested from another property, to minimize impacts. I

I’ve been working a long time to resolve the owner issues for one right-of-way dedication and I’m hoping to get word that they’re ready to sign later this week. Negotiations for right-of-way dedications from Crozet Methodist and Blue Goose have been delayed by VDOT. VDOT had a parking plan prepared (by our consultant) to serve as the cost basis for their acquisition of the Jarmans Gap Road right-of-way. It also was to serve as a means to demonstrate how the Church and Blue Goose future parking plans and our proposed shared entrance onto Crozet Avenue would work in concert. However, VDOT has not allowed our consultant to release the drawing to the Church until VDOT made a new offer. It’s my understanding that the VDOT’s attorney has sent the appraisal/offer information to the Central Office and is pushing to expedite approval to prevent us further delay.

Jarman’s Gap construction continues this summer with the short term closing for the culvert.

VDOT is currently on schedule to begin construction this summer.

Other projects?

Crozet Stormwater basin project construction is expected to begin this summer.

Thank you.

The above is from an email between Ann Mallek, our representative on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and Jack Kelsey, Transportation Engineer with the Office of Facilities Development and is posted with permission. I edited it a tiny bit for structure but not content.

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See for yourself.

Read the whole story at the Crozet Gazette.

Barnes Lumber Redevelopment Plan in Crozet

The plan submitted by PDG includes an 600-foot-long pedestrian mall in the center of the project, anchored at the west end by a large building. Roell said a national firm that builds boutique hotels is interested in the site. Other features include the extension of Library Avenue (still an unofficial name for the road partially constructed in downtown) to connect to Parkside Village and a walking path junction in the southeast corner of the property nearest to Claudius Crozet Park that will connect downtown to the extensive system of trails laid out in the Crozet Master Plan.

What do you think about this?

Update: High-res version of the plan.

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Thanks to Tim Tolson for putting this together.

This is an update from Trevor Henry, Capital Program Manager in the County’s Office of Facilities Development.

He met with the Project Manager’s (PMs) on the various Crozet Projects (Library/Main Street – Ron Lilley;  Crozet Ave/Utilities – Jack Kelsey;  Storm Water – Gregor Patsch) and  assembled the attached update.

I have also posted this update, along with the still current October 2008 drawing of the planned improvements for StreetScape II, in our CCAC bulletin board in the Crozet Post Office.

Crozet Street Scape CCAC Update 11January 2011

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From the Newsplex:

Following a compromise between the Board of Supervisors and project developer, Jo Higgins, the Station will move forward as a 3,000 square-foot facility instead of 6,000 square feet, it will house five pumps with ten nozzles instead of eight pumps with 16 nozzles and will operate for 16 hours a day instead of 24.

Update from the Crozet Gazette:

But the supervisors proceeded and instructed the staff to draft clear language that limited the stations footprint to 3,000 sq. ft., with no future additions, four pump islands with eight nozzles for gas, one island with two nozzles for diesel fuel and two additional nozzles, one for kerosene and one for off-road diesel. Other conditions limited daily operation to 16 hours, forbade overnight parking, and required a meter on the well head and a flow restriction device that cut off the well at 1,624 gallons. The supervisors said the project would also have to conform to any requirements imposed by the Architectural Review Board, which has yet to approve the station’s site plan.

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And the Crozet Gazette has the story.

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Now that the Crozet Community Advisory Council has given their endorsement … what do the rest of you think?

A group that oversees planning in Crozet has endorsed a new concept to redevelop a lumber yard on the Square into a walkable and livable community similar to Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall.

“We need a pedestrian mall in Crozet,” said Mike Marshall, chairman of the Crozet Community Advisory Council. “This comes into Crozet’s life at a very fortunate time for us.”

The CCAC voted Thursday to recommend rezoning the 14.74-acre J. Bruce Barnes Lumber Yard and CSX railroad property to allow for future development as part of the Crozet Master Plan.

Once again, Charlottesville Tomorrow proves to be invaluable.

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Via email:

Crozet Community Advisory Council monthly meeting is this Thursday, August 19 at 7:00 PM at The Meadows.

Since last month’s CCAC meeting, there have been two important developments. As you hopefully read in the Crozet Gazette, the Albemarle County Planning Commission approved the Revised Crozet Master Plan!

And second, Piedmont Development Group (representing Carroll Conley) has put together a “possible development” scenario/plan for the Conley-owned properties (J. Barnes Lumber properties on the Square). The representatives (Katurah Roell and Kelly Strickland) shared this concept with Mike Marshall, Chair of CCAC, Tom Loach, our local Planning Commission member and Chair of same, Ann Mallek, our Board of Supervisors representative, and Albemarle County planning staff last week. It is the Development Group’s belief that in order for redevelopment of the J. Bruce Barnes Lumber Company to occur, the properties need to all be shown as “Downtown” on the Future Land Use Plan in the Revised Master Plan.

This issue was the major topic of discussion at the last CCAC meeting and at that meeting a different decision was made that was passed on to the Planning Commission for their end of July meeting. However, after looking at the possible development scenario, the representatives gave reasons for making it all “Downtown Zoning” that were compelling enough that Mike and Tom felt that the full CCAC and public should re-look at the recommended Future Land Use Plan for this area. They would like for the CCAC to consider a recommendation to put the references to the need for employment/office R&D Flex in Downtown in the text rather than showing it graphically on the Plan. This recommendation could be passed on to the Board for their September 1 Work session.

The Crozet Gazette has a picture of the proposal on their web site. as well as a PDF of it here.

I hope you’ll plan to attend the CCAC meeting this Thursday at 7PM. I’ve enclosed the CCAC meeting agenda below.

Also – Mark your calendars: Our CCA summer hiatus is almost over.

The Crozet Community Association (CCA) meeting is scheduled for 2nd Thursday of September, (9/9) at 7:30.

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From this month’s Crozet Gazette (PDF):

A pedestrian mall in the place of the lumberyard downtown?

Kelly Strickland, a CCAC member, surprised commissioners by informing them that R.E. Lee Construction company, which he works for, is drafting a concept for the redevelopment of J.B. Barnes Lumber Company at the request of its owner, Carroll Conley. He asked the commission for flexibility in language that would define where light industrial uses would be allowed on the 20-acre parcel. Commercial uses on the parcel, cur- rently zoned heavy industrial, would presumably fall under the rules for the adjoining Downtown Crozet District, which are designed to cre- ate a walkable, traditional down- town business district with a mix of apartments and shops.

Interviewed later, Conley said that discussion of the plan that has been submitted to county planners, planning commissioners and super- visors for reaction was premature, but that he believed that county leaders would like the concept. He said the lumber yard will continue to operate as normal.

The concept shows a central, 600-foot pedestrian mall flanked by three- and four-story buildings and the extension of Main Street to Parkside Village with two- and three-story buildings along it, a small park, a greenspace median and numerous parking areas.

Take a look at the drawing at the Crozet Gazette.

Update – Crozet Gazette now has the story on their site rather than PDF.

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Charlottesville Tomorrow reports:

While Albemarle County is seeking to increase its industrial and commercial land activity, proposals reviewed as part of the Crozet Master Plan to build a new business park and convert some residential homes to mixed use have been rejected by the Planning Commission.

The one thing I have not yet heard or read is what types of businesses might be in the business park. That would be helpful.

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Voice your opinion now rather than gripe about things in five years. See the agenda and supporting docs at Albemarle’s site.

c. CPA200900002 Crozet Master Plan 5 Year Update Amend the Land Use Plan section of the Albemarle County Comprehensive Plan by replacing the existing profile for the Community of Crozet and the Crozet Master Plan with a revised Crozet Master Plan, which establishes new land use policies, guidelines, recommendations, goals and strategies for future development within the master plan area, which may include or exclude lands beyond those described in the existing neighborhood and community profile and the removal of an approximately 29-acre portion of TMP 56-66 (NE of Firehouse Lane) from the Community of Crozet boundaries.

The master plan would establish the following for the master plan area: a vision for the area and guiding principles; land use designations and centers, mixed use areas, employment areas, residential areas, preservation areas; a plan for the transportation network, and its integration with the land uses; a plan for providing and supporting community facilities and services; a plan for parks and green systems; and a plan for implementing the master plan. In conjunction with the Crozet Master Plan, the following will also be considered:

(1) CPA 2006-02, to remove the proposed road shown in the Crozet Master Plan across TMP 56- 14D; (2) CPA 2007-002, US Route 250/Crozet Avenue (NW Corner)-Ploumis property (TMP 56-16), a proposal to amend the Crozet Master Plan from Development Area Preserve and Development Area Reserve (CT 1& CT2) to Urban Center/Mixed use (CT5); and (3) CPA 2008-002, Yancey Mills Business Park, located near 6317 Rockfish Gap Tpke and I-64, to amend the Land Use Plan from Rural Areas to Industrial Service, a proposal not within the Crozet Master Plan boundaries but considered with the Crozet Master Plan studyprocess. Copies of the full text of the Crozet Master Plan and related maps are on file in the office of the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors and in the Department of Community Development, County Office Building, 401 McIntire Road, Charlottesville, Virginia

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PLANNING COMMISSION PUBLIC HEARING ON THE DRAFT CROZET MASTER PLAN REVISION

The public is invited to provide comments regarding proposed revisions to the Crozet Master Plan at a Planning Commission Public Hearing on Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. in the Lane Auditorium at the County Office Building on McIntire Road.

On July 6, materials related to the Master Plan revision process will be available online at www.albemarle.org/crozet, at the Community Development lobby and at the Crozet Library.

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“We shouldn’t have to justify our right to clean water and air.”

Great work by the Crozet Gazette.

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Charlottesville Tomorrow reports:

Having been heard on their demands for lower population projections, no expansion of the growth area, and preservation of the downtown business district, the Crozet community appears to be largely in favor of the village’s updated 20-year Master Plan.

Speak now, or …

At a recent meeting, the board decided to hold roundtables on June 23 and July 1 on the action plan to get additional public input. In an interview, Supervisor Dennis S. Rooker addressed the question of whether the action plan opened the door for Yancey’s business park being located outside the growth area at the I-64 interchange in Crozet.

“The door is partially open. There is other language that says it has to be consistent with the Comprehensive Plan,” Rooker said. “My idea was to try and get some changes in [the action plan] that made it more consistent with the existing Comprehensive Plan …. When we last discussed [the interchanges], none of the uses given as examples were anything of the scale of what is being proposed by Yancey.”

“People from Crozet are welcome to come to the roundtables and make comments about specific language in the economic development plan,” Rooker added.

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From a comment:

Two important public hearings for the proposed ReStore ‘N Station are coming up and it is critical that people attend these meetings if they are concerned about the size and character of a huge gas station/truck stop proposed for Route 250 West. If approved, this would be the second largest gas station in the County, serving both cars and semi trucks Interstate 64.

Please take some time out of your schedule to attend these meetings. It is crucial that the County know that citizens are paying attention to their decisions regarding this project. Here are two hearings where your attendance is needed to:

·        Show your support for the adjoining neighborhood’s attempt to scale back the size and use of the project;

·        Note your concern about a large project like this proposed to be built near three schools on Scenic Route 250.

1) Tuesday, June 1 at 2 p.m. for a Board of Zonings Appeals (BZA) Hearing and

2) Tuesday, June 8 at 6 p.m. for a Planning Commission Public Hearing

Don’t feel like you need to speak at these meetings, just showing up is important! this could be your neighborhood and you would certainly want other Albemarle County citizens to stand up for you. You also might have children going to one of the nearby three schools and are interested in showing support for scaling back the size of the project.

(from email by Mary Rice)

—

At the very least, couldn’t they come up with a better name than “Restore N Station”?

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The Newsplex is reporting:

Plans for a proposed gas station in Crozet remain on hold until June after a group of residents file an appeal. No decisions were made on whether plans for the RestoreNStation would move forward during the Albemarle County Planning Commission meeting Tuesday night.
“Under state law, when you appeal it stops any other process that might further a determination,” says Chief of Zoning Ron Higgins.

View Crozet, Virginia, USA in a larger map

Background reading:

- Public Hearing on 20 April
- Gas Station coming to 250 in Crozet
- Close-Knit Free Town is Feeling Squeezed

Learn more at the County of Albemarle’s site:

PROJECT: SP200900034 RE-STORE’N STATION PROPOSED: Use of more than 400 gallons of groundwater per site-acre per day for convenience store. ZONING CATEGORY/GENERAL USAGE: HC, Highway Commercial – retail sales and service uses; and residential use by special use permit (15 units/ acre); EC Entrance Corridor – Overlay to protect properties of historic, architectural or cultural significance from visual impacts of development along routes of tourist access SECTION: 24.2.2.13, Uses permitted by right, not served by public water, involving water consumption exceeding four hundred (400) gallons per site acre per day. Uses permitted by right, not served by public sewer, involving anticipated discharge of sewage other than domestic wastes. COMPREHENSIVE PLAN LAND USE/DENSITY: Rural Areas – preserve and protect agricultural, forestal, open space, and natural, historic and scenic resources/ density ( .5 unit/ acre in development lots) ENTRANCE CORRIDOR: Yes LOCATION: US 250 (Rockfish Gap Turnpike) approximately 1,600 feet (0.3 miles) west of Western Albemarle High School TAX MAP/PARCEL: Tax Map 55B Parcel 1 MAGISTERIAL DISTRICT: Whitehall  

By the way, I am marketing a great house on Free Town Lane.

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If you live in Crozet, you really should consider attending some of the CCAC’s meetings … it’s where you can learn and give input about Crozet’s growth and development.

A reminder that the Crozet Community Advisory Council’s (CCAC) monthly meeting is this Thursday, April 15, from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM at the Meadows (off Route 240, south of town).

Everyone is encourage to attend.

The Council’s meeting agenda, minutes, membership, etc. are all posted on the Albemarle County web site at: http://www.albemarle.org/ccac/

The tentative agenda for this Thursday’s meeting is as follows:

• Agenda Review (Mike Marshall – CCAC Chair)
• Approval of Minutes (CCAC)
• CCAC New Members (LEE)

• Master Plan 2009 Update Process (REBECCA/ELAINE)
• Discussion regarding recommended revisions for area north of Downtown to Wayland Drive, including property owner input
• Next steps in master plan process

• Project Updates
• Re-store’n Station Review Status (April 20 Planning Commission public hearing on special use permit)
• Other announcements
• Adjourn

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Editor’s Note: Leslie Burns was kind enough to answer my call for someone to write about last week’s Crozet Community Association meeting.

A handful of Crozet Citizens showed up last Thursday to hear what is happening in our town at the Crozet Community Association gathering. Who are these folks? Why, they are your neighbors… hoping to pull together and grow community involvement. You might not have heard about the meeting or paid much attention to the small signs announcing it that were posted around the main intersection of town. But maybe it is time to start showing up at these association meetings…they only meet five times a year. It is not a huge commitment to make. That was one of the issues that came up at the meeting- how to reach out and connect the many neighborhoods and people living out there that have the health of our town in mind.

Here’s the dilemma. No tax revenues = no new funds to support the type of cultural and much needed improvements (think Library, road improvements, sidewalks, etc.) that are at the very heart of the Master Plan of Crozet. So where do the revenue hungry turn when it is time to welcome developers of light industrial business parks? The easiest places to access are usually given the green light for development first and we have a light that we should examine closely before we let it change on us. Some of the locations recently designated by our leaders for ideal growth are a few major intersections of highways with Rte 64.

It was announced tonight at the Crozet Community Association meeting that there is going to be a Master Plan review and meeting on Thursday, January 21st whose purpose (for one) will bring to light an idea that at least one person in our community claims will supply the revenue generating light industrial growth that Crozet (by way of our growth-area designation in the county) is destined to support. Where is this development to occur? The proposed development of land equal to the size of two Fashion Square Malls, sits quietly by the intersection of 250 and 64 at that sleepy little intersection that is the gateway to our homes and schools right now. Imagine a Waynesboro type intersection right next to our lovely pastoral village. Is this what you moved to Crozet to get close to?

If “Intersectionville” is the very name of the town you want to live in you may well get it, unless you show up to exhibit your commitment to an alternative way of life. The vision of retaining the downtown area and building it up to support sustainable and healthy growth alongside the tracks and within walking distance of community services already in place, will become nothing but a memory if the car and semi-truck driven sprawl is allowed to go in where it is proposed.

If you have an opinion to voice please show up on Thursday night on the 21st at the Field School auditorium (Old Crozet School on Crozet Ave.) at 7:00 PM. Meet some new neighbors and bring some neighbors that you already know. Meet some of the planning department representatives that have been actively involved in our master plan-consistently showing up to hear what YOU have to say. Listen to what is proposed to develop around us and become an active part of the small town that you moved here to enjoy. If you let others make your decisions for you- you are going to have to live in a world that someone else created for you and your children. Government is here as a tool of the people. If we do not interact, speak-up and have a hand in the sustainable design of our town here- it will not be a tool in our hands- but in the hands of those that would profit from business-as-usual sprawl. If the vision for Yancy Mills Industrial park and surrounding areas is not of a sprawling build out- let that be shown clearly to us.

Here’s the challenge… People that live in Crozet can affect how and where that revenue-creating light industrial growth is to occur by becoming the community that we claim we came here to be part of.

You want that small town feel? Now is your time to shine on Thursday- January 21st.

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Editor’s note: this email was sent out by Tim Tolson in Crozet:

Also, I want to alert you to a VERY IMPORTANT CROZET AREA MEETING next Thursday, January 21st at 7:00 PM at The Field School. This meeting is about the huge proposed industrial park at the Intersection of Route 250 and I-64, slated to be at least TWICE the size of Fashion Square Mall.

Please attend this meeting, YOUR input on this proposed project, that would expand the Crozet Growth Area, is essential.

The Yancey family has submitted a Comprehensive Plan amendment to rezone 84 acres on the southeast corner of the Interstate 64/Route 250 intersection to ‘light industrial’ for the construction of an industrial park that would contain from 1.1 million to 1.8 million square feet of buildings.

On January 21 at 7 p.m. at the Field School (the Old Crozet Elementary School across from the current Crozet Elementary School), the public will have a chance to react to a county study on light industrial land in the County, and give county staff you input regarding the study, which will include a section that addresses this proposed rezoning. This study will first be presented to the Planning Commission two days prior, on January 19.

As Mike Marshall, editor of the Crozet Gazette said in this month’s issue: “… [the] adoption of the Yancey proposal would likely shift the economic center of Crozet to Rt. 250 and result in a commercial highway build-up at the Interstate similar to what we see happening in Waynesboro, and many other Virginia towns that have sadly lost their traditional walkable downtowns to sprawl. Avoiding those mistakes was the whole point of planning in the first place. Crozet has plenty of light industrial space yet and a capacity for more. But the outcome of this question is fraught with politics and money. Crozet is at, as Churchhill would say, a hinge of fate.”

Pro or con, we need your voice on this matter. The Board of Supervisors last week adopted an “action plan” that included the following item regarding the Yancey property – “Yancey Mills and 250 East Corridor from 1-64 to Shadwell Store – The report on available light industrial zoning should be expedited and a report on the possibility of expansion of this type of zoning in these areas should be brought back to the board in the first quarter of the year for discussion and possible action.”

Full report available on Charlottesville Tomorrow’s News Center under the title: “Supervisors adopt pro-business “action plan””

Please attend this meeting if you can! We are counting on the people of Crozet and friends in other parts of the to give county staff and supervisors their feedback about rezonings on Route 250.

Please feel free to call or email me (contact info listed below) if you have questions or need directions to the Field School.

Thanks and I hope to see you on January 21 at 7 p.m. at the Field School in Crozet!

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Read the whole thing at the Crozet Gazette.

The decision of the departing Kaine administration to bailout the investors in Biscuit Run, the largest subdivision ever approved in Albemarle County, and turn it into a state park will add to growth pressure in Crozet once the housing market begins to revive, which, we nonetheless hope, comes soon.

The addition of Biscuit Run’s 3,100 houses to the Albemarle market with better proximity to Charlottesville meant homebuyers had an attractive alternative at a time when county policies were aiming growth on Crozet and claiming that it could handle a population of 24,000. In those days Biscuit Run promised to vent some of the steam away from western Albemarle.

It’s hard to imagine that if the Commonwealth actually thought it needed a state park in Albemarle that it would have hankered for the 1,200 acres Biscuit Run sits on.

My favorite part?

And about that $9.8 million: hasn’t Crozet been told for the last 12 years that there is no VDOT money to pay for Jarmans Gap Road improvements, and more recently that there is no funding possible for Crozet library ($6.3 million), the number one priority library on the state library’s list of construction projects?

Thus the poor Virginia tax payer now has to pay to master plan and then operate in perpetuity a state park he had no idea he wanted, in a place he probably would not have picked, and to make up millions in tax revenue that was forfeited in the form of credits.

Well Said.

Update 8 January 2010 – Quite a bit of news coverage today centered on Biscuit Run’s dedication as a state park.

Biscuit Run State Park Opponent Says Deal Unfair to Albemarle County Residents – WCAV

Crozet Refocuses After Biscuit Run – NBC29

Biscuit Run Protected as Parkland – NBC29

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Thanks to Channel 29: (bolding mine)

A new Albemarle County Board of Supervisor’s resolution calls for a nearly one-mile stretch of Old Trail Drive in Crozet to be accepted into the state road system. Part of it was accepted into the system 2009, so this will complete the process.

…

“Old Trail Drive, in its entire length from Jarmans Gap Road to the other connection point at Route 250, has always been intended to be a pretty major traffic thoroughfare in Crozet,” she said. “The Crozet master plan presents it that way.”

There have been discussions over the years on RealCrozetVA about the accessibility of Old Trail Drive, and now it’s officially a public road. Great.

Related reading:

VDOT helps builders and citizens adjust to new secondary street standards

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It’s easy to get indifferent and bored with the Crozet Master Plan, because it’s always “someone else” doing it … that “someone else” could (and should) be you.

From Charlottesville Tomorrow:

Albemarle County officials gathered more input on potential changes to the twenty-year Crozet Master Plan at a forum held Thursday evening. The Crozet community continues to weigh in on modifications to the county’s first ever master plan, originally approved in 2004, which is now getting its first five-year review.

Mike Marshall, chair of the Crozet Community Advisory Council, welcomed an audience of about 40 residents to the third of five planned community forums on different aspects of the master plan. Marshall said he didn’t think there would be much controversy about the matters on the evening’s agenda, however he foreshadowed concerns about the Yancey Mills Business Park proposal.

…

On transportation, residents said they wanted a reexamination of a frontage road proposed by staff to run parallel to Route 250 in front of Brownsville Elementary and Henley Middle School. The County’s Community Relations Manager, Lee Catlin, said she also heard residents express a high priority for trails and pedestrian connections that would allow people living in Western Ridge, Highlands to get into downtown Crozet.

Mike Marshall said a pedestrian connection was also needed between downtown Crozet and Old Trail Village.

“We now have two economic centers that really are within walking distance, that are trying to emerge and get stronger,” said Marshall. “We need to make it plain to people that you can walk there.”

After the fifth community forum is held in February, a summary of recommendations from staff and the public will be provided to the planning commission in March. The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to start its review of the Crozet Master Plan revisions in June.

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