Growth Archives - Page 12 of 26

December 24, 2013June 18, 2014

Crozet’s 2013 in Review on RealCrozetVA

2013 – lots happened in Crozet this year – a lot of good, some bad, and I tried to capture most of it here. 2013 is the year that the RealCrozetVA Facebook page (I don’t like FB, but it’s awfully useful) became the third leg in the RealCrozetVA community, the recaps of the Crozet Community Advisory Council meetings proved quite useful, and the Crozet community time and again demonstrated why this is a great place to live. If you’re interested in browsing all the stories, you can see the 2013 archives – 165 stories all – here.

I’ve highlighted some of the stories I posted from each month and done my very best to not editorialize (although if I did, “Crozet Library opened” would have an exclamation point!).

Five things:

– You can subscribe to RealCrozetVA by email, follow RealCrozetVA on Twitter, or like RealCrozetVA on Facebook. A note on Facebook – we tend to have very good conversations and interaction there, but I don’t post everything there that gets published here.

– I’m a Realtor who lives in and loves Crozet. In my ideal world, I’d never get off my bicycle to show houses or meet seller clients. (and I know this will likely never happen). I rarely explicitly say this, but if you’re moving to Crozet or thinking about selling your home, I’d appreciate the opportunity to talk with you.

– If you’re curious, these are some of the photos I’ve taken in Crozet this year.

– Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Crozet for reading, commenting and sharing what you see here with your friends. You truly make this a great place.

– Really, thank you. Whenever I hear from people how they read about Crozet here, or used RealCrozetVA to research Crozet before they moved here, or when you let the community know about power outages and such via the RealCrozetVA twitter feed, I’m ever more grateful for the Crozet community and your support here. Thank you.

January 2013

We had a good discussion about Crozet school’s competitiveness and a great conversation about what we want Crozet to be.

February 2013

A hotel was announced to be coming to Old Trail in Crozet and many of you described your neighborhoods in Crozet.

March 2013

We had a rare (and appreciated!) guest post recapping the March Crozet Community Association meeting.

April 2013

WAHS got a new principal, the Daily Progress called for retrofitting 250 West, a guest’s reflection on the James Sun Memorial 5k, Crozet Volunteer Fire Department got a Twitter account, and the Crozet real estate market started to really pick up.

May 2013

King Family Vineyards responded to the soggy pitch by having Nolo Weekend – and it was tons of fun. A 10 year old was accidentally shot in Crozet. I started to recap the CCAC meetings using Storify – and subsequently did it many more times to what I think is a great success.

June 2013

WAHS’ new principal answered 10 questions, Crozet got another new great restaurant, Restoration and the Field School put together a great kids’ triathlon.

July 2013

The Crozet Gators won the Jefferson Swim League Championship for the first time in 22 years and Restore N Station finally broke ground.

August 2013

We discussed where the next Crozet stop light will be, I thanked Blue Ridge Internetworks for hosting RealCrozetVA, I summarized the CCAC meeting and the Crozet community suffered another rash of car break-ins.

September 2013

The Crozet Library opened, the community responded to a survey on new Crozet hotel, I recapped the September CCAC meeting, I looked at when homes come on the market in Crozet, Ned Gallaway, Albemarle’s At-Large school board member hosted the first community conversation about Albemarle County Schools that I can remember being held by a school board member in Crozet, and you voiced your opinions on what should happen to the old Crozet Library.

October 2013

We figured out what the utility work in front of BP was, I relaunched the Crozet Calendar – and it’s now available for community members to post their own events (ask me how), y’all answered the question – What’s the first thing you tell someone about Crozet?, the 3rd Quarter Crozet real estate market report was interesting, the recap of the CCAC meeting proved useful and interesting, and we had a good conversation about the walkability of Crozet.

November 2013

Lots happened in Crozet on the Crozet Calendar, the awesome Crozet Trails Crew reached a few milestones, the Crozet Angel Tree was quickly accomplished, the buildings downtown were re-sided and the CCAC meeting was live-tweeted by a chorus of people! and recapped here on RealCrozetVA.

December 2013

The Crozet Streetscape meeting was very informative, I looked at the Crozet real estate market in December, Tim Dodson, WAHS junior, wrote about his perspective after having attended and live-tweeted the CCAC meeting, the Streetscape really is coming, we can now drive faster (legally) on 64, and the Barnes Lumberyard redevelopment may be moving forward – see this recap of the December CCAC meeting.

Continue reading “Crozet’s 2013 in Review on RealCrozetVA”

December 20, 2013June 18, 2014

Recapping CCAC – Future of Barnes Lumber Property

I’m going to update this later today, but wanted to publish a draft for those interested in last night’s conversation. It was, in my opinion, a great conversation and dialogue. Great input from the public and the CCAC. There was a lot of information covered last night – from possible timelines, challenges with developing such a large parcel in such a relatively small town, possible businesses that could go in, probable residential components, zoning … a lot. Much of that was captured by @Tim_Dodson and @CvilleKim (and @RealCrozetVA) on Twitter and quite a few not at the meeting few engaged on Twitter as well. Grab a cup of coffee and digest the tweets – and then … ask questions.

Frank Stoner with opening remarks – "we don't intend this to be a presentation as much as a dialogue" pic.twitter.com/E5uAPYydlN

— realcrozetva (@realcrozetva) December 20, 2013

Update: Charlottesville Tomorrow has a great story about last night’s meeting.

– For those curious, the hashtag #CCAC1213 was used to track the conversation on Twitter.

A few of the best questions/topics that were addressed and I’ll address in the update, but ultimately, this was a conversation about the former Barnes property and the future of Crozet:

– (Frank) Stoner: what’s the unique value proposition to bring people downtown? #CCAC1213
– What are some towns that are what you’d like Crozet to be? #CCAC1213
– #CCAC1213 today the challenge for developers is that the infrastructure requirements take up so much of the costs
– Stoner: challenge of replicating old town feel is the execution #CCAC1213 Continue reading “Recapping CCAC – Future of Barnes Lumber Property”

December 17, 2013February 20, 2014

CCAC Meeting – 19 December 2013

This should be a good one, folks. One of the most-discussed and most important pieces of land in Crozet is the Barnes Lumberyard. This will be a great opportunity to listen and learn more. (as seen on the Crozet Calendar)

Who’s up for tweeting this meeting? The tweeting of the last CCAC meeting was a great success.

CROZET COMMUNITY ADVISORY COUNCIL

The Meadows, Crozet (5735 Meadows Dr.)

Thursday, December 19, 2013 from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Agenda

1. Agenda Review. (Meg Holden – CCAC chair)

2. Approval of Minutes from November 21, 2013 meeting, if available.

3. Presentation by Frank Stoner regarding the Barnes Lumber property.

4. Announcements.

5. Future Agenda Items.

November 19, 2013February 20, 2014

Crozet Community Advisory Council Meeting – 21 November 2013

If anyone – anyone – is willing to live-tweet this meeting, please let me know asap. The agenda is chock-full of really interesting, relevant, important stuff. (bolding mine)

* Update: two volunteers have stepped forward to live-tweet the meeting and one more is likely to write a guest post. At the very least there will be at least three more people there. Thank you!

Live-tweeting the meetings accomplishes several things:

1) It gets you (or me) to attend the meeting to listen and learn

2) Tweeting the meeting engages the folks who are at home, unable to attend but really want to be informed

3) It allows me to capture the tweets and post them in a blog post here for anyone/everyone else who is interested in the meeting and can neither attend nor follow on Twitter.

4) It helps the CCAC know that people are paying attention.

5) Tweets capture more than almost any news story can.

CROZET COMMUNITY ADVISORY COUNCIL The Meadows, Crozet (5735 Meadows Dr.)

Thursday, November 21, 2013 from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

1. Agenda Review. (Meg Holden – CCAC chair)

2. Approval of Minutes from October 17, 2013 meeting.

3. Project Updates/Information:

• Library fundraising update – Bill Schrader.

• Streetscape update and overview of town hall meeting – Lee Caitlin

• Discussion of Barnes Lumber company – Leslie Burns and Meg Holden

• Update on plans for pedestrian crossing signal at Clover Lawn/Harris

Teeter.

• Update on Safe Routes to School project, with information specific to

the crossing at Crozet Elementary

• Hotel project

• Wilson Jones property environmental remediation

• Resolution for extension of Crozet library hours

4. News concerning area schools affecting development area.

5. Change of meeting date and place – Bill Schrader.

6. Items not listed on the agenda

7. Announcements.

8. Future Agenda Items.

October 17, 2013October 17, 2013

Does Crozet Have All the Pieces for Walkability?

As Crozet continues to grow, it’s important to keep the end result in mind. What do we want Crozet to be in 10 years? In 20 years?

This story at CNBC is a great in-depth read that has quite a few parallels to Crozet as well as and lessons we can learn from.

“Walkability plays a big part in an area’s economic vibrancy,” said Scott Bricker, executive director of America Walks, a national nonprofit that fosters walkable communities. “The most valuable real estate around the world is in walkable places, places where people are living and working in closer proximity.”
…

Researchers have found that areas with high Walk Scores fare better environmentally (less use of cars), socially (better chances of connecting with someone face to face) and economically. A recent study published in Real Estate Economics found that in neighborhoods with greater walkability, the resale value of both residential and commercial properties is higher. And according to a 2009 report commissioned by CEOs for Cities, “a one-point increase in Walk Score was associated with an increase in value ranging from $700 to $3,000 depending on the market.”

“There’s a strong preference for being in a neighborhood where people can walk to shops, restaurants, parks,” said Joe Molinaro, managing director of community and public affairs at the National Association of Realtors, which found that two-thirds of respondents in its 2011 Consumer Preference Survey said that walkability was an important factor when deciding where to live. “We asked people for tradeoffs—comparing different things they might have to give up to get that—and more and more are willing to make a sacrifice to be in a walkable neighborhood.”

For example:

– Homes for sale in Old Trail have relatively low Walk Scores (for now) – there’s Trailside Coffee, ACAC gym, Anna’s Pizza, Dentist, Augusta Medical, park, playgrounds and more (and much more to come as the Village Center gets built out.
– Homes around Downtown Crozet have higher Walk Scores – Mudhouse and Greenhouse coffee shops, hardware, Fardowners pub, Great Valu, Crozet Park, YMCA gym and lots more.
– Homes around the third business center – 250 West – don’t have the same connectivity, despite the proximity to Harris Teeter and all of the businesses in Clover Lawn – Eye Care, restaurants, UVA Credit Union …

With the lumberyard having been purchased recently, the future of downtown Crozet has the potential to shape up in the next couple years. What will it look like?

Let’s not forget (or forget to volunteer!) the value of the growing Crozet Trails system and network; I feel that these will be integral to the future of connectivity in Crozet, in addition to sidewalks and bike lanes everywhere possible. Continue reading “Does Crozet Have All the Pieces for Walkability?”

October 1, 2013October 1, 2013

Results of the “Does Crozet Need a Hotel” Survey

First, thank you to everyone who took the time to take and comment on the survey; I’m going to keep it open for responses for at least a couple weeks.

Second, to answer two of the comments on the survey “and btw, bugger you if you use my ip address! for anything!” and “Don’t want to be contacted or added to mailing lists.” Nope. Never. If you want to subscribe to RealCrozetVA, you can do that. If you want to subscribe to my monthly note, you can do that too. I’ll never spam you.

Third, I received this by email (and am posting it with permission and have edited it a wee bit) –

Am I the only person who nowadays finds mention of “Crozet” as a location confusing?

People often refer to events taking place in Old Trail as being in “Crozet”–period. If I were a stranger to the area trying to attend an event in Old Trail listed as being “in Crozet,” I would be searching in downtown Crozet for an event that is actually taking place in Old Trail.

Thus when you ask if a hotel should be built in “Crozet,” I don’t know if you mean “old” Crozet or “new” Crozet (i.e., Old Trail or along 250). Therefore I can’t contribute to the survey without knowing exactly where you are talking about. Could you please let me know?

I do think there needs to be a discussion about differentiating between downtown Crozet and all of the new businesses outside of downtown, either on 250 or in Old Trail. It’s too confusing, in my opinion, for people to just say “Crozet”.

And my response –

When I say “Crozet” I deliberately think all of Crozet – from Greenwood Gourmet to the railroad trestle at 240/250 to about Wyant’s …

Realistically we have three business districts – Downtown, Old Trail and 250 and I personally think that we need to focus on downtown as Old Trail has the developers focusing on it while 250 has the market, if you will.

So … I think for the first part of the conversation it’d be better to be “greater Crozet” and then where within Crozet … what do you think?

We touched on this topic in January when we talked about “What do We Want Crozet to Be?” – which ended up having a great discussion – worth (re)visiting.

I’m going to excerpt some of the comments to the survey below.

If you’re interested in the full results (minus respondents’ contact information) please leave a comment or contact me.

Continue reading “Results of the “Does Crozet Need a Hotel” Survey”

September 27, 2013September 28, 2013

Questions on a Crozet Hotel – Survey

Update 28 September around 9:30 pm –

There was quite a bit of discussion at last night’s Crozet Community Advisory Council meeting about Virginia Tourism Development Financing Program, Tourism Zone Ordinance. If you’re interested, read these three background reports at Albemarle County’s site:

– One (June 5 2013)

– Two (September 4 2013)

– Three October 2 2013

I was talking to a local today about the possibilities of a Crozet hotel and he came up with a few questions for Crozetians. Click through if you have two minutes to fill out a survey. I’ll take the responses and publish them in the next couple weeks … also, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors is meeting next week to discuss the Tourism Zone Ordinance. Both this survey and next week’s meeting could be good opportunities to express your voice about the future of Crozet.

Continue reading “Questions on a Crozet Hotel – Survey”

September 12, 2013September 17, 2013

Results of the “What Should become of the Crozet Library” Poll

Thanks, all for the responses. I’m going to be in meetings and coaching soccer until the CCA meeting tonight, so I’ll try to update this again just prior to the meeting

The “other” responses are below. Winner of “other” – Train station.

(updated 13 September around 3:30pm)

Honestly, I’m shocked that so many want a police substation on one of the major entrance corridors to Crozet.

Update: Mostly great comments and debate at the RealCrozetVA facebook entries.

– One post
– Other post

Highlights for me:

– A link to a scientific study of the merits of a police station in a community
– I think that the old Crozet library is a building with a prominent and central location in Crozet and a long and much-loved history and that it should be used in a way that allows members of the public to continue to enjoy it, such as a community center or a local (or natural) history museum. I think it would be a shame to turn such a beautiful and historic building into a police station (which could be housed in any building) and that it would be a waste of money to renovate it for that purpose, when it could be used as is for a more community-minded function. Continue reading “Results of the “What Should become of the Crozet Library” Poll”

August 7, 2013August 7, 2013