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A Bike Shop is Coming to Crozet

 

Update 29 November 2016: The Crozet Bike Shop is open!

Inside the Crozet Bike Shop
Inside the Crozet Bike Shop

As a bicycle rider, hooorayyyyy!!!!!

As a Crozetian seeking any kind of improvement/activity/movement in the Barnes Lumberyard, this is great news!

I’ll leave the actual reporting to others, and answer a few questions I would have.

  • Who?
    • Cor Carelsen. He and his family moved to Crozet recently from South Africa, where they had and sold a safari operation.
    • They chose Crozet for the quality of life – close to nature, and far enough from Charlottesville –  and the schools.
    • He also happens to ride with the Crozet Cycling Club.
    • He’s also a nice guy.
  • When will the bike shop open?
    • He’s aiming for October/November 2016. The plan is to be in the building for 2 years, establish himself in the community, and go/grow from there.
    • A goal is to be part of the community, get involved with the people, the riders, races …
  • Where?
    • In the lumberyard. That yellowish building just beyond The Square? Right there.
The future Crozet bike shop
The future Crozet bike shop
  • What?
    • He is going to sell bikes – a full lineup, including bikes for adults, junior bikes, bikes made for kids, light and simple, as well as bicycling gear and apparel, but the focus of the shop is going to be servicing bikes. I ran into someone this morning who had heard about the shop and who echoed what I’ve heard from many – she’s hoping for classes on basic bike maintenance – changing tires, chains, adding lube … “
  • Why?
    • Cor is following his passion – he has always ridden and worked on his bicycles. Crozet needs a bike shop. He loves working on bicycles – simply, they are machines that, given the right time and attention, can be made to work. He is a perfectionist. Bicycles are equally simple, complex – and solvable.

Starting – and running/operating –  a bike shop in this environment and economy is a huge risk, and must be done in part by passion and love of bicycles and community. I’m looking forward to seeing the shop grow.

 

Continue reading “A Bike Shop is Coming to Crozet”

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Have you Read the Downtown Crozet District Code?

Piedmont Place - Bike Racks are Required in Downtown Crozet
Bike Racks are Required in Downtown Crozet – Piedmont Place

I haven’t yet read the Downtown Crozet District Code, but I’m going to.  Actually being informed is more useful and powerful.

Read the Downtown Crozet District Code it. It’s right here.

You’re familiar with the 2010 Crozet Master Plan, too, right?

(it’s also on the County’s site, but I don’t trust them to not move it somewhere else on the site, and break the link)

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Plans for next Phase of Old Trail Commercial Area Released

Old Trail Village in Crozet commercial center

Old Trail have released the plans for their new commercial space, so I’ll ask again (and a small request: please at least skim some of the comments from previous posts 🙂 )

What businesses does Crozet need?

Bonus points if the “needed” business is economically viable.

Piedmont Place in Downtown Crozet is the first mover in the “create a new place/space in Crozet.”

Publicly confirmed tenants in Piedmont Place
  1. Smoked BBQ
  2. The Roof Top 22932
  3. Blue Ridge Bottle Shop
  4. Morsel Compass
  5. An ice cream or yogurt place
  6. Yoga studio

Yesterday brought the news and images of the coming-soon Old Trail commercial space.

Old Trail Commercial center

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Smoked Coming to Piedmont Place

Downtown Crozet is getting another restaurant … coming to Piedmont Place (near the Crozet Library).

via facebook:

Smoked is expanding from downtown Cville to downtown Crozet, with our flagship, full service restaurant. Local entrepreneurs Drew and Michelle Holzwarth are creating a one of a kind, truly iconic building in the heart of Crozet, and we couldn’t me more honored to anchor it! Smoked Kitchen and Tap will feature a Chef driven locally inspired menu, in addition to our true, slow smoked, offset Hickory BBQ! Rotating beer taps, a downstairs patio, and our signature 4th floor bar “The Rooftop”, will make this the perfect place to begin or end you day on the Brew Ridge Trail!

(thanks, Laura for the heads up)

 

Piedmont Place is taking shape. #crozet

A photo posted by RealCrozetVa (Jim Duncan) (@realcrozetva) on

In other news,  the Downtown Crozet Initiative open meeting for June has been canceled, but I expect the organizational meeting would still be open to the public.
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Downtown Crozet Initiative Meeting – 12 May 2016 – Recap

I love this post, not just because it’s good information on the Downtown Crozet Initiative (the redevelopment of the Barnes Lumberyard) but because two Crozetians are providing the information.

First, from Art Wollam (who also wrote about the last meeting), and second, the tweets from Sam Harris.

Here’s what I got from the DCI meeting:

Continue reading “Downtown Crozet Initiative Meeting – 12 May 2016 – Recap”

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Downtown Crozet Initiative Meeting – 12 May 2016

If you can, please attend. These will shape the future of not just downtown Crozet, but all of Crozet.

This month’s meeting is Thursday, 12 May at noon at the Crozet Library.

They’ll be talking about milestones, timelines, update on the rezoning from the County of Albemarle and more. If you can, please attend!

Last month’s meeting recap.

Review the Request for Proposals (RFP) for the Downtown Crozet Plaza project.

I’m excited that someone’s going to be at the meeting tomorrow to tweet it; follow the #DCI0516 hashtag if you’re interested. I’ll pull those together and post a story on Friday hopefully.