Jobs in Crozet?

Comments

9 responses to “Jobs in Crozet?”

1. 

   January 5, 2015

   Chuck Johnston

   Until the provincial attitude of long time residents changes, I doubt there will ever be “real jobs.” Remember the brewery and discussions about the area around the sawmill?

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   1. 

      January 5, 2015

      Edward Strauss

      I do not think that the long term residents are the problem.

      Reply
2. 

   January 6, 2015

   Stephen Swensen

   Musictoday is an excellent example of a business in Crozet that offers a variety of “Real” jobs: software engineering, project management, client services, marketing, art / graphic design, executive / director type positions, warehouse, call center.

   Beyond what we already have in Musictoday, just look at where the energy is in Charlottesville proper: lots of small / medium start-ups that have sprung out of the academic and medical centers. Technology. Publishing. Medical.

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   1. 

      January 6, 2015

      Edward Strauss

      Would the average salary there actually allow an employee to be able to afford to live in Crozet? The people I know that work there can not…

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      1. 

         January 7, 2015

         Stephen Swensen

         For the hourly-wage jobs (warehouse and call-center), perhaps not comfortably. But for the salaried jobs, yes. I can think of nine people off the top of my head, including myself, that work there and also live in Crozet.

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         1. 

            January 8, 2015

            Edward Strauss

            While jobs are jobs I expect the majority of them there are below the living wage needed for a Crozet lifestyle. Like a WalMart or other
            big box style business there are a number of people that make decent money while the vast majority do not. If you have a job
            where you make enough to live here without having to have a second job, good for you.

            Reply
3. 

   January 6, 2015

   Dustin Vaselaar

   I don’t see Crozet ever moving beyond its status as a Charlottesville bedroom community, at least in the next couple decades. It’s explosive growth in recent years has been as a bedroom community, meaning that the people who moved here in recent times liked what they saw as a bedroom community and are unlikely to want significant changes. Also, Albemarle County has no intrinsic reason for supporting job creation in Crozet, a job created along the route 29 corridor brings in the same tax revenue as one in Crozet. Additionally, Crozet is neither here or there from a larger regional perspective; Crozet isn’t close enough to Charlottesville to gain significantly from proximity to UVA, et al., and the Waynesboro/Vally-region with it’s more business friendly climate is only a short drive over the ridge.

   The only way I see the points above being overcome is if the economy becomes so bad that a large number of people are trapped in Crozet without jobs and are unable to move away to a better economy due underwater mortgages or other market factors. Or, if Crozet were to become an incorporated town, similar to Charlottesville, then it would have an intrinsic need to support job creation within its borders; this is extremely unlikely, as far as I can tell the last time a new town was created in Virginia was in the 1800s.

   All of this is really too bad because Route 250 is only going to become more congested in the coming years as more people move to Crozet the bedroom community, and any attempt to widen or add lanes to 250 will be met with extreme resistance by those who live along the road. The bedroom community nature of Crozet is one of the reason why I would never want to buy a house here; the town feels soulless, like a corpse that’s only alive on evenings and weekends.

   On a more concrete and constructive note, I think Crozet has three natural assets for attracting jobs/businesses: 1) railroad access, 2) interstate access, and 3) the Western Albemarle lifestyle. Assets 1 and 2 are unlikely to be developed due to the current development attitudes, for example see the recent Yancey Mills light industrial park development proposal. This leaves only the superb Western Albemarle lifestyle. I think the most promising avenue of exploration would be to convince some Cville startup company that needs to expand to locate in Crozet, of course doing so would require some pre-existing office-space which seems to be in short-supply in Crozet.

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   1. 

      January 7, 2015

      Edward Strauss

      I agree on a lot of your points. The Tract Housing/Bedroom Community effect leads
      to a community losing it’s soul. The closer people are the farther apart they become. What is the Western Albemarle lifestyle???? Are you not familiar with the
      Rural Virginia lifestyle?

      Reply
      1. 

         January 7, 2015

         Dustin Vaselaar

         “Western Albemarle lifestyle” was my poor attempt at coining a phrase for all the amenities one enjoys by living in Crozet: beautiful county parks at your doorstep, gorgeous rural roads for bicycling, easy access to superb wineries and breweries, the AT just minutes away, etc.

         Reply