Crozet Community Association May meeting

There is no dearth of ways to get involved and learn more about the goings-on of Crozet. Mark your calendars for this Thursday at 7pm.

Our May Crozet Community Association Meeting is this Thursday at 7:30 at the Firehouse.  Please send me any items for the agenda you would like presented or discussed.    At the moment we have these items:  a report from the newly formed Crozet Advisory Committee of the Board of Supervisors;  announcement of a new newspaper serving Western Albemarle; a paid job opening; and several other matters.

A new newspaper in Western Albemarle?

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Crozet Community Arts Festival

The semi-annual tradition continues –

This weekend is the Spring Crozet Arts and Crafts Show at Claudius Crozet Park. This serves as the fundraiser for the park and pool. Show hours are 10-5PM on Saturday May 13, and Sunday May 14th. Please come by and support your park!


Come on out to Crozet this weekend!

There will also be a yard sale in Parkside Village.

The PVHOA would like to hold a semi-annual Parkside Village community yard sale. The first would be held on Saturday May 13, 2006. The next would be held on Saturday October 7, 2006. These dates coincide with the Crozet Park’s Arts and Crafts Festival. 

Yard sales will be set up and run by individual households on their property.  If there are students in the neighborhood in need of community service hours we would love to turn the sign making and advertising over to you. It would be a great way to serve your immediate community and fill up some of those service hours.

Traffic signals in Crozet

Crozet is getting two traffic signals! Might they consider making them flashing lights that do not require stopping during non-school hours?

There was a nasty multi-vehicle wreck the other day on Route 240/Crozet Avenue at about 8:45 am – right when everybody was trying to make it to the schools. Some were able to turn around and make their way to the new Old Trail connector road. Others were stuck in the backup. Most surprising was that the police guarding the movie set in Old Trail couldn’t be bothered to leave their posts chit-chatting. I have little doubt that they were off-duty police, but they were in uniform and were driving County police cars – my thought is that public safety should come first. Silly me.

The Crozet tunnel

The DP has a good story this morning about the tunnel running under Afton mountain. Soon, it will be part of Nelson County’s tourism business.

“It’s going to be pretty dark,” Gandy said, explaining that the Whitesell Group studied a similar, longer tunnel in Seattle that used only reflectors when it was turned into a trail. “It sort of looked like you’re walking at night under a full moon. … To light it is just a sin. You want that endorphin rush when you’re coming through.”

I’m going to have to go one day soon.

Walk to School Day

It’s this type of community that makes Crozet a nice place to live.

Dear Members of the Crozet Community,

We wanted to let you know that on Friday, March 31, children at Crozet Elementary School will be walking to school. This event is designed to help kids learn that fitness can be fun and practical. Students have been learning about pedestrian safety and are eager to practice their new skills. 

Supported by the Alliance for Community Choice in Transportation [ACCT] and their Safe Routes to School initiative, this event encourages all families who can walk to school to do so. Children who must ride the bus will have the opportunity to take a walk around the outside of the school before entering the building for the day. Parents who drive their children by car are invited to park at Crozet Baptist Church on St. George Avenue and walk to school from there under the supervision of school staff. A second supervised “Walking School Bus” will walk from the Brookwood neighborhood.

Members of the community are advised to be on the lookout for children walking in the neighborhoods and to be extra careful driving between 7-8am.

If you have questions, please contact the following:

Karen Marcus, Principal
823-4800

Linda Kobert
ACCT Safe Routes to School Coordinator
295-6554

Alliance for Community Choice in Transportation
Safe Routes to School
PO Box 1582
(609 East Market Street, Suite 106)
Charlottesville, VA  22902
tel/fax: 434.295.6554
www.transportationchoice.org

More than 12,000 people in Crozet …

This outstanding report by Charlottesville Tomorrow shows what the County apparently is unable to accurately determine and/or admit to.

While nobody can predict accurately the speed with which those homes will be built and occupied, it is news that County staff are bringing this to the attention of the Board.  On paper, the twenty-year Crozet Master Plan approved in December 2004 has crossed the threshold of a population of 12,000 people.

Go read the report, educate yourself and contact your representative in Albemarle County and ask them what integrity means to them.

Crozet residents speak

But have they been heard?

Charlottesville Tomorrow has the podcast.

Members of the Crozet community appeared before the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors to deliver a petition signed by 1,316 area residents asking the County to not let Crozet’s population exceed 12,000 people.  In this podcast, Charlottesville Tomorrow presents the public comments delivered in this portion of the Board’s meeting.  Seven of the six speakers focused their remarks on the Crozet Master Plan.

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“A Call to Arms”

This type of community action is how I would like to see realcrozetva.com grow and be used. Attempting to notify Crozetians the day before any action is too late.

From the Crozet Community Association

We urgently need a number of people who can come to the Board of Supervisors’ Meeting, 9 A.M., Wednesday morning,  March 1, at the County Office Building, room 241,  on McIntire Road downtown.  You will not have to speak; just be there to stand up and make the presence of Crozet felt.  This is a morning meeting, so many people will not be able to attend.  If you are free, we hope you will come.  Try to be there by 8:45.

Some of us will present the over 1100 signed petitions urging the BOS to respect the Master Plan and keep to the promised 12,000 buildout population. We have found using the County’s own figures that the current population including all the developments that have already  been approved is over 11,000!  They have been telling us that 12,000 was the twenty year build-out goal.  We have never agreed to the twenty year date; the 12,000 figure was the total build-out figure continuously quoted to us during the Master Planning period.  Never-the-less, we have already virtually reached the 12,000 build-out.  The question for the BOS is what are they going to do once the 12,000 population is attained?  Are they willing to stop all further development?  Or are they going to ignore the 12,000 figure and continue to make Crozet a population land-fill?  And  where is our representative David Wyant in all this?

We need Crozet citizens and other concerned people to be there on Wednesday to support our contention that the BOS has to take control of the uncontrolled building taking place and STOP it now.  Crozet as a community is being destroyed by developers and politicians who are totally ignoring the Master Plan that Crozet people wrote.

We believe we can make a difference if we continue to stand up to the Board and the Planning Commission.  Thanks for helping at this crucial time.    Call your friends and come on out. 

The most important question from the above (in my opinion) is “where is … David Wyant … “?  At the most recent Crozet “Town Hall,” he made a few seemingly prepared remarks but did not take public questions. Does each BoS member owe his or her allegiance to the constituents in his district or to the County? At what point does he have to stand up for the residents?

By the way, Albemarle’s Calendar page is quite helpful. Shame it doesn’t have RSS capabilities.

Crozet is in Waynesboro’s “market area”

From the News Leader

According to Frank, there are 45,000 people in the Waynesboro market area, which does not include Staunton or the western part of Augusta County, but does include places such as Ivy and Crozet. To make his point, Frank said that even though the Ivy exit on Interstate 64 is only five exits from U.S. 29 in Charlottesville, a shopping mecca, it’s easier and quicker for motorists to travel the I-64 corridor because of traffic congestion in Charlottesville. Another reason for the rise of heavy hitters like Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Martin’s Food Market, Lowe’s and Home Depot is that since 2004 1,151 new single-family lots have been approved in Waynesboro, Frank said, along with 3,000 new lots in Crozet. He attributed the growth to retirees and spillover from Charlottesville.

One of the best things about Crozet is Waynesboro. Home Depot, Lowe’s, Super WalMart (as distasteful as that may be) … the people are more friendly and the stores less crowded. Hopefully Waynesboro will learn from Charlotteville’s mistakes.