But don’t have the time to put it together. Are there any enterprising students at Western Albemarle High School who are interested in writing a story or two for RealCrozetVA? Maybe a journalism student? If you’re interested, please contact me.
Crozet Library to Close?
Both the Scottsville and Crozet libraries would close if Albemarle County moves ahead with a 10 percent budget reduction for the area’s regional library system, library officials warned Tuesday.
Leaders of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library say if the county imposes a 5 percent cut, the Scottsville Library will be closed, and 10 percent cuts “would force” the closure of the Crozet Library.
Update 21 January 2010:
Thanks to the commenters:
Because of tonight’s forecast of ice and snow, the meeting has been postponed til next Thursday, January 28 at 7 pm, still at the Field School. Hope to still see a big crowd next week!
Time to Wake up the Bedroom Community Citizens of Crozet!
Editor’s Note: Leslie Burns was kind enough to answer my call for someone to write about last week’s Crozet Community Association meeting.
A handful of Crozet Citizens showed up last Thursday to hear what is happening in our town at the Crozet Community Association gathering. Who are these folks? Why, they are your neighbors… hoping to pull together and grow community involvement. You might not have heard about the meeting or paid much attention to the small signs announcing it that were posted around the main intersection of town. But maybe it is time to start showing up at these association meetings…they only meet five times a year. It is not a huge commitment to make. That was one of the issues that came up at the meeting- how to reach out and connect the many neighborhoods and people living out there that have the health of our town in mind.
Here’s the dilemma. No tax revenues = no new funds to support the type of cultural and much needed improvements (think Library, road improvements, sidewalks, etc.) that are at the very heart of the Master Plan of Crozet. So where do the revenue hungry turn when it is time to welcome developers of light industrial business parks? The easiest places to access are usually given the green light for development first and we have a light that we should examine closely before we let it change on us. Some of the locations recently designated by our leaders for ideal growth are a few major intersections of highways with Rte 64.
It was announced tonight at the Crozet Community Association meeting that there is going to be a Master Plan review and meeting on Thursday, January 21st whose purpose (for one) will bring to light an idea that at least one person in our community claims will supply the revenue generating light industrial growth that Crozet (by way of our growth-area designation in the county) is destined to support. Where is this development to occur? The proposed development of land equal to the size of two Fashion Square Malls, sits quietly by the intersection of 250 and 64 at that sleepy little intersection that is the gateway to our homes and schools right now. Imagine a Waynesboro type intersection right next to our lovely pastoral village. Is this what you moved to Crozet to get close to?
If “Intersectionville” is the very name of the town you want to live in you may well get it, unless you show up to exhibit your commitment to an alternative way of life. The vision of retaining the downtown area and building it up to support sustainable and healthy growth alongside the tracks and within walking distance of community services already in place, will become nothing but a memory if the car and semi-truck driven sprawl is allowed to go in where it is proposed.
If you have an opinion to voice please show up on Thursday night on the 21st at the Field School auditorium (Old Crozet School on Crozet Ave.) at 7:00 PM. Meet some new neighbors and bring some neighbors that you already know. Meet some of the planning department representatives that have been actively involved in our master plan-consistently showing up to hear what YOU have to say. Listen to what is proposed to develop around us and become an active part of the small town that you moved here to enjoy. If you let others make your decisions for you- you are going to have to live in a world that someone else created for you and your children. Government is here as a tool of the people. If we do not interact, speak-up and have a hand in the sustainable design of our town here- it will not be a tool in our hands- but in the hands of those that would profit from business-as-usual sprawl. If the vision for Yancy Mills Industrial park and surrounding areas is not of a sprawling build out- let that be shown clearly to us.
Here’s the challenge… People that live in Crozet can affect how and where that revenue-creating light industrial growth is to occur by becoming the community that we claim we came here to be part of.
You want that small town feel? Now is your time to shine on Thursday- January 21st.
Crozet Business Networking Forum – 19 January
“The next meeting of the Crozet Business Networking Group will be next Tuesday, January 19th. This meeting we will learn about three businesses in the Old Trail Town Center: ACAC, Face Value Studio, and Trailside Coffee. We will meet at ACAC at 12:30 and end at Trailside Coffee where lunch may be purchased. I hope everyone will come out and network.”
Crozet Twitter Updates – Brief Notes for 2010-01-17
I was away this week, so the updates are a bit bare … two very pertinent stories are coming up that Crozet residents need to be aware of. Looking at the few tweets from this week, the first one stands out.
- Astonished that my kid’s high school history teacher barely discussed Haiti in the “current events” segment of class on Thursday #schoolfail #
- Dalucas looks pretty busy tonight. We’re having “daddy-daughter night” at Anna’s Pizza. #
- RT @gingergermani: @realcrozetva You would have to be in NYC the day I needed to know not to take the interstate. [I am so sorry! :)] #
- RT @thechrisbell: Playing a show in Crozet, VA at 8:30 PM today at Fardowners http://bit.ly/6aUhbh #
- Crozet is getting a new bookstore – it’s going to be here – http://bit.ly/8fVdQ1 #
- RT @nyrbclassics: Don’t know exactly where Crozet, Virginia is, but there’s a new indie bookstore opening there this spring @OvertheMoonBook #
- Curious – how many people under 40 were at Steve Landes’ town hall in Crozet yesterday? http://bit.ly/8N18oO #
Powered by Twitter Tools
Third Speakers Series Event at Field School
On Friday January 15th at 7 p.m at Field School, we will be having our third speakers series event, one that has featured Michael Thompson, Joe Ehrmann and Nick Nichols over the past three years. This year, we are hosting Joe and Claudia Allen, research professors at U.Va. who have written Escaping the Endless Adolescence: How we can help our teenagers grow up before they grow old.
The following is taken from their website on the book at www.endlessadolescence.com.
Has 25 Become the New 15?
• Why is it that parents who do so much for their teens, still find them unready for adulthood?
• How did we end up with our teens living in an ‘adolescent bubble’ that keeps them from growing up?
• Can we really do things like cut school failure rates and teen pregnancy rates in half just by making some simple, yet fundamental changes?
In Escaping the Endless Adolescence, internationally-recognized psychologists Joseph and Claudia Allen use ground-breaking scientific research seasoned with years of clinical experience to show how and why we are in danger of psychologically crippling an entire generation of young people. More importantly, they go on to tell us precisely what parents, educators and others can (and must) do differently to help their teens grow into mature, productive, happy, and caring adults.
Crozet Community Association Meeting – 14 January 2010
The next meeting of the Crozet Community Association will be at 7:30 on Thursday, January 14 at 7:30 in The Field School.
If anyone wants to write a story for RealCrozetVA about this meeting, please feel free to do so. As thanks, I’ll buy you a cup of coffee, hot chocolate, tea or water. 🙂
Crozet Twitter Updates – Brief Notes for 2010-01-10
- @tfjtolson @stevebragaw Does our new library need to be 17k sq. feet? #crozet #
- Darn multiple personalities. #
- @stevebragaw @tfjtolson What would a library of 2017 look like? #
- Just getting around to checking out this week’s ValPak coupons. Trailside & Daluca are included. #
- RT @stevebragaw: @realcrozetva we need a new #crozet library!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! [Just a thought 🙂 ] #
- What if we don’t need a Crozet library? http://bit.ly/55gTVF #justathought #
- Who’s going to Steve Landes’ town hall meeting at the Crozet Library today at noon? http://bit.ly/8dJLvX #localpolitics #
- @paulawhite What are the FabLab pages for? Shamelessly, would you be interested in writing about them for RealCrozetVA? in reply to paulawhite #
- Someone came to RealCrozetVA tonight looking for restaurants that deliver in Crozet. Answer: none other than Domino’s http://bit.ly/5cjKos #
- RT @MagnusMusic: Just announced: Burnley Station at Fardowners in Crozet VA Saturday Feb. 6th. #
- RT @haminga: flurries in Crozet [close school! go to the store! buy sterno! 🙂 ] #
- Love watching the @CrozetGazette stories coming up in my feedreader. Good stuff this month – http://bit.ly/8sZvO7 #
- RT @themuckrakes: New show announced in Crozet, VA at Crozet Music Festival on October 8, 2010 http://lnk.ms/5CzDY #
- RT @gingergermani: @realcrozetva From the emails that I have read, it sounds like “memberships” will be available to non-residents #
- Is it a done deal that the Old Trail poll will be open to everyone this year? (as in, not just Old Trail residents?) #
- @superninjarobot Did you ever make it to Greenwood? in reply to superninjarobot #
- RT @GoodwinCreek: the breadmobile is out with it’s precious cargo, heading to Crozet, dwtn C’ville & Belmont 🙂 [Great bread!] #
- @gingergermani There’s a line? How long? in reply to gingergermani #
- Crozet Pharmacy’s hours just don’t work for me. As bad as “bankers’ hours” #
- Luckily the Crozet water treatment plant serves only 25 people. http://bit.ly/5c8Phf ACSA Crozet is better http://bit.ly/7rAcxr #
- Took the Christmas tree to Crozet Park for mulching. Does driving it there in my SUV negate the green-ness of recycling of the tree? #
- t #
- RT @Grandale: Enjoying a few days off.Going to see some area wineries Veritas,White Hall…then to lunch at Crozet Pizza,a local institution #
Powered by Twitter Tools
Crozet Gazette Pulls No Punches
Read the whole thing at the Crozet Gazette.
The decision of the departing Kaine administration to bailout the investors in Biscuit Run, the largest subdivision ever approved in Albemarle County, and turn it into a state park will add to growth pressure in Crozet once the housing market begins to revive, which, we nonetheless hope, comes soon.
The addition of Biscuit Run’s 3,100 houses to the Albemarle market with better proximity to Charlottesville meant homebuyers had an attractive alternative at a time when county policies were aiming growth on Crozet and claiming that it could handle a population of 24,000. In those days Biscuit Run promised to vent some of the steam away from western Albemarle.
It’s hard to imagine that if the Commonwealth actually thought it needed a state park in Albemarle that it would have hankered for the 1,200 acres Biscuit Run sits on.
My favorite part?
And about that $9.8 million: hasn’t Crozet been told for the last 12 years that there is no VDOT money to pay for Jarmans Gap Road improvements, and more recently that there is no funding possible for Crozet library ($6.3 million), the number one priority library on the state library’s list of construction projects?
Thus the poor Virginia tax payer now has to pay to master plan and then operate in perpetuity a state park he had no idea he wanted, in a place he probably would not have picked, and to make up millions in tax revenue that was forfeited in the form of credits.
Well Said.
Update 8 January 2010 – Quite a bit of news coverage today centered on Biscuit Run’s dedication as a state park.
Biscuit Run State Park Opponent Says Deal Unfair to Albemarle County Residents – WCAV
VDOT Takes on Old Trail Drive
Thanks to Channel 29: (bolding mine)
A new Albemarle County Board of Supervisor’s resolution calls for a nearly one-mile stretch of Old Trail Drive in Crozet to be accepted into the state road system. Part of it was accepted into the system 2009, so this will complete the process.
…
“Old Trail Drive, in its entire length from Jarmans Gap Road to the other connection point at Route 250, has always been intended to be a pretty major traffic thoroughfare in Crozet,” she said. “The Crozet master plan presents it that way.”
There have been discussions over the years on RealCrozetVA about the accessibility of Old Trail Drive, and now it’s officially a public road. Great.
Related reading:
VDOT helps builders and citizens adjust to new secondary street standards