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New Resolution on Crozet Population

written by Newspack Team | June 30, 2006




The

Albemarle County Board of Supervisors

is considering the resolution below on the Crozet population issue at 11:00 AM at its July 5, 2006 meeting [

Agenda Item

].  Apparently their

unanimous vote on this matter in January 2006

did not accomplish everything the staff and Board intended.




UPDATE: Charlottesville Tomorrow spoke to Board Chair Dennis Rooker today who indicated it was placed on the agenda in part to allow for the Board to have a public discussion about the matter and to receive additional public feedback.  Public comments can be made at the beginning of the meeting which starts at 9:00 AM.



The Crozet community’s

petition

delivered to the Board on March 1, 2006 asked the Board to cap the population at 12,000 per the Crozet Master Plan.  If passed, this resolution would be the strongest signal yet to the community that a cap is not desirable and that the Supervisors intend Crozet to grow beyond 12,000 people. Several new Crozet rezoning proposals are going to be considered by the County Planning Commission in mid-July.



Brian Wheeler



LINK TO DRAFT RESOLUTION



RESOLUTION TO

REAFFIRM the board of supervisor’s position





relating to the density envisioned by the crozet mater plan



WHEREAS



, Albemarle County’s long established growth management policy designates specific rural areas that are to be preserved and protected and designated development areas that are intended to accommodate growth as the County’s population increases in the future; and



WHEREAS



, since 1971, Crozet has been a designated development area and has received significant public infrastructure investment over the years to accommodate anticipated growth and density; and



WHEREAS



, Crozet, at the request of its citizens, became the first County development area to be master planned to insure that the future form of development would create an attractive, vibrant, livable community with a quality urban environment; and



WHEREAS,

the 1996 Land Use plan that was in effect prior to the adoption of the Crozet Master Plan established a growth possibility significantly in excess of Crozet’s by-right population possibility, stated in the Plan in Table II: Albemarle County Development Areas – Total Developable Acres to be in the range of an added population for Crozet of between 7,114 and 17,300; and



WHEREAS,

the Crozet Master Plan was not intended by the County to either cap population at the by-right level or to significantly decrease growth possibilities in existence at the time of the Master Plan, either possibility which would have been in direct conflict with Crozet’s well-established designation as a development area; and



WHEREAS,

assumptions in the Crozet Master Plan, including population projections of 11,200 – 12,000 in a 20 year build-out as stated under Basic Assumptions on Page 4 of the Plan, are based on a 20-year planning horizon; and



WHEREAS,

the ultimate build-out of Crozet, which would extend well beyond the 20 year planning horizon of the Master Plan, has a potential population maximum in excess of 12,000 and allows Crozet to function as a development area accommodating growth beyond the year 2024; and



WHEREAS,

the Board of Supervisors will actively monitor actual growth and development activity in Crozet as it relates to the Master Plan and will conduct a five year review of the Master Plan in 2009, allowing it to make whatever adjustments are required to reflect actual conditions.



NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED



that the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors hereby reaffirms that (1) the Crozet Master Plan, adopted in December 2004, has a 20-year planning horizon and potential population of 12,000, (2) the population beyond the Plan’s 20 year planning horizon may well exceed 12,000 to allow Crozet to fulfill its designation as a development area, and (3) the 12,000 population figure does not represent either a population cap or an ultimate population figure for the Crozet development area.