Category: Politics

Posted on

Neighborhood Funding Initiative Meeting Recap

How would you spend a couple hundred thousand dollars in Crozet? That was the focus of the meeting on Wednesday night at Crozet Elementary.

 

Keep in mind that this money is to be split amongst 7 CACs.

Background on the Neighborhood Funding Initiative.

 

 

I wasn’t able to make the meeting, but offer big thanks to those who were there who tweeted.

Click through for the tweets; there’s a lot of good information there.

Continue reading “Neighborhood Funding Initiative Meeting Recap”

Posted on

Neighborhood Improvement Funding Initiative

Update 9 March 2017:  Please see this Google Form —  Crozet-area Community Neighborhood Project Brainstorm. Sorry for the late notice; this is the first I’ve seen this as I missed the email on 3 March from the County.

via press release:

Crozet’s meetings are:

March 15 & April 19 | 7PM
Crozet Elementary cafeteria

Is there a small-scale improvement, like walking trails or playground equipment, that would benefit your community? Or the need for a planning or design study for a future improvement? The Neighborhood Improvement Funding Initiative is a new, one-time program approved by the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors to drive investment in quality-of-life projects in the County’s development areas.

County residents are invited to participate in a series of community meetings happening in the development areas to identify and then
prioritize projects for your area. Read on to learn more about this initiative.

Development areas are the urbanized portions of the County and include the urban ring around the City of Charlottesville, the 29 North corridor, Pantops, Crozet, and the Village of Rivanna. Each area has a master plan and a Board-appointed Community Advisory Committee to help implement the plan. View a map of the development areas and find the Community Advisory Committee nearest you!

During March and April, the seven Community Advisory Committees will hold community meetings to identify quality-of-life projects (March) and then prioritize them (April). We invite anyone in the community to participate in these meetings in-person (or before the meeting, online).

Posted on

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?”

Posted on

Recap of Crozet Board of Trade Meeting – 19 September 2016

Thank for the tweets, and the live-streaming, Crozet Gazette! If you’re interested (and why wouldn’t you be?), watch the video of the meeting after the break. Piedmont Place will be bringing Mas meets Lampo. Yum.

#CBOT0916

Arthur Wollam attended and commented here (thank you!); the only edits by me are linebreaks and a couple bolds.

I attended the BOT meeting, my first

Mike Marshall presided. He introduced a number of business owners/leaders who gave short presentations. Very few questions.

Piedmont Place: Smoked BBQ, Yoga, OTM Books, Crozet Creamery, BR Bottle Shop, a flatbread/tapas skybar. 2 spaces remaining.

North Side Commercial: sidewalks, better drainage, maybe rooftop terraces; new restaurant for 3-Notched; Crozet Pizza expanding…maybe to end of building.

Possibly future residential over commercial.

OTV: BMC partner doing 1 large mixed-use bldg rather than 3 on original plan. Bldg complete in 1 to 1.5 years. 190 Apt project in early phases, no commercial. Big rebound in residential sales. Attached home sales very strong.

Barnes Lumber: now going before BOS in Nov vice Sep.

MM: reviewed previously reported developments at the Square. Wants strong BOT input to MP revision. July 4th celebration netted $10K for reinvestment in Crozet.

Continue reading “Recap of Crozet Board of Trade Meeting – 19 September 2016”

Posted on

Crozet Board of Trade Meeting – 19 September 2016

via email:
The Crozet Board of Trade will meet Monday Sept. 19 at 7:30 at Pro Re Nata Brewery.
The agenda includes an overview of the commercial development in Crozet with Drew Holzwarth, builder of Piedmont Place in downtown, Dave Brockman of Old Trail (Reid Murphy, who is building the new building in Old Trail will be on hand) and Kurt Wassenaar, who, along with Mark Green, owns the major portion of north downtown. We also expect Frank Stoner of Milestone Partners to attend.
Other items include the upcoming revision of the Crozet Master Plan and the community survey that will proceed it—what questions do we want to ask about economic/commercial zoning issues?– an update on the Christmas raffle idea and a budget report on the Fourth of July celebration. Hope to see you there.
The Crozet Board of Trade is an open membership, non-profit civic charitable organization that seeks to promote the prosperity and welfare of Crozet.
Posted on

Foothill Crossing Rezoning Approved by Planning Commission

Note that it still needs to go to the Board of Supervisors.

Sean Tubbs at Charlottesville Tomorrow reports: (read the whole thing) ((bolding mine))

The Albemarle County Planning Commission has recommended adoption of a proposal to rezone land within the boundaries of the Crozet Master Plan. The development also would add to the area’s transportation network.

…

Only one person spoke during the public hearing and he said he was uncertain about the future roadways.

“Most of the roads that were described as being built were described as ‘hopefully, they will be completed one day,’” said Parkside Village resident Phil Kirby. “They really don’t mean much to the residents if they’re not done.”

…

“I think it’s going to be important for us to reach agreement on what extent of completion there needs to be done in the concept plan before we review it,” Keller said. “It puts us in a difficult position if they are not complete.”

Firehock compared the development to nearby Adelaide, which was recommended by the commission only after details about unit types were locked down.

“I do not feel comfortable moving forward with the level of information we have,” Firehock said.

However, Commissioner Jennie More said she felt she could support this rezoning because Riverbend is developing several of the adjacent properties.

Update: a few additional thoughts/quote pulls:

From the Adelaide conversation the other day (bolding mine)

“Our land-use plans are not matching up to our zoning expectations,” he said “I think that creates a lot of dysfunction in how we go about doing our planning. It sets poor expectations for what is to come.”

Sheffield said he would be in support of Crozet rewriting its Master Plan for lower density and proactively changing the zoning accordingly.

Another supervisor whose district contains large portions of U.S. 250 dealt the final blow to the evening’s review of the proposal.

“I think this project is a beautiful project,” said Liz Palmer. “I’m not worried about the schools. What I’m worried about is safety on that road. I can’t support a development with this kind of density in that spot.”

But in Foothills

At least half of the homes would be single-family homes and at least 10 percent would be townhouses. However, the exact mix of units is not yet known.

Maybe I’m missing something, but this seems inconsistent.

Good comments on the Facebook post.

 

Posted on

Albemarle County School Bond Referendum – 2016

There’s a bond referendum coming up in this year’s election (November 8, for those of you paying attention). Best to get educated on it now.

If interested, make plans to attend the bond referendum open house on 4 October at Western Albemarle High School.

Importantly – what questions do you have about the referendum?

Explanation of the County of Albemarle Public School Bond Referendum

Continue reading “Albemarle County School Bond Referendum – 2016”

Posted on

23 March – Learn About, then Speak About the Albemarle County Budget

via email from our Supervisor Ann Mallek:  (bolding mine)

“This Wednesday, March 23, at 7 pm at WAHS the county staff will be making a presentation on the budget, the local government side and the school side.

You may have heard about this through Amail, but I hope that extra effort will bring in a better turn out. Only two citizens attended the meeting at Jouett and at Monticello. One citizen was a repeat.

Let’s show what Crozet is made of and have a great turnout for this presentation.

Participants are welcome to offer questions and debate.

Make recommendations for items to restore from cuts or to cut from the budget.

As you know, one of the larger chunks of the budget which has suffered from lack of priority in the last six years is the CIP, or capital improvement program.

This is a great opportunity to advocate for inclusion of the Lickinghole Bridge into the six year road plan.

This highest priority project in Crozet is way past due.

I hope to see many folks there.  Thanks for your help.”

Posted on

Ann Mallek’s Town Halls – Spring 2016

via email:

White Hall district supervisor, Ann Mallek, has scheduled three town halls in March, 2016.

Conversation with and learning from White Hall district citizens is her goal.

The meetings are:
  • Saturday, March 5          10 am                  White Hall Community Building
  • Monday, March 7           7 pm                    Broadus Wood Elementary School Cafeteria
  • Thursday, March 10       8 pm                    Field School, Crozet, following the Crozet Community Association meeting which begins at 7 pm (note new time)

Supervisor Mallek asks new questions for town halls in March, 2016.

Continue reading “Ann Mallek’s Town Halls – Spring 2016”