Y’all know what AC44 is right? Albemarle County is in the midst of Phase 2 — “Goals, Objectives, and ‘Planning Toolkits'” of the updating of the 2015 Comprehensive Plan.
From my perspective, Albemarle County have done an amazing job of outreach about the Comp Plan, and it’s incumbent upon us as citizens to participate, and to think generationally. Realistically, many if not most of those who are voicing opinions won’t be in Albemarle County is 20 or 30 years … think about those who come after us, and think about where and how our kids and grandkids will live (and if they’ll be able to afford living in Crozet).
Spend some time educating yourself, and taking the County’s survey (I have), before being “for” or “against” a part of the plan or process.
I suspect there will be a large audience Wednesday night; here’s hoping for open minds and conversation.
One thought: if the County and VDOT would build infrastructure along with housing, Crozet would be more livable, accessible, and would likely defeat the calls of people to stop change.
Call to Order, Agenda Review, Introductions (5 minutes)
Approve Meeting Minutes (2 minutes)
Announcements and Updates (5 minutes)
Community Concerns (10 minutes)
Scheduled Presentations (45 minutes)
• Presentation: AC44, the update to the Albemarle County Comprehensive Plan, Allison Wrabel, Community Connector – Albemarle County o A high-level overview of the Comprehensive Plan update’s process to date with a
preview of the next phase and a community discussion
6. Committee Business (10 minutes)
Website content and development project updates, Joe Fore
Take some time to dig in and learn about their perspective.
Well, if the disaster the county created for Crozet when it destroyed the existing Crozet Master Plan wasn’t enough, they’re up to even more mischief with the upcoming Albemarle County Comprehensive Plan update. You don’t have to look very far into their plan called AC44, to realize that several segments, if approved, will be an unmitigated disaster for Crozet. Here’s a link to the AC44 site where you can get the overview of the county’s options for the future growth in Albemarle County. Take a look below at each of the options found in the plan and vote how you feel. Additionally, you can add a comment on your response to the plan.
Crozet is still a great place to live, and we need a lot – more housing, more and more appropriate infrastructure, more businesses.
After you’ve looked around Tom’s site, spend some time at Albemarle’s truly comprehensive Comprehensive Plan site. Learn more, get educated, and get involved.
The decisions made now will affect your kids and grandkids, if they choose to and are able to live in Crozet.
I saw the original post about the blog on Nextdoor; just below the anti-growth post was one seeking for housing ideas for a parent/grandparent seeking to move to Crozet.
Crozet group to hear details about manufactured home park
The Crozet Community Advisory Committee will meet at 7 p.m. in the Crozet Library. (meeting info) (agenda)
After a period called “Community Concerns,” there will be a community meeting for a special use permit for an expansion of an existing manufactured home park near Claudius Crozet Park. There are 73 units currently and the request to become compliant with zoning also comes up with a request to add 14 new units on site. (SP202200029)
A photo from the presentation on existing conditions at the manufactured home park (Credit: Shimp Engineering)
The third is for a proposal for Misty Mountain Camp Resort to amend an existing special use permit to add 53 campsites for a total of 158, to increase the number of cabins to 18, and to allow the resort to operate year-round. Guests would be restricted to 30 days stay.
The county’s Agricultural-Forestal Districts Advisory Committee found no issue with the expansion and neighbor concerns about noise and trespassing are to be worked out on site.
“The existing campground contains six wells, and a new seventh well has been drilled at the southeast corner of the property,” reads the staff report. “The applicants have stated that the new well yields seven gallons per minute, which is sufficient for the new camping area.”
This is the kind of sign that will be installed to keep guests on the resort’s property (Credit: Line + Grade)
In the final item, they will review the entrance corridor guidelines on Route 250 west of Charlottesville for the rural areas to the east and west of Ivy Depot. (staff report)
Image screenshot below by Jim, from the Staff Report. This is interesting stuff, and how we allow this area to develop will influence how we build bike lanes one day, hopefully. (Related – Three Notch’d Trail Planning Funding Approved)
Next, the end is nigh for virtual meetings in Albemarle County. Assistant County Executive Trevor Henry will provide an update on the transition back to in-person public meetings for bodies that have not already done so.
“To prepare for in-person public meetings, investments have been made in equipment, software, and training to allow for some meetings to have elements of virtual participation and/or virtual access for the public,” reads the staff report. “Staff expects all public meetings held beginning September 1, 2022 will be held under the new framework.”
In the evening session beginning at 6 p.m. there will be a public hearing for a rezoning for the Old Dominion Village project in Crozet along Three Notch’d Road. The proposal is to rezone 23.68 acres from Rural Areas to Neighborhood Model Development for up to 110 units around a site currently occupied by Crozet Veterinary Care Center.
The Planning Commission unanimously approved the project in February, but recommended denial of a special exception to reduce the minimum setback between an existing animal confinement facility (vet clinic) and a residential lot line from 200 feet to 50 feet. The plan has been revised since then.
Location map for the Old Dominion Village project (Credit: Meridian Planning Group)
If you are in favor of housing that allows more people of more income and wealth levels to live in Crozet, I’d encourage you to attend this meeting, or voice your opinion in favor of more housing.
If you’re opposed to more housing for more people, I suspect this is already on your radar and neighborhood listservs and Nextdoors.
I’d wager if Albemarle and VDOT would add appropriate infrastructure when they approve developments, I’d wager they’d get some more support from adjacent homeowners.
As an aside, I wish I could find citation for the most egregious “argument” against this development made by a neighbor.
They are proposing a rezoning to allow for 157 homes.
Crozet needs new housing, but also needs supporting infrastructure and businesses to keep Crozetians in Crozet, and going to work not in cars (bikes, walking). Trails need to connect to downtown Crozet and other neighborhoods so that people aren’t forced to drive.
From the January CCAC meeting
Montclair is 17.5 acres.
Attached homes – towns & villas – throughout. Habitat will build 9-12 units in Montclair.
Through my lens representing buyers, from $200,000 and up well be on that, Charlottesville needs affordable housing. It’s not a nice to have. It’s an absolute, desperate, need.
Some Albemarle County residents are torn about how the county should grow.
The county began surveying the community last month about seven proposed growth management options, part of the first phase of the county’s effort to update its comprehensive plan. The concepts range from reducing density in the county’s development areas to setting standards to help determine whether and how to expand a growth area.
Officials said 119 people have taken the survey, which closes at 10 p.m. Sunday. The responses, made public this week show stark divisions in the community. Other chances for citizen input will available to residents as the plan update moves along.
Albemarle (and the City of Charlottesville) are, and are becoming more unaffordable. We need to build affordable housing – much of which may be duplexes, triplexes, quads, apartments, etc so that people who want to live and work here can.
Think about your kids who you want to return to live nearby with their kids. Think about your parents who might need to move to be closer to you (and your kids). A lot of these may be (and probably should be) rentals – not everyone wants to own a home (I’m working on a story now for JimsNote in which I discuss how the “American Dream” of homeownership is not for everyone, and that’s just fine).
This survey will help Albemarle County government – Planning Commission, Board of Supervisors, et al – make a path forward for how we are going to grow, from 110K-ish now to 155K-ish in 2050.
Even better, pay to subscribe to support his work. (I do; if you’re interested in a free one-year subscription, ask me; I’m happy to offer one.)
Albemarle County is in the first phase of a review of its Comprehensive Plan with an eye on a growth management policy. A second questionnaire on the policy closes on July 17, and Albemarle’s Communications and Public Engagement office produced an explanatory video.
“The growth management policy is one of the tools that we use to implement the county’s vision by helping us to make intentional decisions about how and where we grow and what areas are protected,” states the narrator of the video.
The video states that one purpose of a growth management policy is to ensure that there are services for a growing population, including the provision of water and sewer services.
“The majority of new residential, commercial, retail, office, industrial, and mixed-use development is intended to be within the county’s development areas,” the video continues. “The rural area is intended to have limited residential development.”
Different community groups are also encouraging community members to fill out the survey.
“Designated Development Areas currently comprise only five percent of Albemarle County while Rural Areas currently comprise 95 percent of the County,” reads the newsletter. “Yet we in Forest Lakes are seeing the developmental impacts more directly, since the limited Development Area includes the 29-Corridor to the west of Forest Lakes.”
The Forest Lakes Community Association had argued against the nearby Brookhill and RST Residents developments, and points out there’s currently no public transportation in the area.
“Roads are planned that will eventually connect both developments directly to Ashwood Boulevard, with estimates of up to a 50 percent increase in daily traffic utilizing the Forest Lakes South exit,” the newsletter continues.
This spring, the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors were presented with a build-out analysis to determine if there’s enough room in the existing development area to meet the needs of a growing population.
Supervisors got an update on June 1, 2022 that I’ve yet to write about, but will before the end of the summer. You can watch the video of that meeting here, and let us know what happened!
Misty Mountain Resort seeking permission for expansion
A community meeting will be held at 5 p.m. for a special use permit for the expansion of the Misty Mountain Camp Resort on U.S. 250 west of Crozet. The camp currently has 16 cabins and 104 camp sites and is allowed to hold an annual music festival. (meeting info)
“Outdoor recreation is now more important than ever, and therefore it is the intent of this special use permit to expand the capacities of the Misty Mountain Camp Report,” reads the narrative for the request to formally allow the 16 cabins and to allow 68 more campsites. The current special use permit only allows ten cabins.
I think this was discovered by a relatively new owner. The original permit was from 1994 or so. This property last sold in April 2021 for $4.5 million and I suspect the new owner realized they needed to become compliant. There are a total of four special use permits on the property, two of which relate to a music festival that’s allowed once a year.
Then there will be a closed session at which the EDA will discuss “possible litigation” against the Center, as well as potential investment in Downtown Crozet.
Glenbrook developer seeks to change housing type proffer
There’s only one item on the agenda for the Albemarle County Planning Commission’s virtual meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. (meeting info)
The developer of the previously approved Glenbrook neighborhood in Crozet wants more flexibility in a 1.89 acre section of the development. When the rezoning was granted in 2016, there was a proffered condition that a minimum of 50 percent of the units would be single family housing.
Since then, a new Crozet Master Plan has been adopted that designates the land as being for Middle Density Residential which allows for between six and 12 units per acre.
“Instead of a minimum of 50 percent single family detached dwellings in the overall Glenbrook development, the applicant proposes a minimum of 40 percent single family detached dwelling units,” reads the applicant’s narrative.” This change will allow for the construction of affordable dwelling units in the final phase of the project.
This would not apply to the remaining 36 acres that are not subject to this rezoning request. Staff recommends approval.
Riding my bicycle yesterday, I noticed a working barge(?) and silt fencing along part of the Beaver Creek Reservoir perimeter. A bit of searching this morning, and I was reminded by the Crozet Gazette of the timing , and a bit more at Rivanna’s site.
Subscribe here (I recommend paying for a subscription)
(bolding is mine)
Albemarle PC to review 110-unit Old Dominion Village in Crozet
Crozet is one of Albemarle’s designated growth areas. Last year, the Crozet Master Plan was updated with a new land use designation of Middle Density Residential which allows between six to 12 units per acre with high provisions if below-market housing is to be part of the development.
The Albemarle Planning Commission will have a public hearing tonight for a rezoning on 23.68 acres on the north side of Route 240 across from the Acme Visible Records site. Part of the land for the Old Dominion Village development contains this new category, and some parts at the less intense Neighborhood Density Residential. The meeting begins at 6 p.m. (meeting info)
The developer seeks a rezoning to the Neighborhood Model District for a project that would be built around an existing veterinary clinic.
“After practicing for 40 years, the parcel owner, Dr Martin Schulman leases the hospital building to the Old Dominion Animal Hospital – Crozet, a sister hospital to Old Dominion Animal Hospital on Preston Avenue in Charlottesville also in operation since 1982,” reads the narrative for the application. “Dr. Schulman has decided that combining the two parcels and developing them into a mixed – use neighborhood while keeping the veterinary care center as a commercial component would be beneficial to the Crozet Community.”
The developer has stated 20 of the units will be built under the county’s affordability guidelines. They’ll also contribute $283,000 in cash proffers “to help mitigate impacts of the development on schools and transportation.”
Also from Sean’s Week Ahead – smaller lots in Old Trail?
The developer of Old Trail in Crozet seeks a reduction in the minimum lot size from 8,000 square feet to 4,000 square feet in order to build smaller units that might have lower prices. (staff report)
