Tag: Politics

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Crozet is Going to Grow – And We Can’t Stop It

Nor should we. But we can and should manage how we grow.

The Master Plan is under review …

As Albemarle County looks for ways to increase its industrial land, some Crozet residents are concerned their community has paid a high price for development in the past several years.

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“When we asked the community about the update and what the focus areas should be, the guiding principle [was] that Crozet should remain Crozet,” said County Planner Rebecca Ragsdale during a work session held Tuesday by the Albemarle County Planning Commission. 

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Get Involved in Crozet’s Growth/Progress/Way of Life

Here’s your chance to put your money/time/effort where your mouth is –

Crozet Community Advisory Committee:  Five vacancies.  Do you want to get involved in your community? Are you interested in working on issues that impact the future of Crozet? Consider applying for a position on the Crozet Community Advisory Council. Albemarle County has several openings on the Crozet Community Advisory Council (CCAC), a 15-member volunteer advisory committee appointed by the Board of Supervisors that provides assistance to County staff and the Board on civic and community issues related to implementation of the Crozet Master Plan. The CCAC contributes to public understanding of and support for Master Plan implementation through enhanced communication and collaboration among all Crozet community stakeholders, and seeks to identify, communicate and collaborate with unrepresented stakeholder groups.   CCAC membership is broad-based to incorporate a variety of perspectives and ideas and to provide citizens, businesspersons and representatives of active community groups a chance to be engaged and heard in a constructive and meaningful way. The CCAC meets on the third Thursday of each month from 7:00-9:00 p.m. at The Meadows Community Center in Crozet.  Application deadline is Wednesday, March 24, 2010.


Application forms and information may be obtained from the Clerk’s Office, Board of County Supervisors, Fourth Floor, County Office Building, 401 McIntire Road, Charlottesville, VA, between 8:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M., Monday – Friday. Applications are also available on-line. Telephone:   (434) 296-5843 (434) 296-5843 .

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It is Incumbent Upon US to Read the Albemarle County Budget

We need to read the budget and make suggestions. (although it would be easier if we had the option to download the entire budget in one document, thus making searching easier)

County Executive Bob Tucker:

“It is important for me to state very clearly that while the library is recommended for a reduction in this budget the County has not proposed and indeed would not support the closure of any branches, including those in Scottsville or Crozet. It is not our desire to recommend reductions to any of our valuable community agencies, but we do so out of necessity only after we have very aggressively reduced our own department expenditures to the point where core services must now be preserved. It is important to note that reductions to community agencies were avoided for the first two years of the recession as local government operations and staffing have absorbed significant decreases. In fact, in FY08/09 when the County was experiencing declines in revenues related to the economic downturn and responded by freezing/ eliminating county staff positions and reducing operating budgets, community agencies received an average increase of 4% in funding. In FY09/10 while local government expanded its frozen/eliminated/offset positions to 55 and reduced non-personnel expenditures significantly, agencies maintained at least level funding while several again saw slight increases. “

The first budget public hearing will be held Wednesday evening at 6:00 pm at Lane Auditorium in the County Office Building on McIntire Road.

What cuts can you find? Dolores found $75,000 in the Libraries’ budget (pdf).

Hmmm …. I think a good business opportunity would be for some enterprising (team of) individual(s) to offer babysitting services in a central location (Cville Coffee? 🙂 ) so that parents can attend the public hearing. Just a thought.
Update 1 March 2010: The Jefferson Madison Library Board of Trustees has voted to close the Scottsville Library.

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Crozet Housing Prices and School Quality

Crozet has traditionally been regarded as having high-quality public schools; as such we benefit from the market created by our schools.

Do better schools increase house prices? From my perspective as a Realtor in the Crozet area, the answer is yes. I have never had buyers tell me that they wanted to live in a bad school district; but virtually every single one – whether they have kids or not – wants to be in a good school district. Frankly, I don’t need metrics or analysis or data to support my conclusion; I know that people buying homes in Charlottesville and Albemarle want good schools.

All the data in the world isn’t going to change my opinion, either as a Realtor or as a parent, that good, quality schools matter – to our kids and to our housing values.

From The Impact of School Characteristics on House Prices: Chicago 1987-1991

For many people, an important consideration when buying a house is the quality of the local public schools. There is a general perception that, all else equal, houses in better school districts will cost more.
…

Our results indicate that individuals pay attention to both per-pupil expenditures and test scores when deciding where to locate. However, when purchasing a home, individuals do appear to consider the current test performance of students in the local school rather than the extent to which a community’s schools contribute to a cohort’s test performance.

So what? What happens to Albemarle County home values if:

1 – Albemarle County schools cannot trim the fat sufficiently and
2 – They have to make so many dramatic cuts?

This is an email sent by the Albemarle County Parents’ Council with five attachments that will help you get acclimated … before the public hearing tonight at 6:30.

And now the meat of the post – if I’m a homeowner in Albemarle County, what are you talking about? How much more would I pay in taxes?

Continue reading “Crozet Housing Prices and School Quality”

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Time to Wake up the Bedroom Community Citizens of Crozet!

Editor’s Note: Leslie Burns was kind enough to answer my call for someone to write about last week’s Crozet Community Association meeting.

A handful of Crozet Citizens showed up last Thursday to hear what is happening in our town at the Crozet Community Association gathering. Who are these folks? Why, they are your neighbors… hoping to pull together and grow community involvement. You might not have heard about the meeting or paid much attention to the small signs announcing it that were posted around the main intersection of town. But maybe it is time to start showing up at these association meetings…they only meet five times a year. It is not a huge commitment to make. That was one of the issues that came up at the meeting- how to reach out and connect the many neighborhoods and people living out there that have the health of our town in mind.

Here’s the dilemma. No tax revenues = no new funds to support the type of cultural and much needed improvements (think Library, road improvements, sidewalks, etc.) that are at the very heart of the Master Plan of Crozet. So where do the revenue hungry turn when it is time to welcome developers of light industrial business parks? The easiest places to access are usually given the green light for development first and we have a light that we should examine closely before we let it change on us. Some of the locations recently designated by our leaders for ideal growth are a few major intersections of highways with Rte 64.

It was announced tonight at the Crozet Community Association meeting that there is going to be a Master Plan review and meeting on Thursday, January 21st whose purpose (for one) will bring to light an idea that at least one person in our community claims will supply the revenue generating light industrial growth that Crozet (by way of our growth-area designation in the county) is destined to support. Where is this development to occur? The proposed development of land equal to the size of two Fashion Square Malls, sits quietly by the intersection of 250 and 64 at that sleepy little intersection that is the gateway to our homes and schools right now. Imagine a Waynesboro type intersection right next to our lovely pastoral village. Is this what you moved to Crozet to get close to?

If “Intersectionville” is the very name of the town you want to live in you may well get it, unless you show up to exhibit your commitment to an alternative way of life. The vision of retaining the downtown area and building it up to support sustainable and healthy growth alongside the tracks and within walking distance of community services already in place, will become nothing but a memory if the car and semi-truck driven sprawl is allowed to go in where it is proposed.

If you have an opinion to voice please show up on Thursday night on the 21st at the Field School auditorium (Old Crozet School on Crozet Ave.) at 7:00 PM. Meet some new neighbors and bring some neighbors that you already know. Meet some of the planning department representatives that have been actively involved in our master plan-consistently showing up to hear what YOU have to say. Listen to what is proposed to develop around us and become an active part of the small town that you moved here to enjoy. If you let others make your decisions for you- you are going to have to live in a world that someone else created for you and your children. Government is here as a tool of the people. If we do not interact, speak-up and have a hand in the sustainable design of our town here- it will not be a tool in our hands- but in the hands of those that would profit from business-as-usual sprawl. If the vision for Yancy Mills Industrial park and surrounding areas is not of a sprawling build out- let that be shown clearly to us.

Here’s the challenge… People that live in Crozet can affect how and where that revenue-creating light industrial growth is to occur by becoming the community that we claim we came here to be part of.

You want that small town feel? Now is your time to shine on Thursday- January 21st.

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Crozet Public Meeting – Thursday 21 January

Editor’s note: this email was sent out by Tim Tolson in Crozet:

Also, I want to alert you to a VERY IMPORTANT CROZET AREA MEETING next Thursday, January 21st at 7:00 PM at The Field School. This meeting is about the huge proposed industrial park at the Intersection of Route 250 and I-64, slated to be at least TWICE the size of Fashion Square Mall.

Please attend this meeting, YOUR input on this proposed project, that would expand the Crozet Growth Area, is essential.

The Yancey family has submitted a Comprehensive Plan amendment to rezone 84 acres on the southeast corner of the Interstate 64/Route 250 intersection to ‘light industrial’ for the construction of an industrial park that would contain from 1.1 million to 1.8 million square feet of buildings.

On January 21 at 7 p.m. at the Field School (the Old Crozet Elementary School across from the current Crozet Elementary School), the public will have a chance to react to a county study on light industrial land in the County, and give county staff you input regarding the study, which will include a section that addresses this proposed rezoning. This study will first be presented to the Planning Commission two days prior, on January 19.

As Mike Marshall, editor of the Crozet Gazette said in this month’s issue: “… [the] adoption of the Yancey proposal would likely shift the economic center of Crozet to Rt. 250 and result in a commercial highway build-up at the Interstate similar to what we see happening in Waynesboro, and many other Virginia towns that have sadly lost their traditional walkable downtowns to sprawl. Avoiding those mistakes was the whole point of planning in the first place. Crozet has plenty of light industrial space yet and a capacity for more. But the outcome of this question is fraught with politics and money. Crozet is at, as Churchhill would say, a hinge of fate.”

Pro or con, we need your voice on this matter. The Board of Supervisors last week adopted an “action plan” that included the following item regarding the Yancey property – “Yancey Mills and 250 East Corridor from 1-64 to Shadwell Store – The report on available light industrial zoning should be expedited and a report on the possibility of expansion of this type of zoning in these areas should be brought back to the board in the first quarter of the year for discussion and possible action.”

Full report available on Charlottesville Tomorrow’s News Center under the title: “Supervisors adopt pro-business “action plan””

Please attend this meeting if you can! We are counting on the people of Crozet and friends in other parts of the to give county staff and supervisors their feedback about rezonings on Route 250.

Please feel free to call or email me (contact info listed below) if you have questions or need directions to the Field School.

Thanks and I hope to see you on January 21 at 7 p.m. at the Field School in Crozet!