Category: Growth

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Crozet Town Meeting September 20th

Mark your calendars!

Thursday, September 20, 2007
Western Albemarle High School Cafeteria
7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for meet and greet

There is a lot of exciting activity underway on infrastructure improvement projects in Crozet, and you and your family are cordially invited to a town meeting to find out more.
At the meeting, County staff will make presentations about the status of current and future projects related to the Crozet Master Plan, followed by time for residents to talk with staff members, consultants, and officials about individual projects.

Topics will include:

– the Crozet Downtown Zoning Project,
– the Sidewalk and Streetscape Project,
– the Crozet Library,
– the Historic Resources Study,
– Reuse of the Old School Site,
– Master Plan for Western Park.

The Crozet Community Advisory Council and Crozet Community Association are co-sponsoring the meeting with Albemarle County, and representatives will be on hand to talk with you about opportunities for community involvement.

If you have any questions or need more information in advance of the meeting, please contact our Community Relations Office at (434) 296-5841. We hope you will join us!

Learn more at the County’s website.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – if you choose not to participate, you relinquish the right to complain.

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Development in Crozet the issue

Not surprisingly, Crozet’s growth is the primary issue in this year’s election.

The Daily Progress has a fairly in-depth article this morning.

Obligatory Ann Mallek quote:

“[Residents are] being very frank with me and almost everyone feels run over by the change that’s happened,” Mallek said. “All the promises that were made have been empty so far.”

Obligatory David Wyant quote:

“I think Crozet could be one of the nicest communities there is when it eventually builds out,” he said. Wyant said he worked to get a park included in the Old Trail development and for school improvements in Crozet. He also was involved in plans for a downtown library and is working so that the area can enjoy mass transit.

I would love to hear more about Crozet’s mass transit plans.

And – see where the candidates are getting their money.

So far, Mrs. Mallek has $15,010 and Mr. Wyant has $10,680, both of whom I expect will be collecting and spending (much) more. Both candidates, surprisingly have received relatively few contributions from Crozetians.

Democratic Central asks:

But if the issue is that there are all of these new people in Crozet now, then by definition there are a lot of people there who don’t know David Wyant and his family.  So I doubt that the fact that Wyant’s family has been in the area for generations will win it for him.

The real issue is, “Why didn’t you or anyone else notice that you got the growth estimates all wrong?  Can’t anyone there do math?”

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Crozet Zoning Meeting Roundup

The C-Ville has a good summary of last Thursday’s meeting.

The consultants will now cook up some options for how to achieve this vision of a pedestrian-friendly, business-friendly, traffic-friendly downtown Crozet—whether by imposing a historic overlay district or outright alterations of the zoning or some other method known in the worlds of planners and land-use academics. They will present these options to Crozet on May 24.

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What questions do you have for the Crozet candidates?

They wouldn’t actually represent only Crozet, believe it or not; they represent all of the White Hall district, but for those of us in Crozet, it may seem like it.  (PDF is here)

Now that there are three candidates in the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors’ race, what questions would you want to ask them?

David Wyant, the incumbent, native of the area.
Ann Mallek, very involved native of the area.
Tom Loach, very involved transplant, not that it matters much.

(why bring up whether one is a native or not? It matters to some)

Top issues? –

– Growth
– Transportation
– Property Taxes
– Downtown Crozet

What does the population of Crozet look like now? How different is it than four years ago?
Some possible questions –

– Do you support ASAP’s desire to find an “optimal population” for Albemarle County?
– Do you support David Slutzky’s Transfer of Development Right plan?
– What are your thoughts on transit? How would you seek to implement transit locally and regionally, if you support it? If not, why not?
– Would you support a local or regional sales tax to help pay for transportation needs?
– What does your vision for Crozet look like?
– What are the intended consequences of slowing or stopping growth and what might be some of the unintended consequences?
– What do you think about Crozet incorporating as a town?
White Hall District

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And the Third Candidate is …

Tom Loach, local anti-growth advocate.

Courtesy of the Crozet Gazette, via Charlottesville Tomorrow:

Thomas Loach, a resident of Crozet since 1989, submitted a letter to the editor outlining his experience and asking area residents, particularly those in the designated growth area around Crozet, to sign petitions to put him on the ballot for the November 2007 general election as an independent candidate.

Charlottesville Tomorrow has a lengthy post.

Update 5/9/2007: The May edition of the Crozet Gazette is online. (PDF)

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Crozet Zoning meeting

Add your voice to the discussion of what Downtown Crozet will look like. From the County:

CROZET DOWNTOWN ZONING
COMMUNITY MEETING #1
May 10, 2007 — 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Crozet Fire Station

Crozet is a special place with a strong identity. If you participated in the Crozet Master Planning process, you will remember the saying we heard frequently: “all roads lead to downtown”. The Master Plan identified downtown as the largest and most important of the centers of residential and economic activity.

While a vision for downtown exists, the question still remains “How do we get there”? In response to this, Albemarle County has commissioned Community Planning and Design, in collaboration with Milt Herd and Bruce Dotson, to recommend zoning which will help implement the Master Plan vision for a thriving Downtown Crozet.

As part of this study we will be investigating existing limitations with the current code and best practices in communities of similar size and scale. Several alternatives will be presented to the community, and with your input one approach will be recommended for the county to adopt. This process will evolve over the next six months and will provide opportunities for community participation in developing the new zoning regulation.

Mark your calendars and make plans to participate in this important process.

Learn more at the County’s site. The agenda is below and here as a PDF.

So – here is the question – how do you envision Downtown Crozet?

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Eminent Domain in Crozet?

Maybe, maybe not. Spurred by an email from a reader:

Jarman Gap road widening improvements for 2009 – everyone agrees it’ll be nice, but did you know they’re probably taking eminent domain and taking land from the Crozet Methodist Church, as well as all the way down to Grayrock?  I live in Grayrock and several homeowners could lose 5-10 feet of their quarter acre lot!  There is likely to be a lot of protest to this, and more public awareness is better – will also affect Waylands Grant and Bargamin Park.

I contacted Allan Sumpter, Residency Administrator with the VDOT regarding the possibility of the Commonwealth using eminent domain along Jarman’s Gap. This is his response:

The Jarmans Gap roadway construction project is still in the design phase.  Since the inception of the project, an enormous amount of growth has occurred along Route 691 relatively quickly. This growth has made it necessary for VDOT to go back and acquire additional survey information to reflect the physical changes that have occurred along the roadway.  Presently, our design team is working to update plans that reflect how these physical changes into the roadway design.  Thus, the project has not reached the right-of-way phase. 

I’d like to explain how this process works.  Once design is complete on a project plans are submitted to our Central Office in Richmond for approval to proceed to the right-of-way acquisition phase.  This phase includes all necessary property acquisitions, temporary and permanent construction easements and utility easements. When approval is granted, our right-of-way section is given clearance to begin.  Each affected property is appraised by a licensed appraiser.  After the appraisal is complete, a negotiation agent contacts the property owner to arrange a meeting to present them with an offer on what VDOT needs to acquire for the project.  This may include more than one visit.  If and when the offer is accepted, legal documents are drawn up to complete the transaction and the property owner is paid.  In cases where all attempts to reach an agreement have failed VDOT will then make a decision to proceed to use the power of eminent domain.  A “certificate” is filed with the court system and upon court approval, VDOT can then proceed with the project.  A final agreement on what the property owner is paid is made through that system.

As I explained, the project is not yet to this phase.  Initial data indicates there are 105 property owners affected on the project. The exact acreage from each to construct the project varies.  This information is listed on the plans and will be available once the plans are completed.  Therefore, it is not possible for me to provide exact figures to you at this time.  If all goes well, the project is appears to be headed to the right-of-way phase this Fall.  Right-of-way agents would then start contacting property owners with specifics at that time.  I hope this information clarifies this process.  As for construction, we hope that construction will be ongoing during the 2009 construction season. (ed. note: bolding mine)

I hope this information is useful. If you have questions, please let me know.

Allan Sumpter
Residency Administrator

More information on the status of the Jarman’s Gap project at Cville Tomorrow, and at Albemarle County’s website (and here).

The question is this – do the road improvements that will benefit the community supersede the property rights of the landowners? 

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What does Crozet need?

As Crozet moves forward, what do we need? Chinese Food? Coffee Shop? Bakery?

What is our community missing that you would use today, if it were here? Please leave your thoughts in the comments.

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