Come to the Crozet Community Association meeting

This Thursday at the Firehouse –

Hi Folks – don’t forget our last meeting until next fall is scheduled for this Thursday May 10th at the firehall.    Doors will open early and you are encouraged to come at 7PM to look at all the things the consultants have put together.   

We will have a BRIEF (15min) meeting for our CCA business beginning at our normal time  7:30PM.    Here is that agenda – please note to all those speaking  – we need to be done so county can start at 7:45PM so I will keep you to time.      If you can not stay for the whole meeting  please take the time to fill out page two of the attached document with your input.

Agenda  Thu May 10

7:30PM      introduction, traffic issues, Crozet Arts and Crafts Fair  – Heidi Sonen
7:33PM      new art wall for the Crozet Great Value plaza – Meg West
7:37PM      update on fireworks for July 4th  – Sandy Wilcox
7:40PM      update on recycling – JoAnne Perkins

7:45PM  – see attached flyer we will be switching to their agenda – yes, the times are off on their sheets but the will shrink their program down to fit the time.
Agenda

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Crozet Zoning meeting

Add your voice to the discussion of what Downtown Crozet will look like. From the County:

CROZET DOWNTOWN ZONING
COMMUNITY MEETING #1
May 10, 2007 — 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Crozet Fire Station

Crozet is a special place with a strong identity. If you participated in the Crozet Master Planning process, you will remember the saying we heard frequently: “all roads lead to downtown”. The Master Plan identified downtown as the largest and most important of the centers of residential and economic activity.

While a vision for downtown exists, the question still remains “How do we get there”? In response to this, Albemarle County has commissioned Community Planning and Design, in collaboration with Milt Herd and Bruce Dotson, to recommend zoning which will help implement the Master Plan vision for a thriving Downtown Crozet.

As part of this study we will be investigating existing limitations with the current code and best practices in communities of similar size and scale. Several alternatives will be presented to the community, and with your input one approach will be recommended for the county to adopt. This process will evolve over the next six months and will provide opportunities for community participation in developing the new zoning regulation.

Mark your calendars and make plans to participate in this important process.

Learn more at the County’s site. The agenda is below and here as a PDF.

So – here is the question – how do you envision Downtown Crozet?

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The Virginia Tech Shootings

Ed. note: I hadn’t intended to comment on the horrific events in Blacksburg yesterday until I received this email:
With the horrific events in Blacksburg yesterday, I thought it might be good to have a local outlet for people to share concerns, prayers, etc.

Everyone is just in shock from these events, and it is hard to digest them.

I think sharing and talking about them always helps.  This event hits close to home for everyone in the Commonwealth – for who doesn’t have a friend or relative who either attends or has a family member attending VT?!  Just like all the towns in Virginia, Crozet has a heavy heart today.

Worst, the media is doing a horrible job with coverage – they are like monsters, attacking the police and administration for thier actions, as if this could have all been prevented.  Now is not the time for that, shame on them for bringing that up in such a classless manner.

I know I can say on behalf of our community that our prayers and thoughts are with the families of the victims, the shooter, and the entire Blacksburg community. I hope people will share their thoughts and ties of VT to Crozet (I am an alum).

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A brief history of RealCrozetVA

18 months. It has been 18 months since RealCrozetVA was founded.  RealCrozetVA was started in September of 2005 with a simple goal:

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.

You may start here to learn a little bit about some of what has been happening in Crozet.

And it has grown slowly but surely. After a recent mailing to raise awareness of the blog, traffic has spiked. Hopefully we will be able to keep some of that traffic and interest. That it has been over 18 months since its inception is amazing; it feels like only yesterday that I got the bug to start it.

Realcrozetva Traffic for the past 12 months

One thing differentiates realcrozetva from some of the other “hyper local” blogs that have been discussed in the re.net – it was started purely for the community, with no desire to gain profit (much like cvillenews.com, but even more localized). Only very recently have I added the “Search for Homes” tab, and I debated and struggled with that for quite some time; I do not want to detract from the site’s being for the Crozet community. One of the best features of the site is the Community Map, which shows many, although not yet all, businesses in Crozet.

I cannot yet attribute a single transaction to the site, and don’t really care; that was never the goal. The relationships I have had the opportunity to develop, the ways in which I have been able to give back to the community, primarily due to this blog, and even more importantly, emails such as this make it worthwhile –

Good morning… quick note on your blog.  … I’m a big fan of the RealCrozet blog. I’ve passed it along to many new friends I’ve made here.  It’s great … well done, and a wonderful way to pull the community together.  Thank you!

The goal remains the same – to give something to the Crozet community, to provide a forum that is used to connect and bring together Crozetians, new and old. Here’s to another 18 months.

* I have cross-posted this with RealCentralVA; it and RealCrozetVA have completely different audiences, and I think this post will be interesting to both.

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Help Clean up Crozet this Saturday

From the Crozet Community Association digest:*

We are going to do the Crozet Clean up this Saturday April 14th beginning at 9AM behind Fabulous Foods. This year Henley Middle School student council is going to help as well as volunteers from Western who will be painting more murals in the Great Valu parking lot.

We would love to have members of the community join us and help out and we want to remind folks to drive slowly this Saturday morning.

Crozet Clean-up Day – Saturday April 14, 2007

Please come out and join us and help us clean up litter around Crozet. Even if you can’t make it on the day of the event there are still ways that you can help.

1.  Register to be a volunteer on Saturday April 14, 2007. It’s easy to do just stop by Fabulous Foods and sign up.

2.  Help us identify streets or areas that have a trash problem so that we can make sure that our crews target those areas.  This can be anywhere around the Crozet area.  You can do this several ways: : leave a note at  Fabulous Foods, Email Heidi  or you can  call and leave a message at 823-7828.

3.    Help to get the word out to area students so that they can get involved and fulfill their community service hours. All students must sign up and pick up a parental permission form that they will need to bring back signed on Sat. 4/14

4.  Drive carefully and slowly this Saturday morning we will be on the streets !

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Raising awareness of RealCrozetVa take 2

Taking the idea of a reader responding to the post asking for ideas on how to raise awareness of RealCrozetVA, I am doing a very limited mailing (it costs a lot of money!) to some of the Crozet neighborhoods. We have had some interesting discussions lately, on and off-line. Thank you.

Crozet Realcrozet Mailing-1

The postcard is below – feel free to download it, print it out and give it to your friends and neighbors. As always, if you have a story idea or want to write one yourself, please contact me.

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What do you like about your Crozet neighborhood?

We all like our respective neighborhoods – or at least most of us do, that’s why we live here. What do you like the most? What do you do on Friday and Saturday (or weekday) afternoons? What is your neighborhood close to? I would like to catalogue every neighborhood in Crozet, but know that the descriptions will be more vibrant, colorful and real if they are written by those who live in the neighborhoods. If you don’t feel comfortable writing the whole thing, send me your notes and ideas – we’ll work together to provide a picture of your home. Send me your pictures – they’ll help, too!

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On the Albemarle County School Budget

I whipped my last letter together in about 10 minutes before I went to my daughter’s soccer practice, and after reviewing it, I made some errors.  Where ever I wrote BOS (Board of Supervisors), I meant the School Board.  The BOS appears to be listening to the will of the people which is why there is discussion of a rate cut.  I have no confidence in the school board, superintendent, or the downtown administration.  By the way, I’m more than willing to pay more for school if there is accountability.  There is no accountability here, just speculation and excuses with no data.

That being said, for the last few days we’ve been receiving these emails about supporting what I consider, ridiculous spending.  I wasn’t trying to start some deep discussion or controversy over the subject, I was just curious if there were other recipients that disagreed as I did.  Most times when there is discussion about school spending, it doesn’t get my attention.  This one did.  Doesn’t mean I’m wrong or right, just that I disagree.  And if you’re going to send political email to my house, and you’re welcome to, if I disagree, I’m going to let you know.

So my message was quickly written and I need to clarify a few things.  Recognizing that we have so many of our local teacher and administrators on this distribution list, I wanted to say that even though I think this spending is out of control and needs to be reigned in, I don’t think the problem is at the school level.  Living with my wife, I don’t think too much of No Child Left Behind, but I don’t believe it’s the budget buster that is being portrayed here.  I think the problem is all down town.  I think we need more information on what goes on down town, who works down town, and what they do.  It’s my opinion that this is where the waste is, but if anyone can get this information, please share it.  How many failing teacher and administrators have they created new positions for down town?  How much does the county spend on bringing in some specialist contractors to tell or teachers the new metho d they will be using to teach our kids?

I believe (and I admittedly don’t have the information because it’s not available) if we eliminated 50-70% of the people downtown, and allowed our teachers to teach, we would have smarter kids, a better environmental, and fiscally responsible education.  To have the increases that we are having, something is wrong, and it’s not happening at the school level.

The other thing that bothered me is the intentionally misleading data that we have seen in these emails  Then there’s the, I’m not sure what you would call it…..shakedown?  They always say if they don’t get the money they want, they will have to cut teachers.  It’s always the teachers that must go first.  In reality, they have plenty of fat to trim down town and other places, but instead they throw this emotional blackmail at the parents.

I looked at the data again.  It was a 63% increase in school budget from 2000 to 2007 with a 2% growth.  I’m not saying anyone is not informed on their decisions.  I just think that kind of increase is absurd, and NCLB and 2% growth doesn’t explain it.  All I’m saying is we need to stop giving this irresponsible school board and superintendent a rubber stamp to whatever they want.  I want a better explanation.  I think we should call them on it.

By the way, none of this gets me angry and as far as the growth goes, I have participated in that process too, speaking at the Old Trail Planning Commission meeting, working on the Crozet Park Board etc..

My apologies to the superb teachers, administrators (local) and employees if I offended you.  It was not my intention.  Nor was it my intention to enflame anyone.  I just wanted to see if anyone else was thinking the way I was.  And you’re right Patty, I don’t need to sign the petition.  I’ll just write directly to my supervisor.

ed note: The above is courtesy of Brian Campbell. This type of discussion is part of the reason that this blog was started. Please feel free to contribute to the conversation or submit stories candidly, not everything will be published, but please do contribute. Accountability and transparency qualify as “good things.” The more discussion and oversight by the citizens, the better.

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Recycling in Crozet Poll

With all the talk of recycling in Crozet and the discussion on the Crozet Community Association listserv, I figured I would post a poll here, hopefully for a centralized location for responses.

So, without further ado …

Update January 2019: the struck-through below used to be a polling plugin. It’s now defunct.

{democracy}

Please vote, tell and/or email your friends about this poll. For more information on what you can do to advocate for recycling in Crozet, read more here.

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Recycling, sidewalks, library, redistricting and more!

There is an awful lot on the agenda for tomorrow’s Crozet Community Association meeting, which start at 7:30 on Thursday:

-  Sidewalks/Streetscape plans-Lee Catlin

-  Library plans-Lee Catlin & Barbara Westbrook

-  Area schools redistricting discussion
            Barbara Massie Mouly, Brian Wheeler can’t attend tonight
         
            Crozet Elem. School public meeting on March 15 at 6:30;

            School Board decision on March 22.

-  Recycling-Michael Freitas & Jo Ann Perkins

-  CoHousing plan– Nancy Chappell

-  Old school and Depot suggestions from members 
          (At the last CCA meeting David Wayland asked members to come up with recommendations re. the future use of both of these buildings.)

-  Other business from members

For lots more on redistricting, sidewalks and more, pick up a copy of March’s Crozet Gazette (pdf) – especially the “artist’s rendering” of the potential streetscaping on the last page.

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