Thanks to everyone who entered! The two winners have each won one month memberships to the new 24-hour fitness in Crozet. Should they choose to post their names here, they are more than welcome to do so. Even better, I’d gladly welcome their comments on their experiences with the gym.
Starr Hill + Budweiser
As noted in December, Starr Hill is going national. Congratulations to them, although seeing a Budweiser truck in front of Starr Hill’s Crozet operation was a bit odd.
Help out the Crozet Community – volunteer for the CCAC
Albemarle County are looking for applicants for the Crozet Community Advisory Council. Selfishly, I would love for a representative of the CCAC to write a story on RealCrozetVA after the meetings to keep readers updated on the direction that Crozet may go.
For better or worse, our daily lives are significantly impacted by the conclusions reached and decisions made in mundane, monotonous often boring yet crucially important meetings.
Are you interested in being an active and engaged part in critical issues that will help shape Crozet’s future? If so, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors is strongly encouraging you to apply for one of several open positions on the Crozet Community Advisory Council (CCAC).
The CCAC was created by the Board two years ago as an advisory committee to assist County staff and the Board of Supervisors with civic/community issues related to implementation of the Crozet Master Plan. The membership is broad-based to incorporate a variety of perspectives and ideas and to provide citizens, businesspersons and representatives of active community groups a chance to be engaged and be heard in a constructive and meaningful way.
The 15-member group meets monthly and is active in partnering with the County on a variety of critical projects including the streetscape project, the Crozet Library, the Western Park master plan, and the downtown zoning project. Members serve a two-year term and are eligible for reappointment for a total of two terms.
The CCAC needs the continued energy and commitment of Crozet residents to continue the good work started in the group’s first two years and to keep momentum going on major infrastructure projects underway like the downtown revitalization and the library. Anyone interested in learning more about the Council or in getting an application can contact the County Community Relations Office at (434)296-5841 or can visit the Albemarle County website.
Win a one month membership to the new 24 Hour Fitness in Crozet
To help people learn more about the new 24 Hour Fitness facility in the Clover Lawn Shoppes on 250, the owners are generously offering two one-month memberships to readers of RealCrozetVA. If you’re interested, email me and I will select the winners on 21 April.
Crozet is moving forward … a gym, a new Harris Teeter under construction across the street, the Old Trail Towncenter on its way … the Waynesboro Town Center fifteen minutes to the west …
Crozet Gazette
April’s Crozet Gazette is on news stands now. Pick it up anywhere in Crozet.
Old Trail groundbreaking
This “reporter” missed the groundbreaking, but these are a few of the related stories from the media –
Old Trail – set against a backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Crozet – will feature a “town center†in the midst of residential development. The center will include 85,000 square feet of commercial and office space, including a coffee shop, three restaurants and fitness center along with individual offices. The Old Trail community has about 135 occupied homes, but the large development could have up to 2,600 townhouses, homes and apartments in the next 10 to 15 years. Developers said in an interview they are hoping to build about 100 units per year.
Pulled from the Comments – Why I chose to move to Crozet
My family moved out of Charlottesville to a farm near Crozet 9 years ago. We moved out this way because we could see the way things were changing in the north of Albemarle County, way more traffic, more subdivisions, more shopping centers. I grew up in SC which has been taken over by shopping centers and developments. When one gets run down, the developers move a mile down the road, abandon the first shopping center and build another. There are many abandoned shopping centers around Greenville, SC. It is an ugly, concrete filled, traffic inundated place, that used to be green and lovely until the developers took over. I would hate to see that happen to Crozet. It seems to be already happening in the north of the county.
I love old Crozet. Yes, it is rundown in some ways, but my kids love watching the train at the old library, I love being able to look for books in the library and still being able to keep an eye on my kids. If the library doesn’t have a book that I want, they will get it for me from another library in the county or in the state. I love that the librarians know my name, and that I know the people in the hardware store, and the pizza and grocery store.
I really would rather not see the Harris Teeter go in on 250. Our traffic will increase substantially, and where one store goes, others will follow. I make a trip to Charlottesville or Waynesboro once a week for a major shopping trip, what I run out of during the week, I shop for locally.
I love that I can have chickens, roosters, donkeys, horses and cows and no one complains about the noise, smell, flies, … We live in what is now a rural area. How long that it will remain that way is questionable, but I chose to move here because it was a largely rural area. I think that it is the charm of the area, and keeps it unique. If we add all the things that people want like a movie theatre, Chinese restaurants, more pizza places, more stores, then it will begin to be more like NoVA and less like Crozet. What will make our town unique? We will look like every other place in suburban USA.
Editor’s Note – anyone is welcome to submit a story to be published on RealCrozetVA.com. If you’re interested, please let me know. Also, a new library is coming.
Co-housing project moving forward
Crozet Streetscape – Phase 2
Republishing press releases from the County is but one way that this blog tries to inform and educate Crozetians. This meeting also presents an opportunity for somebody to write a first-hand account of the meeting.
Crozet residents are invited to a Community Meeting for the Downtown Crozet Streetscape Project Phase 2 to provide input on the conceptual design and the impacts related to implementing the vision for Crozet Avenue and New Main Street on Monday, December 3 at 7:00 PM at Western Albemarle High School.
This meeting will be sponsored by Albemarle County and project consultant Kimley-Horn and Associates and will be held in conjunction with the regularly scheduled Crozet Downtown Association Meeting.
For those unable to attend, there will be opportunities for you to contribute to the process by email. We will also have the informational materials from the meeting available for review on the County website.
What is the RealCrozetVA blog?
I am starting this blog somewhat on a whim, so as to provide a forum for Crozet to (hopefully) discuss their thoughts about Crozet’s growth.
My whimsical vision also sees this as a place to discuss Crozet’s goings-on, music and cultural events, local vineyards, etc. This will be a slow start, as my business* and my blog and my life already consume so much of my time. Please be patient, and if anybody wants to help out, please let me know.
This is obviously a work-in-progress – I don’t know about the blogroll error to the right, but I will figure it out shortly, I hope.
You may start here to learn a little bit about some of what has been happening in Crozet. Update 5/30/14: This is the Crozet Calendar – a growing listing of events in Crozet.
* I edited the link to my first site – from 12 years ago – is no longer in existence.