CCAC Recap – October 2019 | Crozet Schools’ Future, Crozet Connect Ramping up

Huge thanks again to Neve for tweeting the meeting last night! (and @CrozetCommunity as well).

I highly encourage you to read all the tweets, and watch the video from Crozet Gazette at the bottom of this post. Seriously. Read all the tweets and the summary below, and please go to meetings to help our schools.

A big crowd last night, and a lot of information was shared about the state of our schools, and the success of the Crozet Connect.

The number of people who read these tweets is always amazing, and I am hopeful some will attend the upcoming CIP meetings that will determine the funding of our schools.

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NB – The CIP meeting will be an important meeting for which “butts in seats” will be critical; I suspect tweets won’t be as effective, unfortunately.

CIP Advisory Committee

10/15/2019
2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
County Executive Conference Room

From Albemarle County’s Calendar

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Summary of the meeting, by Neve, after the break.

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Highlights

• Crozet Connect Bus Schedule Update
  • The buses have given over 200 rides since starting up, taking that many vehicles off the road for those trips. 
  • Crozet Connect has given a lot of thought to the bus routes and times but is looking for feedback from the public.
  • One addition to look out for is the combination of the East & West loops- a trial run would be a bus operating in late afternoon.
    • If the loop is successful it could grow into a mid-day or Fridays after Five loop.
  • The audience expressed concern on changes in the bus schedules; without the late bus, upwards of fifteen people who ride it, would be unable to.
    • John, from Jaunt, says they are not getting rid of the later bus and, in fact, looking to add in an even later bus as well.
  • Shawn Bird asks about the possibility of weekend busing to which John replies these routes would look different than the current weekday routes.
    • There was talk of even adding a winery or brewery route over the weekends.
  • A group of a few elderly women from the Meadows community came to the meeting to petition for a stop close to them.
    • One stated that she was without a vehicle for 3 weeks and found it next to impossible to go anywhere- due to lack of sidewalks and lack of available transportation.
  • In closing on Crozet Connect, John talks about the new stops that were requested & granted.
    • These include: a Highlands stop, a relocated Downtown Charlottesville stop & Fontaine Research Park stop.

• Western Feeder Pattern School Discussion 
  • This was exactly what it’s titled, a discussion. And a lively one at that.
    • The CCAC was looking for input on the current overcrowding issues that our elementary schools are facing, as well as discussion on the CIP budget & a mobilization to take action. 
  • Two members of the Brownsville PTO were present to have their concerns, and the concerns of Crozet parents, heard:
    • First, there are learning cottages up in place of actual classrooms; with this projected growth will we just have to keep putting up more cottages? How much longer will this be the solution? And what will it look like five years from now, without a change?
      • There are currently 865 children at Brownsville & a projected 900 by Christmas. 
    •  Second, busing is a major issue for children & parents in Crozet: they are not dependable and have limited access.
      • This topic fueled an ever larger discussion about the overall infrastructure of Crozet & it’s schools.
        • Many parents feel that the buses are unreliable & unsafe, causing them to take matters into their own hands, by driving their kids to school, leading into the growing traffic issues.
          • A road into the back of the Henley parking lot was proposed as a traffic solution.
        • The general consensus was parents feel there is a lack of communication between buses and the school system- causing buses to show up late, early, not at all, or even more than one at a single stop.
    • Third, the growing traffic issues
      • These relate heavily with busing and the overall parental concerns 
    • Fourth, the afterschool care:
      •  A lottery pilot program, in Albemarle County this year, that did not work out as well as some may have hoped.
        • In some cases a child was accepted into the program, but their sibling was not- causing the family to forfeit their spot, seeing as you often cannot have your children separated.
    • Fifth, our elementary education has dropped to a Level 3- meaning that we are nearing the danger zone, if not already in it, of a lacking education for our children.
  • There were many suggestions from the audience on how to fix these issues: a Henley feeder road, K-2^nd at Crozet Elementary & 3^rd– 5^th at Brownsville, a new elementary school, redistricting, a different location for the afterschool programs, etc. 
    • Diversity was even brought up as an issue in our Crozet schools, which led into the conversation of affordable housing- this carried over into the Crozet Master Plan update.
  • All in all, the community has so many opinions and ideas and the way to enact change is by creating a plan & presenting that plan to the necessary people.
    • Allie Pesch & Tom Loach joked that the parents of the community need a lobbyist for our children: someone to go to every meeting and communicate the information from each.

• Crozet Master Plan Check in / Update
  • Andrew Knuppel touched base on where we stood in the Master plan: currently in Phase 1- Visioning and moving to Phase 2- focus & input, starting in Jan of 2020 thru until April or May.
    • There is a lot of feedback, that is all available to the public. 
    • Knuppel polled the CCAC & the audience on whether to have a set date for the Master plan workshops, or to continue having them on different dates. 
      • CCAC expressed that the second Wednesday of the month is the only available time for them to meet, as well as the only available slot for the room at the Crozet Library.
      • It was decided that Knuppel would continue to schedule workshops for whatever days worked.
    • Tom Loach brought up the issue of contradicting statements made that do not match up with the writing within the plan and how these changes need to be made before having more visioning sessions.
      • We cannot continue to gather feedback without putting the already gathered feedback to use. 
  • Knuppel puts a few new dates to look out for: 
    • 6-8PM Tuesday, October 22^nd in the County Office room 235: meeting about housing & a good place to bring up affordable housing.
    • 10-1130AM Saturday, October 26^th partnering with Jaunt to give a ride around tour of Crozet and the current Master Plan layout- with the question in mind, “What will our future look like?”
    • 630-8PM Thursday, November 7^th at Field School is the next vision meeting for the Crozet Master Plan.

Great comment from Tom Loach. He’d like to hear from Crozet + Brownsville instead of the singular voices. #ccac1019

— realcrozetva (@realcrozetva) October 9, 2019

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Update from Andrew Knuppel w/ Albemarle

Jim’s note: The following was sent to the CCAC listserv

Good afternoon all, Happy Friday! Before the weekend begins, I wanted to follow up on a few topics from Wednesday night’s CAC meeting: 

• Feedback from the second (October) Community Workshop is now available on the Crozet Master Plan webpage.
  • Click here to view a one-page summary of the feedback we received.
  • Click here to download a spreadsheet containing the raw response data.
  • Click here to view an interactive map showing the results of the mapping/pin (Centers) exercise.
    
    
• We’ll be hosting our second set of office hours next week. Please feel free to drop by and come chat with staff!
  • Thursday, October 17 | 8-10AM | Grit Coffee in Old Trail
  • Please share the Facebook event with your friends & neighbors!
    
    
• A sign-up for the Character & Connectivity Tour is now available.
  • Saturday, October 26^th | 10-11:30AM | Meet at The Square
  • Please sign up here so we know how many people to plan for!
    
    

We’ll be starting the A-Mail and social media push early next week, but please feel free to begin sharing this information. Finally, we’ll be making an appearance at tomorrow morning’s Crozet Trails Crew 5K and bringing the giant map with us. We’ve added a new question about sidewalk and trail connections, so please stop by and say hi (and place another pin) if you’ll be there! Have a great weekend! 

Andrew Knuppel, AICP Candidate
Neighborhood Planner – Albemarle County Community Development434-296-5832 x 3313