As I noted early this morning on FB:
Riding through the lumberyard this morning we smelled and saw smoke.
I called it in around 5:59; Crozet Volunteer Fire Department were there by 6:04 or 6:05, along with Western Albemarle Rescue Squad.
Amazing. We should all be grateful for these folks.
Also: CVFD now accepts donations via Paypal. (I couldn’t find the link to donate to WARS)
?
Nice emoji. 🙂
Happy hands, I think?
Just another reason those buildings need to come down sooner and not later…absolutely nothing good can come from blighted, unsecured buildings that are hardly patrolled by law enforcement. Clearing the deck would seem a great way for Stoner and his gang to build some goodwill while trying to get partnership-level support for the proposed plaza within the public sector.
The Developer might be counting on this. Leave it an eyesore until
someone gives him some money. I, for one, thinks that the property should be allowed to return to nature. What could a “Plaza”
contribute to a bedroom community. A natural space however is far more trendy…
Ed I’m actually all for the Plaza…and I think the impetus behind it is to continue pushing Crozet away from being merely a bedroom community and making it its own thing. There is little doubt the plaza would be a public amenity that would help attract the retail and restaurant businesses that make public spaces vibrant (see Downtown Mall) which will in turn attract residents for apartments and professional service providers for offices. Some people don’t want that kind of growth, and I respect that, but many others see the execution of that vision as transformative in a positive way that enhances residential quality of life and property values for the entire area.
There is a giant national park full of nature that we can see from virtually anywhere in Crozet and access from a myriad of trails or the nearby park entrance. Then there’s Mint Springs, Claudius Crozet, King Family, and a growing network of trails through natural areas. We need economic drivers and public amenities more than we need a small park next to a railway.
I just do not see it. Developing a piece of scrub property next to a Railroad track with more Public? space and places to eat and apartments improves Crozet for who? If there was any hometown desire for this it would of been done years ago. Now that a Developer is on the hook for the property we do not owe him a bailout. If Crozet was a Town and could raise it’s own money then it would be up to the people that pay the taxes to the town. What you are saying is that Crozet needs to be an enhanced bedroom community. Crozet needs the type of jobs that would allow people to afford to live here. Not just a fantasy island approach to change the population around and make it more urban. Communities seek and demand more natural space.
Why travel to a natural space when we already live in one.
And, a natural space is not a man made, sanitized. walkway in the woods.
Just think what has already been destroyed and, for what??
More tract housing, more places to eat, Higher prices?
What has actually happened that has improved the lives of the people who were living here when all the nonsense started?
Crozet was it’s “own thing” until people arrived who wanted to make it just like the area they left. A privately owned “Plaza” is anything but unique and should not be supported by public funds.
Oh, and, Mint Springs is not a Natural Area. It is a man made park
along with the rest of the areas you mention.
So much with which to respectfully disagree with you on Ed. First, all parks are “man made,” but my first mention is SNP, which is the closest thing we’ll have in modern Virginia to preserved nature. It’s right there. The vast majority of MSP is not the man-made ponds and picnic shelters, but the preserved mountain natural space laced with trails.
It sounds like a lot of your concerns about future development are laments regarding what development has already occurred. I appreciate those that have been in Crozet over the decades and have experienced change that they didn’t necessarily invite, but we have a County that wants to stay 95% rural and concentrate development in the other 5% of usable land. Thus Crozet has been earmarked by the County for significant, drastic development for almost 50 years now. It isn’t a terrible strategy for quality of life for residents so long as there is economic diversification, and thus the County isn’t overly reliant on residential property taxes for revenues as economic winds change. The mixed-use development in the works downtown is planned to diversify that tax base by attracting business who will expand commercial revenues.
If you’re against large swaths of land being cleared and graded for new housing, then you should be all for density downtown. The impacts to the view shed and to the environment are significantly mitigated with urban development versus sprawl.
I think we’re reading the economic opportunity of the Barnes Lumber site differently as well. By amenities, I mean places for shopping, dining, and entertainment that don’t require trips into Charlottesville, Waynesboro, or far flung places, and that instead attract visitors. I see the wild success of Piedmont Place as proof-of-concept that Crozet’s residents want to at least shop and eat locally, and I think the success of local Air BNB hosts proves the pent-up demand for a hotel in Crozet is tremendous. Developers are rational actors…they will spend when they believe they will profit. And they have a whole lot more market data than us armchair QBs have.
On the plaza I’ve been fortunate to travel to many great places across the world, and one of the hallmarks of great towns and cities are fantastic public spaces. People are drawn to them which creates civic and commercial opportunity. I have no problem with the County spending tax revenues to contribute to such spaces…1) the ROI is big, and 2) Crozetians are pulling their own weight in taxes and in growing numbers, and deserve more County resources returned via infrastructure and amenities, many unfunded projects having been promised for decades.
We disagree and will continue to. Using your logic that this has been going on for 50 years. Responsible growth is not the same as drastic growth and the fact that a plan exists does not open a free for all as to who gets their way. What is the “wild success” of Piedmont Place? Is it proper to judge a place by it’s retail and
restaurants? Crozet is officially an unincorporated Community.
There is no uptown, downtown or any town. We laugh at the people who keep saying this to get what they want. Crozet needs to become a town where people can actually vote for what they want. If you think that the Crozet Area is actually paying their weight in taxes compare it to the County or even other parts of
it and then you can rethink. There are other parts of the County
that needs the funds more than Crozet and an area is no better than it’s poorest parts. I have traveled all over this planet and the great public spaces that are in Towns and Cities have no bearing since Crozet is neither. The places were built because the people
at the time wanted them or the government forced it down their throats. That is not the case of the plaza. There is no outcry for it.
Just a Developer’s stab at making money and moving on. I just feel that the Barnes Lumber site should go back to nature OR,
the BOS try to lure some industry there to balance out the area.
Trying to cut through the language. What % of residents actually
eat out in the overpriced food choices of Crozet? Not the ones that drive in from somewhere else. What are the Air BNB numbers? Surely if your numbers are correct a rational actor
would build lodging. What would cause the pent up demand for that kind of investment?? Market Data is another fun topic. Pick your analyst, pay your analyst, get the result you want. And, if it does not work out, it’s just your money… I vacation every year
on the Carolina Coast. The other year there was a ballot issue
concerning an Entertainment Complex that a Developer wanted to build, (Movie Theater, Shops, Etc). It was defeated by a large margin. The most heard reason for the defeat was that all this was available 20-30 minutes away. This is a national trend outside of large urban areas. Why screw up where you live???
Urban areas are available close by for people that want them.
If Crozet is such a great place that has attracted all these people,
Why screw up where you live?? These are ballot issues that should be decided by more than a few self-serving people…