Year: 2019

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Downtown Crozet Redevelopment Gets Planning Commission Approval

Finally, Downtown Crozet is closer to being redeveloped! After 50+ community meetings, and remarkable persistence by the developer, things seem to be moving forward. A hotel in downtown Crozet is much-needed.

First

Read Allison Wrabel’s story in the Daily Progress, not just the snippets I’ve pulled. (bolding mine)

The Albemarle County Planning Commission voted 6-0 to recommend approval of a rezoning of about 6.24 acres of the site from heavy industry and commercial to Downtown Crozet District to allow for mixed use development.

…

The current proposed project would include commercial and retail space, a hotel and approximately 52 residential units in its first phase.

…

Possible issues staff cited were increased traffic and increased demand for parking. A potential impact on schools, particularly Crozet Elementary, also was a concern, but that was not as high of a concern yet, as only about six elementary school students are anticipated to live in the residential part of the project.

Remember how some people thought that Old Trail was going to be a retirement community? Me too. 🙂

Second

Note that the County have been “discussing parking” in Downtown Crozet forever. (bolding mine)

In addition to action on the Old Trail rezoning, The Planning Commission specifically requested that the Board address the following issues related to Crozet as a whole:

–          The parking restrictions in the existing downtown Crozet area should be reviewed and potentially studied for revision to allow the Crozet area to better support its businesses that exist and could come.

–          Put all of the County resources possible towards getting Jarman’s Gap Road higher on the VDOT list of priorities. 

–          Have staff work with the schools and applicant to talk about interconnectivity on the trails and traffic.

–          The Board should direct staff to work at making sure the downtown Crozet improvements are actually done.  

From the 2005 Summary of the Old Trail rezoning
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Crozet Park Aquatics and Fitness Center?

Interesting things are found in Albemarle County agendas if you read and dig into them. I’m glad people like Joe Fore do so, and let people know.

From the Albemarle County School Board agenda for 8 August 2019 at 6:30pm (bolding mine)

Claudius Crozet Park is a 22 acre community non-profit recreational facility open to all. It is managed by Claudius Crozet Park, Inc., a non-profit organization managed by volunteers. Currently, the Park’s Board is in the planning phases of an expanded and updated facility to meet the needs of the growing community. The park is soliciting private donations but they will also be requesting partial funding from the Board of Supervisors later this month.

The new Crozet Park Aquatics and Fitness Center will feature a gymnasium, indoor walking track, fitness areas and community rooms. A key component of the facility is space for after-school and summer programming. Currently, the YMCA leases the existing building and offers programming to only 27 students as it is limited by available space. The new facility will offer space for a program that could serve as many as 300 students.

Affordable, quality after-school care is in great demand throughout the county including the Western Feeder Pattern. There are currently 123 students on the wait lists for the Extended Day Enrichment Program (EDEP) at the four western feeder pattern elementary schools. That figure does not include families who do not apply because they cannot afford the program. As documented in the 2017 program evaluation of EDEP and subsequent Board conversations since, increased access to after-school care opportunities is needed.

The Park Board is seeking a letter of support demonstrating the need for increased after school opportunities before it goes before the Board of Supervisors on August 21st.

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In Need of Affordable Housing

Sent via email:

Affordable housing in the form of apartments has not come to Crozet as we were told would happen. Instead the Vue apts. have 1200$ 1 bdrm. units billed as “luxury”… This is not affordable.

A lot of us homeowners pay less in mortgage. Rent at 900$ a month takes 35% of low income people’s’salary. Crozets master plan by the county has displaced the low income person. It’s a travesty that our County has turned its back on the middle class & especially,  people’s families who built our Crozet .

The 200 units will add so much traffic to Jarmans Gap ..with only a stop sign at Crozet Ave.


Both issues affect everyone in Crozet. Maybe our Anne Mallek could chime in…

We need affordable housing.

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More Power Outages in 2019?

Yesterday was funny; as I was showing a house, with the power out, I watched people emerge from their houses to play in the yard, and neighbors talking to neighbors. If we could just silence the generators, maybe we should lose power more often. 🙂

Sure feels we’ve had more power outages this year.

First: Thank you, Dominion, for being so super-responsive. Truly.

I asked the folks at Dominion Power via Twitter (they are amazingly responsive, by the way):

They couldn’t provide that, but did for my home address (I live near Crozet Park). I bet the Old Trail side numbers would be a bit different, as they often lose power when we don’t, and vice-versa.

DOM-provided outages

2010- August:1

2011- May: 1, August: 1, Nov: 1

2012- July:1, Sept: 1 (edit: Derecho!)

2013 – March: 1. May: 1, June: 1 

2014- zero

2015- December: 1

2016- Nov: 1

2017- July: 1, Oct: 1 

2018- Feb: 1, May: 2, June: 2, Aug: 1, Nov: 1

2019: Jan: 1, June: 1, July: 1 

About 6 of these were considered “momentary outages”, which are outages that last for less than 2 minutes.

And the Facebook post

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Crozet Connect Launch Party 2 August

via email

As you might know, the launch of the Crozet Connect is on August 5. To promote that new service JAUNT has partnered with Starr Hill Brewery and Old Trail to hold two service launch promotion events right before the service starts.

August 2, 7-9 p.m., Starr Hill Brewery

Live music by the Crozet Jam Band (they said they’ll do some “road” numbers). CONNECT Bus parked outside. CONNECT swag and info handed out. Possible rebranding of beer with CONNECT logo (brewmaster still working that out). Raffle for monthly passes.

August 3, 12-2 p.m., Old Trail Business Center

Family-oriented, picnic-themed event featuring local artist Sarah Lopez. Businesses will have exhibits. Waylands Crossing Tavern will serve outside on sidewalk. Ice cream truck and CONNECT bus parked. We’ll have a table with swag and info. Raffle for monthly passes.

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TONY, the self-driving shuttle, launches

TONY

Well, this is cool.

ALBEMARLE COUNTY, VA – Albemarle County, Perrone Robotics, Inc., JAUNT, Inc., and Smart Mobility, Inc. today celebrated the first day of service for their autonomous shuttle transit service, the first public autonomous shuttle operating in Virginia on public roads.

AVNU (pronounced, “Avenue”, an acronym for Autonomous Vehicle, Neighborhood Use), is based on Perrone Robotics’ TONY GEM autonomous shuttle platform.  The pilot will operate for three months, with routes shifting to different areas of Crozet. The first route will be within the Old Trail Village neighborhood and the second route will run between Old Trail Village and downtown Crozet. The AVNU pilot is supported in partnership by Albemarle County, Perrone Robotics, JAUNT, and Smart Mobility, Inc.

“It is with great pleasure that we launch the pilot of the next generation of transportation – autonomous neighborhood shuttles – here in Crozet,” said Ann Mallek, White Hall District Supervisor. “Albemarle County is so proud to support our homegrown company, Perrone Robotics, to bring this project to fruition and to support our development areas by providing small-scale transit service to connect residents with commercial and recreation centers.” 

This electric-powered shuttle is designed to operate autonomously on public roads, navigating vehicle and pedestrian traffic. “With over 33,000 autonomous miles traveled using our technology, TONY powered vehicles bring the highest level of autonomy available in the world today to shuttles,” said Paul Perrone, founder/CEO of Perrone Robotics.

“We are deploying an AV platform that has been carefully refined since 2003, applied in automotive and industrial autonomy spaces, and now being leveraged to bring last-mile services to communities such as those here in Albemarle County, Virginia. What we deliver is a platform that operates shuttles autonomously in complex environments with roundabouts, merges, and pedestrian-dense areas.” 

During the pilot, the shuttle will operate with an onboard safety operator that is actively monitoring the roadway and able to assume control of the shuttle if needed. 

Perrone Robotics, Inc. (PRI)

Perrone Robotics has developed a general purpose software platform for robotics and autonomous vehicles called “MAX®”.  The company is focused today on delivering its TONY product, built on MAX, to commercially deploy practical autonomous shuttling of people and things. With over 16 years of experience and over 33,000 miles autonomously driven, Perrone Robotics’ MAX autonomous engine enables standard vehicles of any size to collect input from any suite of sensors, fuse that information together into a coherent picture of what surrounds a robot, and then engage in appropriate maneuvers and actions. For more information, please visit https://www.perronerobotics.com/

Update: Answer to a Question

Question: I don’t understand. Is there a schedule? Or do you summon it somehow? I mean, if its route is within Old Trail, where is it going besides between people’s houses and the commercial block? School to Grit? Confused.

Answer: Today was the shuttle launch. Today from 10-12 and 3-5 as well as tomorrow, the shuttle will be available on a fixed loop in Old Trail. Beginning next weekend (July 20-21) the shuttle will be running on weekends on a closed loop in Old Trail. There will be a schedule that is publicized before next weekend (July 20-21).

Eventually the plan is to be able to summon it and to expand it’s range. Stay tuned!

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Albemarle County Will be Redistricting Schools

At some point, Albemarle County will be redistricting schools, because the population is growing. Please take time to read this whole thing, courtesy of Amanda Alger. If you have comments or questions, please comment below, or email Amanda. Bolding throughout is mine.

If you don’t have kids, please get involved, as school quality and perceived school quality affects property values. If you do have kids, get aware and involved. Even if your kids are little now, they’re going to grow up. I’m happy to talk our schools’ perceived quality about property values offline.

Review the Albemarle County Long Range Planning Committee DRAFT Final 2019 Report here.Download

via email –

If you’d like to provide any comments or feedback on this draft report, please do so by July 1 at 8 am.  The report will be presented to the School Board at their meeting on July 11th at 6:30, which is open to the public for comment. 

The Long Range Planning Advisory Committee (LRPAC) is tasked with putting together a yearly report for the Superintendent and School Board to assist in the development of long term facilities plans.  They meet monthly and Central Office staff puts together this report with input from representatives appointed by each School Board member and the Superintendent.


This year’s $180 million Capital Improvement Program (CIP) recommendation addresses four areas: Maintenance and Replacement, Capacity and Growth, Safety and Security and Renovation of Existing Facilities.  


Of particular interest to the White Hall District:


From June 26 Draft Report: “The top ranked capacity related project is an addition to Crozet Elementary School combined with redistricting Brownsville Elementary School students. Robust growth in the Crozet area has been on the radar for some time and the time for additional capacity has come.


Brownsville and Crozet are currently over capacity and enrollment is anticipated to continue growing. Brownsville will utilize 8 mobile classrooms next year. At a capacity of 330, the Crozet site has room for expansion. A design for an addition and improvements is currently funded in the CIP with the assumption of redistricting students from the current Brownsville district to Crozet Elementary when the project is complete. With a forecasted 96% population growth over the next 30 years, expanding Crozet up to its maximum is a near-term recommendation, but a new western elementary school will also likely prove necessary longer term. An expansion of an existing school is recommended prior to the construction of a new school for several reasons including timing, cost, less redistricting, equitable size amongst schools, and staffing benefits. These reasons are elaborated on in the justification section of the Crozet Addition project page of this report. 

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A Catholic Church on St. George?

This was an interesting “item not on the agenda” at the 12 June 2019 CCAC meeting. I asked the gentleman who read the letter from some of the St. George neighbors to share the letter. I have pasted it below.

The local church search committee has proposed the site of Anderson Funeral Home on St. George Avenue in Crozet as a potential site for the Diocese of Richmond to review to see if it’s suitable site. (from downtown Crozet, head towards Crozet Elementary, turn left on St. George, and it’s up there on the right)

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