Tag: 22932

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Crozet Real Estate Market Update – November 14, 2011

Looking at some market stats for Crozet (as defined by the Zip Code, 22932). Bullet points first:

– I’m no longer making comparisons beyond three years – the “boom/bubble” years are irrelevant. What matters now is where we are, where we were recently and where we’re going.

– Active Listings: Still too many houses on the market in Crozet. Until some of this inventory is sold, we’re still going to struggle with declining prices, high days on market and short sales and foreclosures.

– New Listings: Declining. This is good. See the remarks for “Active Listings”

– All Pendings (under contract homes): Higher than this time in 2010 and 2009; this is a good thing. More homes under contract will hopefully lead to fewer homes on the market, leading to real estate market stability.

– New Pendings: Up. Good.

– Sold Listings: Up, year over year. This is a good thing. We’re on a slower pace than this time last year, but that’s ok. If we can build stability slowly, we’ll be ok.

Keep in mind that these statistics are top-level analysis for the Crozet real estate market, inclusive of town homes, (as in, the Highlands and the town homes in Old Trail) single family (as in Laurel Hills, Parkside Village) and new construction and resale homes.

All real estate markets are local. There are subtle and stark market differentiations within even Crozet – based on community offerings (the pool in Western Ridge is nice), proximity to downtown Crozet, proximity to the Old Trail town center, etc.

If you’re thinking about selling, do your due diligence. If you’re considering buying, do your due diligence. There’s a lot to learn on both accounts. If you have questions, please feel free to leave a comment or email me.

Lastly, this is my state-mandated Disclosure (and it’s the right thing to do): I happen to be a real estate agent who lives in Crozet, works in Crozet, Charlottesville and all the surrounding areas, and think that this information is relevant to the readers of RealCrozetVA.

Continue reading “Crozet Real Estate Market Update – November 14, 2011”

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Update on the “Safe Routes to School” Grant

Remember the Walk to School grant for the part of Crozet near Crozet Elementary?

So did a concerned parent who asked the County for an update, and received this response.

From Jack Kelsey with Albemarle County:

Regarding the Safe Routes to School Project, the short answer is that it’s being designed by David Anhold & Associates and I’m expecting a progress print this week.

The long answer is that a lot has transpired to get us to this point. Our original plan was to provide this simple design in-house, we hired a surveyor, and had the project area surveyed.  We were in the process of addressing VDOT’s environmental requirements (required by all projects funded by VDOT), when VDOT informed us that we could not do the design in-house due to the project being funded by the grant.  

The design fee was expected to be small and well below the procurement limit where we may request 3 fee proposals from consultants, then choose one and move on with design.  However, VDOT’s procurement rules required this project have a public advertised “request for proposals”, formal interview of the candidates by a committee, selection and negotiation of the fee, and lastly VDOT’s approval of the selection process and chosen firm. Fortunately at that time we were just completing our procurement process for civil engineering “on-call” design services contracts.  We had to submit our procurement process information to VDOT for review and did receive approval to select from our new “on-call” consultants.  

This took time, but far less than then going through a formal project specific “request for proposals”.  We provided Anhold Associates with a project scope and requested a fee proposal.  The fee was reviewed/approved, a project order routed for signature, and a notice to proceed was issued 10 August 2011.

I hope this information is helpful.  Please contact me if you have any questions.

Jack M. Kelsey, PE
Transportation Engineer
Office of Facilities Development
County of Albemarle
401 McIntire Road
Charlottesville, Virginia 22902-4596
(434) 872-4501 office; ext 3376
(434) 760-1272 mobile
(434) 972-4091 fax
[email protected]

Also:

The award was announced in 23 April 2010, but the required VDOT-County agreement wasn’t approved by VDOT until 25 August 2010.  What needs to be kept in mind is that with State-Federal grants there are inherent processes and procedures that must be followed, so a portion of this time is allotted to these tasks.  However, overall the time frame is conservative to allow adequate time to get the project scheduled and completed.

As for our schedule, we plan to have the plans, plats and bidding documents completed by the end of the year.  Then have the right-of-way/easement dedication acquired this winter.  The construction will then be publically bid late winter/early spring 2012.  Construction could then begin in spring 2012 and we estimate it will take about 3 months to complete.

Update 3 October 2011: Aaron Richardson at the Daily Progress has an update on this story.

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Dancing and Old Time String Music to benefit Crozet Charities – 24 September 2011

Uncle Henry's Favorites Band

via press release:

UNCLE HENRY’S FAVORITES PLAYS OLD TIME STRING BAND MUSIC AT GREENWOOD COMMUNITY CENTER WITH BRAD SAYLER CALLING

The sound of old time string band music and dancing feet will be heard Saturday night at a country dance to raise money for groups in Albemarle County that provide life-saving support and are working to keep our community healthy. Uncle Henry’s Favorites, one of the South’s premier old time string bands, will be playing tunes at the Greenwood Community Center from 7:30 pm to 10:30 on Saturday, Sept 24. The dance is sponsored by Ann Mallek to celebrate our community’s commitment to volunteerism and citizen engagement. The event will be fun for the whole family, whether you come to listen to music or to dance. Admission at the door is a donation of your choice to the Crozet Fire Dept., the Western Albemarle Rescue Squad, the Earlysville Volunteer Fire Company or the Crozet PARC.

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Jarmans Gap Closing Monday, 12 September

Get ready. Monday, Jarmans Gap will close for 45 – 60 days.

With water main work finished, installation of box culvert can proceed

CULPEPER — Closure of Route 691 (Jarmans Gap Road) in Crozet will begin September 12, following yesterday’s completion of underground utility work that had caused several delays.

VDOT will close Jarmans Gap Road between Route 1209 (Haden Lane) and Route 1201 (Blue Ridge Avenue) on September 12 and begin installation of a new box culvert in Powells Creek. The work is expected to take 45-60 days.

During the closure, motorists will be detoured from Jarmans Gap Road south on Route 240 (Crozet Avenue) to Route 250 (Rockfish Gap Turnpike) to Old Trail Drive and back to Jarmans Gap Road. School buses will use the same route.

More information about the project can be found on VDOT’s web site.

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Looking for some WordPress Help for RealCrozetVA

If anyone out there feels like donating* some time to RealCrozetVA, I’d really appreciate some help with the back end of RealCrozetVA. Email or call me if you have the time.

I’ve been unable to upload files to embed in posts for quite some time and my workaround has been to embed pictures and files using third-party services such as Flickr and Scribd, but with the uncertainty surrounding yahoo! (and therefore flickr), I need to look to the future and fix the site.

* “Donate” because RealCrozetVA has been hosted by the wonderful folks at Blue Ridge Internetworks gratis for the past couple years.

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Crozet Trails Day 5k and Pedestrian Challenge – 15 October 201

Learn more at the Crozet Trails Day site:

When: Saturday, October 15th, 2011

Where: Crozet, Virginia (5k will start and finish at Old Trail Village Center, Pedestrian Challenge will be town-wide)

What time:

8:30 am- Crozet Trails Day 5k, followed by a Fun Run/walk(REGISTRATION OPENING IN LATE AUGUST!!)

8:00-10am- Information booths, vendors, and raffle ticket sales at Old Trail Village Center

10am-2pm- Pedestrian Challenge throughout Crozet

3pm- Raffle drawing and fireside Trails Tales (Old Trail Village Center).

Continue reading “Crozet Trails Day 5k and Pedestrian Challenge – 15 October 201”

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Race to Nowhere at Crozet Methodist – 9 September 2011

Mark your calendars – Race to Nowhere at Crozet Methodist Church.

I recommend we all go – so that we can see and affirm that we’re not alone in recognizing that our educational system has failed. And then we can figure out what to do about it.

Watch the video then read this at RealCentralVA.

When:  Friday, September 9, 2011
Time:  7-9 p.m.
Where:  Crozet United Methodist Church Sanctuary
Sponsor:  Coalition for Childhood

Advanced tickets sold on line for $10.00 or at the door for $15.00.

Update from the comments:

Did you know about the Bartleby Project?

“The Bartleby Project begins by inviting 60,000,000 American students, one by one, to peacefully refuse to take standardized tests or to participate in any preparation for these tests; it asks them to act because adults chained to institutions and corporations are unable to; because these tests pervert education, are disgracefully inaccurate, impose brutal stresses without reason, and actively encourage a class system which is poisoning the future of the nation.” Read John Taylor Gatto’s full statement on the Bartleby Project (it’s long).

Update 2: Seth Godin writes –

Large-scale education was never about teaching kids or creating scholars. It was invented to churn out adults who worked well within the system.

…

As we get ready for the 93rd year of universal public education, here’s the question every parent and taxpayer needs to wrestle with: Are we going to applaud, push or even permit our schools (including most of the private ones) to continue the safe but ultimately doomed strategy of churning out predictable, testable and mediocre factory-workers??
?
As long as we embrace (or even accept) standardized testing, fear of science, little attempt at teaching leadership and most of all, the bureaucratic imperative to turn education into a factory itself, we’re in big trouble.?

?The post-industrial revolution is here. Do you care enough to teach your kids to take advantage of it?