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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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Eastern Connector Coming Within Our Lifetimes?

Old Eastern Connector sign in Cory Farm

Note that the picture of the sign is old … but was in place long enough that the area code changed from 804 to 434. 🙂

*please read this whole thing, and then read the thing at the bottom.

Will the Eastern Connector come to fruition in our lifetimes?

Maybe.

The above is from the July 2022 Transportation Planning Report.

I asked Kevin McDermott, Planning Manager for Albemarle County if the Eastern Connector might have a realistic timeline. He answered:

We have a proposed timeline for construction of the Eastern Ave Southern Connector but, because we are still working to gather the full amount of funding the project is currently estimated at, that schedule could still fluctuate.

We have already completed design and engineering for the project to the 30% level. Between FY23 and FY27 the County has dedicated another $12M to this project through the CIP. The State has dedicated $8.1M in the years FY26 and FY27. That would set us up for construction in FY29. We are currently looking at ways to advance this by using the County CIP funds to continue to advance design and engineering so that we can move straight in to construction in FY26 when the State money becomes available. The issues we need to overcome are to get VDOT approval to continue moving the design forward despite no state money being available for 2 more years and to identify a way to address the gap in funding of about $3.5M from the current estimate of $24M and the $20.5M currently available.

Hope that provides the information you were looking for. Obviously the County really wants to do everything we can to move this project along quickly but unfortunately the timeline is dependent on a lot of factors outside of our control.

So the answer is – I think there may be a realistic timeline?

Someone who follows me on Twitter sent me these two things:

I found this link and it shows the current status of the Eastern Avenue extension in the Smart Portal. Looks like if approved and everything goes to plan (ha) construction would begin in 2027.

They sent me this as well:

I also reached out to VDOT about the roundabout at 240/250 that was slated to go to bid this fall. Was told it’s been delayed.

“You are reading the website correctly, but the information isn’t up to date. The project is behind and I anticipate that it will be advertised next year. Thank you for reaching out to me and I apologize for not having the information updated.”

*the thing I want you to read.

We need journalists. Sean Tubbs at Charlottesville Community Engagement is doing a remarkable job, so is the Crozet Gazette. I wrote about them recently. I’m a Realtor at Nest. While I think I’m doing journalism when I write on RealCrozetVA, my profession is not journalism. We need people like Sean, the reporters at Crozet Gazette, and we’re really missing the amazing journalists at the Daily Progress.

While I do my damnedest to know about my community, and know more than my clients who are moving within or to the area, I/we need the people who do this – they tie the threads together to make the story, and they write and describe to both inform, and to hold others accountable.

Did you know the Daily Progress has only one reporter right now? Sean Tubbs at Charlottesville Community Engagement is providing extraordinary work for the community (please pay to subscribe; if you’re interested, I’ll gift you a subscription – ask me.)

Sean reminded us this week

There’s an entire newspaper devoted to Crozet, and the Crozet Gazette is the best source for information coming out of western Albemarle County. 

Without full-time journalists who know what they’re doing, like what they do, and stick around to build and share institutional knowledge – we all suffer.

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Three Notch’d Trail Planning Funding Approved!

Three Notchd Trail map

This is great news.

$2,007,045 for the Three Notched Trail Shared Use Path Plan in Albemarle County for the planning of a project that will develop a shared use path between the City of Charlottesville, the community of Crozet, and Western Albemarle and Nelson County.

(the following is from the beginning of the above-referenced release)

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine (both D-VA) announced $64,207,045 in federal funding for Virginia infrastructure projects courtesy of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law negotiated by Sen. Warner and supported by Sen. Kaine. The funding was awarded through the Department of Transportation’s Rebuilding American Infrastructure Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) discretionary grant program that helps communities plan and carry out projects with local or regional impact.

“Virginia continues to benefit from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” the senators said. “We are thrilled to see this funding head to Virginia for improvements throughout the Commonwealth that will have a direct impact on Virginians’ daily lives.”

Getting people out of cars onto bikes and e-bikes withing safe, protected lanes from Afton and Crozet to Charlottesville. Sounds simple, reasonable, and a no-brainer.

Getting there will take a lot of work, and huge thanks and congratulations to everyone who lobbied to get this funding.

From the TNT site

The Three Notched Trail (TNT) is a proposed shared use path from the City of Charlottesville extending to Ivy, Crozet, and the Blue Ridge Tunnel in Afton.  Additionally, the trail will connect users to the University of Virginia, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Shenandoah National Park, Skyline Drive, and the Appalachian Trail.

A “shared use” path is typically a 10’ wide paved trail that is physically separated from the motor vehicle travel way and allows bi-directional pedestrian and bicycle traffic.  Once built, the TNT will provide local residents and visitors with car-free transportation and recreational opportunities.  

We see the Three Notched Trail being a part of a larger Mountains-to-Sea Trail, connecting the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay.  This continuous trail would make Virginia a trailblazer in outdoor recreation, tying together the Virginia Capital Trail with the proposed Birthplace of America Trail and Fall Line Trail. Imagine a continuous trail almost 200 miles long!

The cynical side of me is hopeful, but realistic. It took 10 years to get the sidewalks in front of Harris Teeter. Here’s hoping my great grand child will be able to get from here to there not in a car.

The sidewalks took only a decade to get done.

  1. Years.
Sidewalks Coming to 250 near Harris Teeter?
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Crozet Gazette – August 2022

Crozet Gazette front page - August 2022

Did you know the Daily Progress has only one reporter right now? Sean Tubbs at Charlottesville Community Engagement is providing extraordinary work for the community (please pay to subscribe; if you’re interested, I’ll gift you a subscription – ask me.)

Sean reminded us this week

There’s an entire newspaper devoted to Crozet, and the Crozet Gazette is the best source for information coming out of western Albemarle County. 

For the first time, I just paid for a subscription to the Crozet Gazette. It’s easy, and inexpensive. Now … if they’d go to Planning Commission and Board of Supervisor meetings. 🙂

Don't miss any of the hometown news everybody else is up on. Pick up a free copy of the Gazette at one of many area locations or have it delivered to your home. Mail subscriptions are available for $36 for 12 issues. Send a check to Crozet Gazette, P.O. Box 863, Crozet, VA 22932.

This August’s issue has, per usual, a ton of good local information.

A few selections (read the whole paper if you can; there’s something rewarding and serendipitous about browsing a newspaper — this looks to be a link to the current version of the paper, so the link will point to whatever is the current version).

We need journalists. To watch, to be present, to digest, to piece together threads and stories to that we the people can understand what is happening in our community.

Continue reading “Crozet Gazette – August 2022”
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CCAC August 2022 – Downtown & the Master Plan

Beaver Creek Reservoir - August 2022

Local government matters, and as I’ve said for years, these meetings – as slow as they may seem – shape how our County lives and grows. Whenever the Crozet Downtown is redeveloped, that redevelopment will in part be influenced by a meeting three years ago, or five, or seven. Keep in mind that the lumberyard was sold at auction just over ten years ago.

#CCAC0822

via email from Joe Fore, Chair of the CCAC

note that this is an email from Joe to the CCAC

“The Crozet Community Advisory Committee will meet this Wednesday, August 10 at 7 p.m., via Zoom. 

You can join the meeting here: https://albemarle-org.zoom.us/j/94571782297. …

Instructions for joining and meeting materials are also posted on the Albemarle County Calendar.

Our main agenda item this month will be a presentation from the Downtown Crozet Initiative updating us on the status of the Plaza and the downtown redevelopment.

We’ll also leave some time at the end of the meeting to talk about areas where the CCAC may be able to help with some of the Master Plan’s implementation goals.

For example, Goal 5 in the Land Use section of the Crozet Master Plan suggests that the County should “Increase capacity of the CCAC, local schools, or other community groups to initiate, implement, and manage placemaking projects.” (Master Plan, p. 27)

There may also be opportunities for us to assist with some other Master Plan implementation goals, such as the Downtown Neighborhoods Architectural and Cultural Resources Study and Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing Survey. (p. 26)”

Crozet Community Advisory Committee Wednesday, August 10, 2022 7:00 P.M. – 8:30 P.M. Virtual Meeting

This meeting is being held pursuant to and in compliance with Ordinance No. 20-A (16); An Ordinance to Ensure the Continuity of Government During the Covid-19 Disaster.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS MEETING ONLINE:

Download Zoom. Use this link https://albemarle-org.zoom.us/j/94571782297 to join the webinar.

BY PHONE/CALL-IN:

Dial (301) 715-8592. Type in the Webinar ID 945 7178 2297 followed by the pound (#) sign. If you have any questions, please email [email protected]

AGENDA

  1. Call to Order & Agenda Review (3 minutes) Joe Fore, CCAC Chair
  2. Approve Meeting Minutes (2 minutes) Joe Fore, CCAC Chair
  3. Presentation from the Downtown Crozet Initiative (60 minutes) Meg Holden, DCI President
  4. Committee business – Master Plan implementation (30 minutes)

Joe Fore, CCAC Chair

Next Meeting: September 14, 2022

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Thanks for 12 Years, Greenhouse

Greenhouse Coffee has been a place to meet my wife, daughters, and grandson, where my younger daughter had her first job, and the place where the Crozet Cycling Club would meet for early morning post ride coffee.

Simply, Greenhouse was just an important part of life in Crozet.

Thanks Camille for all of your hard work and sacrifice.

Here’s to the next chapter.

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Crozet Bridge + Truck = No Fun

Penske truck stuck under Crozet bridge

At least two trucks hit and got stuck in the past two weeks. One was white, and one was yellow (the yellow truck people left their debris under the bridge).

I figure once every 7 years, I might as well update the “how many times has the bridge in Crozet been hit by a truck?” post.

By 2015, we’d seen a few impacts. My then-11-year-old said:

“Crozet needs to figure this out because that intersection is, “the backbone of Crozet.”

If a fifth-grader can figure that out, why can’t the rest of us?”

A quick FOIA (one of three) this week, and Albemarle County Police were super-quick to respond.

“Research of our database yielded 2015: unknown, 2016: 6, 2017: 4, 2018: 4, 2019: 10, 2020: 4, 2021: 7 accident responsive to your request.

Our database could only go back to 2016.”

And four so far this year.

Might as well start a spreadsheet to track this; would love it if the folks at the Mudhouse would help and send me a text when a truck gets stuck. 🙂

Chart showing the number of times per year that the Crozet bridge has been hit. 4 times so far in 2022.

I do wish they’d clean up their debris; some do, some don’t. But, I do always think about the kind folks who did volunteer to clean up others’ trash in 2017.


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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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Crozet Real Estate Market Update – July 2022

I haven’t written one of these in a while. There’s a lot happening the national, regional, Crozet real estate market, so I thought I’d put some thoughts to metaphorical paper.

I wrote recently, in part

tl;dr: the market is changing, and what we’ve become accustomed to has changed. Questions? Ask me.

I started this section in the first few days of June, and have re-written it at least three five six times. My “econ” twitter list has been active as everyone learns about this market.

In short, I think we’re in a transitioning market rather than a transitory market; everything is different now.

This is a bit of a scary time in the real estate market. In the end, it will be OK. The move from a super-hot, multiple offer, escalating offers market to a much, much more conservative and even aggressive pricing strategy market has been fast.

One of the most important parts of what I do is help manage expectations of my clients. Two recent emails, one from a buyer and one from a seller’s agent, on a house my buyer lost out on in a multiple offer situation:

  1. “We have thought about it and have decided to rent for a year before buying, hopefully to give the housing market time to settle! If it is okay with you we would love to reach out again next year when we are looking again.”
  2. “They are all over the place, even wondering if they should just wait for other offers, which I am advising against.”

My response to the buyer was that I’ll absolutely be here next year and that I thought they were making a good decision. I’ve said the same thing to quite a few buyers recently. Twelve years ago I wrote that I think people moving to Charlottesville should rent first; I still think that’s the best advice.

My response to the seller’s agent was echoing her advice that waiting for other offers likely wouldn’t yield more offers. I suspect that those sellers were basing their expectations on the market from a few months ago rather than today’s reality. 

I wrote this on 12 June in my post, Inventory Up, Price Reductions Down.
  • The market from earlier in the pandemic that may be helping sellers set their own expectations is gone. As I’ve told clients, “What your neighbor got for their house four months ago, and how fast, and with however many offers, is irrelevant.”

Ali Wolf tweeted “If someone could afford the monthly payment of a $450,000 home at a 3% interest rate, the equivalent payment at a 6% interest rate is for a $316,000 home.”

I’m writing offers now with interest rate caps of 6.5%, and I’m thinking 7% might be next. And in the future, rates will fall again, and people will refinance. We will be fine.

Take a $600K house, with 20% down, at 3.25% interest = PI of $2,089/month. Principal + interest (not including taxes and insurance).At 6%, for that $600K house, the PI is $2,878.

At 6%, a $2,086 monthly payment with 20% down will get you a $435K house.

Sellers, keep the above in mind when pricing your home; better yet, let’s talk it through together.

I’ve written “new normal” countless times over the years; whatever is happening today is our normal.

NB: I use Karl’s Mortgage calculator, and include taxes and interest; not every online mortgage calculator does.

Keep this in mind.

“Homebuyers on a $2,500 Monthly Budget Have Lost $118,000 in Spending Power This Year Amid Surge in Mortgage Rates. A buyer on a $2,500 budget can afford a $400,000 home with a 6% mortgage rate. That’s compared to a $517,000 home with a 3% mortgage rate.” 

Things will be ok. 

Continue reading “Crozet Real Estate Market Update – July 2022”