The zoning notices pop up all the time; keeping track of them is a difficult task. If only there were a way to search for zoning notices by either Zip Code or a map-proximity search …
Here are a few signs, by no means all-inclusive, that have been seen in Crozet the past couple of days –
Sign # 7 – Wickham Pond
Sign # 10 – Birchwood Place
Sign # 72 – Albemarle County Service Authority
Sign # 43 – King Family Vineyards – Winery Expansion
Sign # 59 – Westhall
Sign # 64 – Westhall
If you see any other ones, please post below.
Technorati Tags: charlalbemarle, crozet
I have seen notices # 49 and 59 for “Westhall phase V”
on the cul de sac at down by the development (I think it’s
Jamestown Ct.) , and nowhere else. What would be much better for the
civic process than the current arrangement — for
the county to post these things on their website is
better than nothing, but not an efficient way to
distribute information to most people, who, assuming
that they’re online, aren’t going to monitor the
county website in the way that would be required — woud
be for these notices to be posted in a public place.
It occurs to one that if the county were to put up
some kiosks in the “downtown” area, this might help. Or walls at public buildings like the library and the Post Office might be used.
A healthy civic process requires good information
dissemination, much better (especially re this crucial zoning
info) than is currently happening. Doing it electronically
doesn’t suffice, a fact that may not be fully grasped by
the county planning people.
What can the County do better? Crozet doesn’t have a viable town square that is sufficiently-trafficked (sp?) right now. The closest thing to it is the Great Valu or the Square – but I would guess that most Crozet residents don’t go to either place more than once or twice a week – if that.
The best thing that the community can do it to monitor it themselves and bring attention to items as they arise. Public input usually serves everybody’s best interests. for some things, the public have to search out the facts and data – to expect the County to come to them for everything is unreasonable.
Regarding Jim’s post: Everyone will agree, I think, that the county shouldn’t be expected to “come to people for everything”. (I didn’t say anything like that and certainly did not mean to imply it.)
Everyone will also agree, I think, that it would be desirable for the community to monitor these things themselves.
That said, there are a couple of other points worth making. One is that, like it or not, there is a very significant percentage of the traditional Crozet community that just doesn’t go online, and certainly isn’t going to be regularly going to the county website to monitor the development process. So unless there is a better mechanism for informing them of what’s happening in the community than presently exists, it’s likely that they won’t participate in the process in the same way that people who are more comfortable with the internet do.
The second is that the question “What can the County do better?” deserves to be taken seriously. I’m unclear what good reason there is to dismiss it out of hand.
In a brainstorming mode, I suggested: (a) putting up a kiosk or two; (b) posting notices at the library; (c) posting notices at the Post Office. I’d add, brainstorming further: (d) putting notices up, temporarily, on the mural under the railroad tracks. Strikes me that other people might have positive suggestions here. (I don’t mean to suggest — nor do I think that I said — that only the County is responsible here.)
No new and untried way to try to improve the county-citizenry information flow will be perfect. It might even be that no new and untried way is good.
But that’s a far cry from saying that every way of trying to improve the information flow is so bad as not to be worth trying.
It’s also a far cry from saying that it isn’t worth brainstorming/talking about ways to improve the information flow.
I would guess that everyone would agree that the process could be improved. At least, it seems to me that it could. If that’s so, then thinking seriously about how to improve it.
Suppose that Jim is right, as he probably is, and that most Crozet citizens don’t go to the IGA or the square more than once a week.
Still, which will improve the information flow more? —
(a) important notices are posted in a place or places where a considerable number of Crozet citizens go, at most once a week;
(b) things aren’t posted there.
I was being a bit tongue-in-cheek with the “come to people for everything” remark.
Maybe we can raise this at the CCA meeting this Thursday.
All your ideas have merit, in my opinion. The only thing that I would add is that whatever is done must be done in a consistent manner. Offline and online, consistency and timeliness are vital to the discussion. I think that a more efficient method of dissemination on- and off-line will help all those involved.