Snow happens.
Continue reading “Safe Routes to School Delayed by (only) a Week”
Buses From Crozet to Charlottesville?
Just an idea …
Did you know that:
- Crozet used to have buses? (above image thanks to Secret of the Blue Ridge)
- Crozet used to have commuter rail between here and Charlottesville?
Based on a great conversation I had yesterday at the Mudhouse, I started this conversation on the RealCrozetVA Facebook page and got some great comments.
What could be done to get great bus service to/from Crozet/Charlottesville? Cool buses. With lots of light & wifi. 5x in the morning & 5x at afternoon/evening for starters.
With bike racks on buses. Park and rides in the church lots … Just kicking around some ideas. (Not my ideas necessarily … Just ideas)
Could it happen?
Some back of the napkin numbers – correct me please, because I’m sort of making these numbers up.
- Population of Crozet: ~ 6,500
- Daytime population of Crozet: ~ 2200 (a complete & total guess)
- 40 people per bus? Is that reasonable?
What do you think? Could it happen? Who could/would do it? Could/would it be profitable?
Most importantly – for those of you who have “real” jobs as I call them (I’m a Realtor; my days are necessarily geographically scattered) – would you use a bus?
Crozet Elementary Safe Routes to School starting soon!
via email:
CROZET ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TO BALLARD DRIVE
The purpose of this project is to provide safe pedestrian access along Crozet Avenue from the Crozet Elementary School to Ballard Drive. Drainage improvements, a sidewalk and a curb-and-gutter will be constructed along the west side including a pedestrian crossing at the school entrance. Plecker Construction Company has been awarded the construction contract and plans to start on March 2, 2015, weather permitting. AMT will assist the County with onsite inspection services and F&R Inc. will perform materials testing on the project. Funding for this project is primarily through a grant from VDOT.
The schedule of the project is as follows (weather permitting):
- 03/02/15 – Start of Construction
- 06/30/15 – Substantial Completion
- 07/30/15 – Final Completion
If you would like more information regarding this project, please contact Frank Pohl, Senior Project Manager, by phone (434)-872-4501 x 7914 or by email [email protected].
CCAC Meeting 21 January 2015 – Foothills Rezoning and More
A large crowd showed up, including Charlottesville Tomorrow and NBC 29 to hear and learn about the proposed Foothill Crossing rezoning.
A great discussion was held, mainly with community members expressing the need and desire for infrastructure in Crozet as the developer described how the rezoning will route traffic through Westhall, Foothills, Westlake Hills, and Parkside Village.
What followed was a pretty good discussion about economic growth & development in Crozet, the future of downtown Crozet, what Crozetians want, what the community can and will support and more.
I’ll update this when Charlottesville Tomorrow,NBC 29, and Crozet Gazette post their stories.
If you want to learn and exert your opinion/influence, come to these meetings. Again. And again. And again.
Storify story recapping all of the tweets after the break. Please, please read them all and get involved.
Continue reading “CCAC Meeting 21 January 2015 – Foothills Rezoning and More”
Safe Routes to School Grant Approved by VDOT
In May 2010, the Safe Routes to School grant was announced to great fanfare.
Today, I received an email stating that VDOT has approved the grant. More to come as I learn about the timing.
(too bad it’s going to be finished after we’re finished with our time at Crozet Elementary!)
Safe Routes to School delayed. Again
One day, the Safe Routes to School might get funded … I’m tired of writing about the delays, and I know Crozetians and the folks at the County just want the darn improvements finished (and started).
Trevor Henry with Albemarle County emails:
The Safe Routes To School (SRTS) bids were opened Thursday afternoon and unfortunately came in over staff’s construction estimate again even though there was significant scope changes in the plan from the previous bid, including adjusting the alignment of the sidewalk to remove ~ 350 ft. of ACSA water line relocation.
The bids were ~$70K above the latest estimate and exceed the 25% difference in bid to estimate required by VDOT to allow the project to proceed. Staff utilized recent construction cost information from local projects and the VDOT cost database prior to confirm the cost estimate going to bid.
Staff discussed the bid results with VDOT and have been informed that if the county can find the additional funding and justify the cost increase VDOT will support the grant funded project to move forward. Staff is currently conducting the bid analysis are planning to request the funding increase at the January BOS meeting that if approved by the BOS and VDOT will allow the project to move forward in early spring.
With the coming budget cuts in Albemarle, I’m of the opinion that this may be a hard sell.
Jarman’s Gap – 3 Years Ago
I was browsing some of my Crozet/Jarman’s Gap flickr photos and came across this photo from October 2011:
A bit different than today:
I’m still amazed at how much more activity there is on Jarman’s Gap today versus a few years ago.
Crozet Safe Routes to School Update
Short story: Safe Routes to (Crozet Elementary) School … soon. Probably.
via email:
The Pothole is Back
Last week we had quite the conversation on the RealCrozetVA Facebook page about the pothole under the bridge downtown. It was fixed shortly after I posted the photo, but it’s back. When riding my bike with the little one this morning, I noticed its deepening. When stopping on the way back to take a picture, I noted that it’s dangerous for pedestrians. From Twitter last week, we learned that calling VDOT to report it is an option (1-800-367-7623).
But it’s back. Surely this isn’t an indication of how the Streetscape process will be.
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.
We had a good discussion about Crozet school’s competitiveness and a great conversation about what we want Crozet to be.
A hotel was announced to be coming to Old Trail in Crozet and many of you described your neighborhoods in Crozet.
We had a rare (and appreciated!) guest post recapping the March Crozet Community Association meeting.
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.