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Notes from the Crozet Master Plan Committee Meeting

Thanks to Tim Tolson at the CCA for this … read the whole thing.

Present: Tom Loach, Tom Guterboch, Jennie More, Bryan Kelly, Shawn Bird, Jim Crosby, Pat Crosby, Tim Tolson, Mike Marshall

Notes by Tim Tolson

Elaine Echols from Albemarle County staff sends her regrets, she cannot make this meeting.

Ann Mallek emailed to say she had another commitment and couldn’t make this meeting.

Tom L. re-capped why we’re doing this survey, to gather opinions about Crozet and growth topics related to master plan in preparation for 2018 when County said it can revise master plan. Starting with 2009 survey that CCAC and CCA and County did, Tim chaired that effort. (Click here for the Crozet Gazette article with more background)

I have a conflict for the next meeting, Thursday, 3/30 at 7:00 PM at the Field School. If you can attend, and can tweet the meeting, please let me know. I’ll pay. This is important stuff, folks. These are not FOIA-able public meetings, even though they are open, and the public is encouraged to attend. While they do a great job with the minutes, having live-tweeting would be fantastic.

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Crozet Needs Water?

via NBC29

The water treatment plant that provides clean water to people in Crozet could exceed its capacity within the next five years. That’s why the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority (RWSA) is beginning a master plan to make sure water keeps flowing from.

Dr. John Schoeb depends on fresh, clean water for both his businesses – his dental practice and his brewery, Pro Re Nata.

“Without it, neither one of them exists,” Schoeb explained. “It’s a limited resource. We’re paying for it, we’re trying to be good to the environment.”

Schoeb says simple conservation steps cut his brewery’s water use by 8,000 gallons per month. It’s an effort he encourages his neighbors in Crozet to try.

“Crozet is a growing, vibrant area. People want to move out here, so if we’re going to keep the infrastructure we have we’re all going to have to work together to conserve as much as we can,” said Schoeb.

Crozet’s infrastructure is the focus of a new water master plan. The RWSA is hiring a consultant to study the growing community’s water needs.

“It is an area where we’re seeing high demand that is starting to get close to our capacity,” said Bill Mawyer, RWSA executive director.

Crozet’s 52 year-old water treatment plant can handle one million gallons per day. Right now, the average daily demand is about half a million gallons.

 

via Crozet Today (pdf)

 

The Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority (RWSA) is launching a master plan to make sure water keeps flowing for Crozet. The Crozet water treatment plant could exceed its capacity within the next five years. Crozet’s infrastructure is the focus of a new water master plan. The RWSA is hiring a consultant to study the growing community’s water needs.

“It is an area where we’re seeing high demand that is starting to get close to our capacity,” said Bill Mawyer, RWSA executive director. Crozet’s 52 year-old water treatment plant can handle one million gallons per day. Right now, the average daily demand is about half a million gallons.

The RWSA estimates it could exceed capacity by the summer of 2022. “We need to start planning now how we will expand the facilities to make sure we can meet the demand in the next five, to 10, to 50 years,” said Mawyer.

 

Read the whole thing.

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Wariness of the Crozet Master Plan

A letter from a reader:

Thank you for the continued updates. We bought in December 2013 in (Crozet) and love it. We will be retiring there in the next few years and selling our DC metro home in MD.

We have watched with dismay over the past 40 years as a pastoral gem — Piscataway, MD, est. 1636 — was continually remade in the image of special interest groups, county government, and developers who could not grasp the significance of an area 20 minutes from the Capitol Building in DC that retained so much early local history, buildings, and active farms. There were many meetings, zoning amendments, master plans presented, but ultimately, all was disregarded and developed much like the rest of the area. Very large homes on tiny lots with a high foreclosure rate, inadequate infrastructure, terrible roads, intolerable commutes, and schools that rank among the lowest in MD. However, we have a world class casino 10 minutes away…

The experience has left me very leery of Smart Growth. Or, any promise of master plans that will actually govern the development process and honor the vision that preserves the essence of the area being considered and the will of the people.

I’m not anti growth. I just wonder if we really want the Crozet area to look just like every other developing area. I think it is a very shortsighted view.

    – Chris
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Crozet Master Plan Survey Meeting – 23 March 2017

Short story: the Crozet Master Plan update will likely affect Crozet significantly. Be there if you’re interested. (does the Crozet Firehouse have open wifi?)

 

via email:

The Crozet Master Plan Survey committee meeting
Thursday, March 23, at 7:00 PM
at the Crozet Firehouse

Anyone interested in helping with the Crozet Master Plan survey is invited to attend the next meeting on Thursday, March 23 at 7:00 PM at the CrozetFirehouse (come around the back of the fire station, and enter through the glass doors on the east side).   We will be reviewing the final draft of the new survey based on all the input and feedback received.  The survey‘s goal is to find out what the residents of Crozet and surrounding community think about various topics and concerns related to the Crozet master plan and its implementation.

Background: Over six years ago, the Crozet community conducted a community survey to get input on items of concern and interest to Crozetresidents to inform the revision of the 2010 Crozet Master Plan revision.   This meeting is part  a similar process for the next revision of the Crozet Master Plan.  Said revision is already over a year over-due and not schedule by the County to occur for another year or two.  The Crozet Community Association (CCA) believes that’s too long to wait for revision, given the pace of development in Crozet.

This is a committee of the Crozet Community Association (CCA).   The results from the survey will be made public.  It will be used to inform the process of master plan revision.  It will also help inform what topics the CCA should focus on when it hosts some town hall meetings about Crozet Master Plan (CMP) revision topics.

Additional background:

We did this in 2009, too.

And in 2005, too

And you can listen to Tom Loach from 2007.

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The Vue – 126 Apartments in Downtown Crozet – Begins

The Vue – the 126 apartments coming to near-downtown-Crozet, started today. That start was the demolition of one of the oldest – and coolest – homes in Crozet.

 

A serious question – was this envisioned by the Crozet Master Plan?

Background here.

 

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An Adelaide Perspective you May Not Have Considered

The owner of the property on which the soon-to-be Adelaide development sits wrote the following to the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. I asked her this morning after I read it if I could publish it here.

I’ve seen a lot of the opponents’ voices, and I’ve listened to the pro-development voices, but I’d not seen the owner/seller’s voice until now.

Please, take the time to read and hear another neighbor’s thoughts and concerns.

Good discussion on the accompanying facebook post.

Letter to the Board of Supervisors

Ms. Mallek:
First, I now understand why our country is in such turmoil and dissatisfaction. It’s true, government is out of control, even at our local level. I have found this every step of the way while trying to get my property sold. I question what is the purpose of having a Planning Commission if you don’t abide by their decisions. Why have a planning committee?

Continue reading “An Adelaide Perspective you May Not Have Considered”

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Adelaide Rezoning Fails; By-Right Development Moving Forward

via Charlottesville Tomorrow: (read the whole thing)

A divided Albemarle County Board of Supervisors has denied a rezoning for the proposed 80-unit Adelaide development in Crozet, prompting the developer to announce that he will build 35 units on the property instead by-right.

“By opposing Adelaide, the dissenting supervisors … have voted against inclusivity and against the recommendations of the experts that they appointed — the county staff and the planning commis-sioners,” Kyle Redinger said in a statement released shortly (Jim’s note: full statement here) after a motion to approve the rezoning failed on a 3-3 vote.

Further from the Charlottesville Tomorrow story (bolding mine)

“If we believe our communities are no longer accepting of the development-area model to ensure prescribed amenities and targeting growth into specific areas, then we revisit the Comprehensive Plan and the master plans,” McKeel said.

Mallek said the Crozet Master Plan is well-supported by the community, and the community does not want higher density on U.S. 250. However, she said the plan was supposed to have been updated in 2015 in part to reduce the ambiguity.

“There are several different elements of the Crozet Master Plan, and what seems to have happened is that one was chosen by [the Planning Commission] to be more important than the other,” Mallek said. “But it is the Board of Supervisors’ job to re-evaluate that.”

A question on that – as it’s the BoS job to re-evaluate the plan, does the Board support the CCAC/CCA/Board of Trade re-evaluating the Crozet Master plan?

 

Two things to point out

Related from December

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Adelaide Going to Board of Supervisors

The Adelaide neighborhood proposal is going to the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors today.  Agenda here.

A question: if the County turn down this rezoning proposal, will the by-right result be better or worse for Crozet?  

Will the by-right neighborhood provide trails, buffers from 250, etc? Will the by-right houses be more or less affordable than the rezoned houses? (Answer: far less) — is this good for Crozet to have more expensive houses?

Crozet Today reports that Supervisor Ann Mallek is lobbying against the neighborhood:

Continue reading “Adelaide Going to Board of Supervisors”

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Service Tax Districts in Albemarle County?

Crozet - Image from Charlottesville Tomorrow
Crozet – Image from Charlottesville Tomorrow

I’ll wait for the news reports to come in before formulating my own opinion, but the tweets from Neil Williamson, of the Free Enterprise Forum, from today were interesting.

Update: Sean Tubbs with Charlottesville Tomorrow has more.

Short question – would you be willing to pay more taxes to fund infrastructure improvements in Crozet? Such as the Lickinghole Creek bridge/connector from Westhall to 250?

 

Say … $100/year?*

(Illustration: For a house assessed at $350,000, an increase
of 2.8 cents on the tax rate would equate to an annual
increase of $98.00; a 1.6 cent increase on the tax rate
would equate to an annual increase of $56.00. )

A few points from the County presentation: (I highly recommend you read the whole thing)

  • Services districts are a tool that have been authorized for decades
  • The general purpose of a service district is to provide additional, more complete or more timely services of government than are desired for the locality or localities as a whole
  • Service districts are geographic areas composed of less than all of the County’s territory, and whose boundaries are established by the Board of Supervisors
  • The Board may levy and collect an annual tax on real property within the service district to pay for the facilities authorized to be provided in the district
  • The tax is an ad valorem tax

As the conversation continues

And I’d forgotten about these stories

Important note – When people refer to Crozet as a “town,” they are wrong.

*This is why permanent URLs are important. I’m looking at you, Daily Progress and Albemarle County, the websites of the dead links.

Continue reading “Service Tax Districts in Albemarle County?”

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Albemarle County Board of Supervisors Meeting – 14 Sept 2016

Big discussions at the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors meeting – West Glen neighborhood and stream crossing special use permit (approved), Restore N Station (vote was deferred), and a fair amount about schools in Albemarle.

I recapped the tweets from Neil Williamson (and a few others) below. Click through to the end, and make your way back up, and get informed.

But then I started watching the video of the hearing … and became interested, and started tweeting myself.

The agenda from the BoS is here.

Click through to read all the tweets (start at the bottom; it’s pretty interesting)

Continue reading “Albemarle County Board of Supervisors Meeting – 14 Sept 2016”