Category: Growth

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Albemarle Budget, Comp Plan, 500 Units in Ivy? And DCI Meeting

Sugar hollow morning

Wednesday, 1 March will be an interesting Albemarle County Board of Supervisors meeting; the afternoon session starts at 6pm.

My quick thoughts:

  • How many of us will attend or email the Board about either of these?
  • Albemarle and Charlottesville need more housing; the Old Ivy Road location is a great location, particularly as it’s close enough to benefit those seeking to walk or ride bicycles places (in other words, not be forced to drive everywhere), and especially if they can somehow work to solve the infrastructure dilemma on Old Ivy Road/Old Garth (21 Curves), 250. Maybe … limit parking to further encourage people who live there to not use cars?
  • $551M budget; that’s a lot of money.

Attending these meetings is the best way to support or oppose something; those who show up have their voices heard. Commenting on Nextdoor, Twitter, FB, may serve the need to “feel” heard, but emailing or showing up to the Board are the absolute best ways to voice your opinion.

From Charlottesville Community Engagement

There are two public hearings in the evening session which begins at 6 p.m.

The first is on the $551.5 million budget proposed for Albemarle by County Executive Jeffrey Richardson. For those details, check out the most recent edition of the newsletter.

The second is for a rezoning for Old Ivy Residences. If the strategy with this timing is to find a way to get more people in to pay attention to the budget, it will likely pay off. Greystar Development is seeking a rezoning to allow up to 525 homes. For background, here are some recent stories:

The Planning Commission’s denial was in part because of a concern about whether sufficient transportation projects would be in place to address the development’s impacts on road congestion. At play is a condition from a rezoning in 1985. 

“The Commission recommended denial of the ZMA202100008 because it found that the Old Ivy Road traffic conditions, while different from 1985 when the Proffer in ZMA1985-21 was established, do not appear at a level of improvement to satisfy the condition precedent established by ZMA 1985-21 and address transportation concerns,” reads the staff report.

There is a new proffer associated with this rezoning that would commit an additional $500,000 in cash for a new receiving lane on the northbound on-ramp to the U.S. 250 bypass. 

The Albemarle County Comp plan …

… is still underway; how many of you have visited the AC44 site, filled out the surveys, or attended a pop-up? Albemarle staff are doing amazing attempting outreach.

Continue reading “Albemarle Budget, Comp Plan, 500 Units in Ivy? And DCI Meeting”
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Oak Bluff – 134 Homes between Westlake and 240?

Oak Bluff in Crozet

Big thanks to the reader who sent this to me; I’d not yet seen it.

Subscribe to RealCrozetVA here.

A few quick thoughts:

  • Dig in to the files below; learn more, ask questions, get informed and involved in our community.
  • They’re seeking a rezoning from single family to higher density.
  • More housing: good. We desperately need it. I’m curious to learn what types of housing are proposed beyond the typical villa style/townhouse or single family detached that we’ve seen built in Crozet.
  • Eastern Connector – Possible to do this *first*?
    • From the narrative: “Given the proximity to the proposed Eastern Connector, we do not anticipate any other transportation improvements will be necessary” … “Oak Bluff includes dedication of public right for way for the Eastern Avenue extension through a portion of the property. Eastern Avenue is an important public infrastructure project that will create connections between neighborhoods and commercial areas in Crozet.” Bolding is mine.
  • I took the photo below in Cory Farm in 2011; “The Charlottesville/Crozet area lost the 804 area code June 1, 2001.”

Files

Going to copy and paste from the developer’s narrative.

There’s bolding in their PDF, but it didn’t easily paste, so the bolding below is mine. Read the whole thing; it’s the most plain-English part of the submission.

Read the Rest of the Story: Oak Bluff – 134 Homes between Westlake and 240?

In designing the conceptual layout of Oak Bluff, our team followed the Neighborhood Model Principles.


Oak Bluff is a community focused on Pedestrian Orientation. An ample network of sidewalks and connections are provided throughout and around the property. Green spaces are located throughout the property to allow for outdoor experiences and the enjoyment of all residents. Oak Bluff is also directly accessible to existing trail networks. This project enhances the pedestrian network by granting an easement and new public greenway area to complete the Lickinghole Creek trail network.


While Oak Bluff is a residential property, it is easily accessible to a Mixture of Uses via walking and biking. The proposed housing is a perfect complement to the great variety of surrounding uses. By having houses within walking distance of retail and restaurants, we create a symbiotic and supportive relationship of uses.

Oak Bluff is an integral part of a mixture of residential housing types and is nearby to other commercial elements that create a complete Neighborhood Center.

A Mixture of Housing Types and Affordability are proposed within this development. We anticipate a variety of unit sizes, including affordable housing on site. Affordable housing is addressed on the application plan.

The site is designed with the principle of Interconnected Streets and Transportation Networks. The design includes platting and construction of portions of the Eastern Avenue Connector Road.

The Eastern Avenue Connector Road will allow for Multi -modal Transportation Opportunities in Crozet.

A series of Parks, Recreational Amenities, and Open Space are featured in the center of this site and easily accessible for all residents.

By providing unit types such as townhomes and villas, the property design achieves the goal of Buildings and Space of Human Scale. The design of this unit type has a nice level of detail and rhythm of units, combined with centralized open spaces.

Relegated Parking- All parking within Oak Bluff will be relegated from the Eastern Avenue Connector Road.

Redevelopment- The site is currently vacant, so this principle does not apply, but the property is part of an overall development pattern that is harmonious with surrounding neighborhoods.

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February CCAC Recap – Comprehensive Plan

New Foothills construction; who knew a leaf blower was more upsetting than construction?

Thanks to Crozet Gazette for the recording.

A Few Takeaways

(there’s a lot of value in live-tweeting, but I’m finding great value in noting the meeting along with timed links to the video)

update: PDFs.

How we grow has been broken for a long, long time.

But … We are going to grow. Period.

What are the direct consequences of growth? Limiting growth? What are the unintended consequences? We are not going to stop growing. Stop allowing people to move here? It’s America! What are the consequences when we reach some arbitrary “hard” population limit? Draw straws to see who moves out? Restrict pregnancies? Arguing from the extreme is but one step. Recognizing the extreme and negotiating from there is where successes can be gained.

Shutting down development is not a viable solution – it is reactionary, unnecessarily and unreasonably extreme. Permitting unfettered growth is equally unreasonable.

  • I’ve been writing for years that we need to think generationally. This is from 2016.

A great place – between Park Ridge and Hill Top – that would be an ideal spot for no cars, and only people on foot or scooter or bicycle

A great place - between Park Ridge and Hill Top - that would be an ideal spot for no cars, and only people on foot or scooter or bicycle

Just me finding a fun new tool in WordPress.

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CCAC Meeting – 8 February 2023 | AC44

Greenwood sunrise

Y’all know what AC44 is right? Albemarle County is in the midst of Phase 2 — “Goals, Objectives, and ‘Planning Toolkits'” of the updating of the 2015 Comprehensive Plan.

From my perspective, Albemarle County have done an amazing job of outreach about the Comp Plan, and it’s incumbent upon us as citizens to participate, and to think generationally. Realistically, many if not most of those who are voicing opinions won’t be in Albemarle County is 20 or 30 years … think about those who come after us, and think about where and how our kids and grandkids will live (and if they’ll be able to afford living in Crozet).

Spend some time educating yourself, and taking the County’s survey (I have), before being “for” or “against” a part of the plan or process.

I suspect there will be a large audience Wednesday night; here’s hoping for open minds and conversation.

One thought: if the County and VDOT would build infrastructure along with housing, Crozet would be more livable, accessible, and would likely defeat the calls of people to stop change.

disclosure: I’m a member of CCAC, and a Realtor.

CCAC agenda, via email

Crozet Community Advisory Committee Wednesday, February 8, 2023

7:00 P.M. – 8:30 P.M.
Crozet Library Meeting Room | 2020 Library Avenue

AGENDA

  1. Call to Order, Agenda Review, Introductions (5 minutes)
  2. Approve Meeting Minutes (2 minutes)
  3. Announcements and Updates (5 minutes)
  4. Community Concerns (10 minutes)
  5. Scheduled Presentations (45 minutes)

• Presentation: AC44, the update to the Albemarle County Comprehensive Plan, Allison Wrabel, Community Connector – Albemarle County
o A high-level overview of the Comprehensive Plan update’s process to date with a

preview of the next phase and a community discussion

6. Committee Business (10 minutes)

  • Website content and development project updates, Joe Fore
  • Virtual meeting practices, Joe Fore
  1. Other Business
  2. Adjourn

Next Meeting: March 8, 2023

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A New Blog – “About Crozet”

Just noticed the new blog that Tom Loach has put together, ostensibly to advocate against Albemarle County’s work-in-progress Comprehensive Plan, “AC44.“

Take some time to dig in and learn about their perspective.

Well, if the disaster the county created for Crozet when it destroyed the existing Crozet Master Plan wasn’t enough, they’re up to even more mischief with the upcoming Albemarle County Comprehensive Plan update. You don’t have to look very far into their plan called AC44, to realize that several segments, if approved, will be an unmitigated disaster for Crozet. Here’s a link to the AC44 site where you can get the overview of the county’s options for the future growth in Albemarle County. Take a look below at each of the options found in the plan and vote how you feel.  Additionally, you can add a comment on your response to the plan.

Crozet is still a great place to live, and we need a lot – more housing, more and more appropriate infrastructure, more businesses.

After you’ve looked around Tom’s site, spend some time at Albemarle’s truly comprehensive Comprehensive Plan site. Learn more, get educated, and get involved.

The decisions made now will affect your kids and grandkids, if they choose to and are able to live in Crozet.

I saw the original post about the blog on Nextdoor; just below the anti-growth post was one seeking for housing ideas for a parent/grandparent seeking to move to Crozet.

We need more and more dense housing options.

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62 More Homes in Old Trail, & a Bakery in Downtown Crozet?

Browns Gap Turnpike

In this quick summary of reading, and copy/pasting — Bakery, more homes in Old Trail, Mobile Home Park adding homes, Misty Mountain expanding.

Update: the 11 January County BoS meeting will be interesting and relevant to Crozet.

This morning’s Albemarle County Development Department email has some interesting information.

  • Praha Bakery coming to the little brick building on 240 near downtown Crozet!
  • 62 more homes coming to the northwest corner of Rt. 250 West and Old Trail Drive

And from Sean Tubbs’ always-excellent Week in Review

(you really should subscribe, and pay for his work!)

Crozet group to hear details about manufactured home park

The Crozet Community Advisory Committee will meet at 7 p.m. in the Crozet Library. (meeting info) (agenda)

After a period called “Community Concerns,” there will be a community meeting for a special use permit for an expansion of an existing manufactured home park near Claudius Crozet Park. There are 73 units currently and the request to become compliant with zoning also comes up with a request to add 14 new units on site. (SP202200029)

A photo from the presentation on existing conditions at the manufactured home park (Credit: Shimp Engineering)

Misty Mountain

The third is for a proposal for Misty Mountain Camp Resort to amend an existing special use permit to add 53 campsites for a total of 158, to increase the number of cabins to 18, and to allow the resort to operate year-round. Guests would be restricted to 30 days stay. 

The county’s Agricultural-Forestal Districts Advisory Committee found no issue with the expansion and neighbor concerns about noise and trespassing are to be worked out on site. 

“The existing campground contains six wells, and a new seventh well has been drilled at the southeast corner of the property,” reads the staff report. “The applicants have stated that the new well yields seven gallons per minute, which is sufficient for the new camping area.”

This is the kind of sign that will be installed to keep guests on the resort’s property (Credit: Line + Grade)
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Old Dominion Rezoning, Week Ahead – 15 August

Near White Hall Vineyards in Crozet

Sean Tubbs’ Week Ahead is worth the subscription fee. I highly encourage you to subscribe as well. Do it here, please. Unless noted, everything below is Sean’s work, copy/pasted by me.

Monday, 15 August

The five-member Albemarle Architectural Review Board will meet virtually at 1 p.m. … (meeting info)

In the final item, they will review the entrance corridor guidelines on Route 250 west of Charlottesville for the rural areas to the east and west of Ivy Depot. (staff report)

Image screenshot below by Jim, from the Staff Report. This is interesting stuff, and how we allow this area to develop will influence how we build bike lanes one day, hopefully. (Related – Three Notch’d Trail Planning Funding Approved)

Wednesday, 17 August

Next, the end is nigh for virtual meetings in Albemarle County. Assistant County Executive Trevor Henry will provide an update on the transition back to in-person public meetings for bodies that have not already done so. 

“To prepare for in-person public meetings, investments have been made in equipment, software, and training to allow for some meetings to have elements of virtual participation and/or virtual access for the public,” reads the staff report. “Staff expects all public meetings held beginning September 1, 2022 will be held under the new framework.”

In the evening session beginning at 6 p.m. there will be a public hearing for a rezoning for the Old Dominion Village project in Crozet along Three Notch’d Road. The proposal is to rezone 23.68 acres from Rural Areas to Neighborhood Model Development for up to 110 units around a site currently occupied by Crozet Veterinary Care Center. 

The Planning Commission unanimously approved the project in February, but recommended denial of a special exception to reduce the minimum setback between an existing animal confinement facility (vet clinic) and a residential lot line from 200 feet to 50 feet. The plan has been revised since then. 

Location map for the Old Dominion Village project (Credit: Meridian Planning Group)

Old Dominion context from Jim

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Verizon Still Trying to Provide Better Service in Greenwood

Greenwood

Still trying after a couple of years …

Allison Wrabel wrote in January 2021 about Verizon’s efforts, and neighbors’ counter efforts.

I wrote in June about how Verizon was still trying to provide better cell service to people in and around Greenwood.

You can watch the Community Meeting below: (it had 8 views when I watched it; it’s 35 minutes long)

As of 25 July:

Next steps for the application are hearings with the Albemarle County Planning Commission on August 9, and the Board of Supervisors on 5 October.

Crozet Gazette wrote on 11 July of 2022 about the continued efforts.

If you’re supportive or opposed to this, you can reach out to our Supervisor Ann Mallek, the Board of Supervisors, and Bill Fritz:

copy and paste this into your email address line: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Continue reading “Verizon Still Trying to Provide Better Service in Greenwood”
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Montclair at the Planning Commission – 26 July 2022

Montclair will be at the Albemarle County Planning Commission on 26 July at 6pm. Hopefully via Zoom, but likely in person.

Information on the meeting will be at the County’s website.

  • If you are in favor of housing that allows more people of more income and wealth levels to live in Crozet, I’d encourage you to attend this meeting, or voice your opinion in favor of more housing.
  • If you’re opposed to more housing for more people, I suspect this is already on your radar and neighborhood listservs and Nextdoors.

I’d wager if Albemarle and VDOT would add appropriate infrastructure when they approve developments, I’d wager they’d get some more support from adjacent homeowners.

As an aside, I wish I could find citation for the most egregious “argument” against this development made by a neighbor.

In January I wrote

The rezoning/land use 101 given by Cameron with Albemarle County was really good; I recommend people watch it.

They are proposing a rezoning to allow for 157 homes. 

Crozet needs new housing, but also needs supporting infrastructure and businesses to keep Crozetians in Crozet, and going to work not in cars (bikes, walking). Trails need to connect to downtown Crozet and other neighborhoods so that people aren’t forced to drive. 

From the January CCAC meeting

In March I wrote

Through my lens representing buyers, from $200,000 and up well be on that, Charlottesville needs affordable housing. It’s not a nice to have. It’s an absolute, desperate, need.

And from the Crozet Gazette

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How Should Albemarle Grow?

Morning Along Garth Road

From Katherine Knott with the Daily Progress:

Please read the whole thing.

(bolding mine)

Some Albemarle County residents are torn about how the county should grow.

The county began surveying the community last month about seven proposed growth management options, part of the first phase of the county’s effort to update its comprehensive plan. The concepts range from reducing density in the county’s development areas to setting standards to help determine whether and how to expand a growth area.

Officials said 119 people have taken the survey, which closes at 10 p.m. Sunday. The responses, made public this week show stark divisions in the community. Other chances for citizen input will available to residents as the plan update moves along.

There are over 111,000 people in Albemarle County; please take a few minutes to read about the plan, its intent, its goals, and fill out the survey.

Take the survey here.

The first responses to the survey are interesting, some are disheartening, and unsurprising. (PDF here)

Here’s the thing.

We need more housing – nationally and locally, we have a massive housing shortage. More density. More infrastructure that is not auto-centric, and encourages people to get places without being forced into a car.

Albemarle (and the City of Charlottesville) are, and are becoming more unaffordable. We need to build affordable housing – much of which may be duplexes, triplexes, quads, apartments, etc so that people who want to live and work here can.

Think about your kids who you want to return to live nearby with their kids. Think about your parents who might need to move to be closer to you (and your kids). A lot of these may be (and probably should be) rentals – not everyone wants to own a home (I’m working on a story now for JimsNote in which I discuss how the “American Dream” of homeownership is not for everyone, and that’s just fine).

This survey will help Albemarle County government – Planning Commission, Board of Supervisors, et al – make a path forward for how we are going to grow, from 110K-ish now to 155K-ish in 2050.

Source: Cooper Center

Read even more at Sean Tubbs’ Charlottesville Community Engagement.

Even better, pay to subscribe to support his work. (I do; if you’re interested in a free one-year subscription, ask me; I’m happy to offer one.)

Albemarle County is in the first phase of a review of its Comprehensive Plan with an eye on a growth management policy. A second questionnaire on the policy closes on July 17, and Albemarle’s Communications and Public Engagement office produced an explanatory video. 

“The growth management policy is one of the tools that we use to implement the county’s vision by helping us to make intentional decisions about how and where we grow and what areas are protected,” states the narrator of the video.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/a2s4Kqljams?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0

The video states that one purpose of a growth management policy is to ensure that there are services for a growing population, including the provision of water and sewer services. 

“The majority of new residential, commercial, retail, office, industrial, and mixed-use development is intended to be within the county’s development areas,” the video continues. “The rural area is intended to have limited residential development.” 

Different community groups are also encouraging community members to fill out the survey.

The Forest Lakes Community Association reminded its members of the basic gist of the growth management policy. 

“Designated Development Areas currently comprise only five percent of Albemarle County while Rural Areas currently comprise 95 percent of the County,” reads the newsletter. “Yet we in Forest Lakes are seeing the developmental impacts more directly, since the limited Development Area includes the 29-Corridor to the west of Forest Lakes.” 

The Forest Lakes Community Association had argued against the nearby Brookhill and RST Residents developments, and points out there’s currently no public transportation in the area. 

“Roads are planned that will eventually connect both developments directly to Ashwood Boulevard, with estimates of up to a 50 percent increase in daily traffic utilizing the Forest Lakes South exit,” the newsletter continues. 

Former members of the Village of Rivanna Community Advisory Committee also want people to fill out the survey. The group quit en masse in April which you can read about on Information Charlottesville or on their Substack newsletter.

This spring, the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors were presented with a build-out analysis to determine if there’s enough room in the existing development area to meet the needs of a growing population. 

Supervisors got an update on June 1, 2022 that I’ve yet to write about, but will before the end of the summer. You can watch the video of that meeting here, and let us know what happened!