Month: February 2014

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Tabor Closing (Temporarily) 10 March

So … those of you/us who live off of Park Road, Jamestown, etc and Westhall, Parkside Village … traffic’s going to be interesting when Tabor closes.

Let’s make sure to keep patronizing those in the Square!

Tabor closing route

via email (for those who don’t know where Tabor is, here’s a map):

Weather permitting, the daytime closure of Tabor Street with detour is tentatively going to take place daily (Monday through Friday) for two weeks beginning March 10. Confirmation on the timing of the closure will be announced next week. The road will be closed to through traffic but access to private property will be maintained from High Street during the closure. Complete closure of the road will speed up the proposed Tabor Street improvements and will result in a safer construction work zone. ?

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has granted permission for this detour with specific restrictions and requirements:

Continue reading “Tabor Closing (Temporarily) 10 March”

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Crozet Community Association Vacancies – 2014

From the CCA newsletter:

Crozet Community Advisory Council: Three vacancies. The Crozet Community Advisory Council will provide assistance, feedback and input to County staff and the Board of Supervisors on community and county efforts related to implementation of the Master Plan, in accordance with established county procedures.

CCA Note: The more Crozet residents are involved and participating in these boards and commissions the more our voice will be heard and our needs taken into account. 

Interested residents should apply online, by going to: http://albemarle.org/boards/

Also, mark your calendars for the next CCA meeting on 13 March.

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A Police Substation in Crozet?

Update 2/27/14 – Turns out this was requested by the Albemarle County Police Department but it was not funded by the County. More to come …

Maybe I’m mis-reading the County budget (I don’t often look at them, so I reserve the right to be wrong). Does this mean that they’d like to put a police station in the old Crozet Library/train station but acknowledge they cannot due to the budget, or something else?

Noticed this in Charlottesville Tomorrow’s story today about the proposed Albemarle County budget:

Continue reading “A Police Substation in Crozet?”

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Crozet Neighborhood Assessments – 2014

Note: If you find errors, please please please let me know.

Albemarle County real estate assessments are out … did yours go up? Go down? Questions about your assessment? Ask me … quickly (434-242-7140. I’m a real estate agent by the way). The deadline for challenging your assessment is this Friday, 28 February. The 2014 Real Estate Assessment Form can be downloaded at Albemarle County’s site.

I chose nine Crozet neighborhoods as a sample. I wanted to choose Laurel Hills but because some of those have been renovated over the years, I didn’t think they would provide the relative homogeneity that I was looking for. If it wasn’t so darn labor- and time-intensive I would have done more neighborhoods.

What do real estate assessments mean?

5 Reasons why real estate assessments matter: (more thoughts on the value of assessments)

1) The County bases their budget on property tax revenue.
?2) The assessed value is the value upon which property owners pay taxes. These values are a backward-looking assessment.
?3) Buyers look at assessed values as a measure of market value … but really, it’s a point in the equation, but are neither a definitive point nor a necessarily accurate one.
?4) Also – “Virginia, unlike some other states, by Statute requires localities to assess property at 100% of fair market value, based on an objective analysis of the property’s fair market value…”
?5) Sellers look at assessed values and wonder if buyers will think that the assessment means their home is worth X (it doesn’t).

From my professional capacity, I place little to no value in real estate assessments when seeking market value. When I see a property marketed as “below assessed value” or “new assessed value is $10k higher!” I think only that that means a property’s real estate tax bill will be higher or lower.

Thoughts on some of the Crozet neighborhoods’ assessed values:

– Old Trail was all over the board – from 44% decrease to nearly 400% increase. I removed these outliers from the equations. Assessed values ranged from $175k to over a million dollars.

– Parkside Village was up about 15%. Despite its being one of the best located neighborhoods in Crozet, some of the houses increased in assessed value by 20%. Reasonable?

– Highlands is the only neighborhood that declined in assessed value. An aging housing stock is likely to blame.

– Western Ridge (the second largest neighborhood behind Old Trail) – ranged from -4.17% to +13.44% – is essentially flat.

Note on my math – – I pulled the crazy outliers – -50% and +400% for example – and then averaged the delta column. I thought about doing a weighted average but went with this method. See the link above, please check my math and let me know what’s better and where I screwed up. 🙂 Continue reading “Crozet Neighborhood Assessments – 2014”

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Recapping the CCAC Meeting of 20 February 2014

The Albemarle County school budget, Barnes Lumberyard and the developers’ intentions, the Crozet library is busy and needs funding and more. Huge thanks to @CVilleKim and @TfjTolson for tweeting the meeting!

As a reminder, this is the Crozet Master Plan (it’s referred to a lot).

Click through, scroll to the bottom and read the tweets from tonight’s meeting. Continue reading “Recapping the CCAC Meeting of 20 February 2014”

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Streetscape Update 20 February 2014

via email –

The Tabor Street detour will not begin on February 24 as originally discussed due to impacts of the recent winter storm.  County staff and the project contractor are reassessing the schedule and will announce the new closure date the week prior to the detour going into effect.

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Funny Water in Crozet?

This could be nothing. It could be something. But either way, Albemarle County Service Authority might want to have a website prominently displaying answers.

First things first: The Newsplex has a story that says the water is fine.

Officials with the Albemarle County Service Authority say they are aware of the problem. Despite initial reports to avoid using water from the faucets, officials now say the water is safe to drink and there is no need to boil it.

That said –

There are an awful lot of comments on the Facebook post/question (and lots of “shares” too – 22 at the time of this posting):

Funny water in Crozet? Just received this message:

“I am hearing reports of yellowish or greenish water in Crozet. Apparently it is noticeable in a bath tub but not a glass of water. Have you heard about this?”

Right now it seems that there are a lot of questions. A quick summary:

– Some folks in Crozet have discolored water
– Albemarle County Service Authority is apparently giving conflicting accounts. Some folks say they’re being told the water is fine, some are being told to boil water.
– Lots of neighborhoods have discolored water, and others are fine.

Update 17 Feb: Not so comforting, but thanks to the Newsplex for continuing to follow this.

While instinctively when you look at yellow water, if feels wrong to drink…the experts say that doesn’t mean it’s unsafe.

Tim Brown of the Albemarle County Service Authority says “testing continues to show safe drinking water. In terms of the residual chlorine content in the water…micro-organisms are growing in the water.”

But that doesn’t answer the question of what caused it.

And the truth is, they still don’t know. But there are some baffling factors.

Continue reading “Funny Water in Crozet?”