When the county parks director busts out an obscure reference to an old country saying about the “dog in the sunshine,” you can bet it’s not your average public meeting. More than 100 people from the sometimes-ornery Crozet community came out to Western Albemarle High School on September 20 to review seven different projects that promise to change the face of the small town at the foot of the Blue Ridge.
There’s the new 20,000-square-foot library. There are stormwater system upgrades. There’s the streetscape project, intended to bury utility lines and plant trees to encourage walking. There’s the new 36-acre Western Park that the county still needs to decide what to do with. There’s a historic resources survey that could yield a local historic district. There are zoning changes in the works to encourage more mixed-use buildings closer to the street. And there’s the old Crozet school site, formerly occupied by the Waldorf School (which fled for, um, “green”-er pastures), and county leaders are looking for ideas about what to do with that structure.
Downtown Crozet is getting all gussied up with a face-lifted streetscape, new zoning and a library.
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Already there have been public meetings out the wazoo about these projects individually, and there look to be plenty more. But the county decided it didn’t want to “meeting people to death,” in the words of county spokesperson Lee Catlin, and so it hosted this catch-all meeting to update residents in one fell swoop.
Flocks of well-dressed consultants from Kimley-Horn & Associates lurked around the streetscape displays. “Anybody got any questions? Questions?” they asked.
“Where are the bike lanes?” asked one man. There are none planned, answered the consultant.
“Would people have to bike on the sidewalk?” Experienced bikers often ride on the street, explained the consultant. The man didn’t seem satisfied.
Others had more personal interests. Several people grumbled that the streetscape better not force out a porch in front of La Cocina del Sol and a barbershop. Lisa Miller, the barbershop’s owner, was there to make sure it remained.
“With all the changes in zoning proposed, will we be able to still recognize Crozet 10 years from now?” asked Barbara Westbrook during the question period.
“That’s exactly why we’re here in this room,” replied Catlin. “To make sure we can.”—Will Goldsmith
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