This will certainly change the dynamic of the intersection that used to be Gateway Gas, Rocket Coffee, Sabor Latino.
From Charlottesville Community Engagement (you should consider paying for a subscription; it’s invaluable)
ARB to review three-story Crozet Self Storage facility
The Albemarle Architectural Review Board meets for the final time of 2021 with two items. They begin the virtual meeting at 1 p.m. (meeting info)
In the first, they’ll review an updated proposal from Yousef LC / Merchants Retail Partners LLC to construct a three-story, 90,000 square foot self-storage building at the intersection of U.S. 250 and Route 240. The property is zoned for Highway Commercial but is within the Entrance Corridor overlay. The ARB last saw the plans in September. Staff wants further changes.
“Revise the architectural design with a combination of reduced footprint, reduced height, substantial breaks in the building form, and substantial changes in depth for recesses and projections along the walls to reduce the mass and scale of the building,” reads a portion of the staff report. “Revise the architectural design to eliminate blankness on all sides of the building.”
In the second item, the ARB will review renovations to a former Goodwill building on U.S. 29 that is being repurposed as an auto-body shop. (staff report)
People have stuff. The more people, the more stuff. Crozet growing up.
This is one of the worst development ideas I’ve seen yet (and there have been a lot of bad ones). Surely neither the Planning Commission nor the Board of Supervisors will approve putting a huge, incongruous building at an entrance corridor on a designated Scenic highway. I would also point out that Crozet already has a large self-storage facility on Rt 240. We certainly don’t need or want two of these in our charming little town of Crozet. Jim, please publish our Commissioner’s and Supervisor’s contact info for those of us who want to express our opposition to this project.
Our supervisor is Ann Mallek, and I encourage people to contact Ann, and email the entire Board, when they have concerns.