Loss of a school site in Crozet

At the Albemarle County Planning Commission meeting on December 5, 2006, I made the remarks below about the Foothill Crossing development in Crozet. This property was the proposed site for a third Crozet-area elementary school as identified in the Crozet Master Plan.  I hadn't planned on speaking and thus hadn't prepared any statement in advance, but it seemed like a good opportunity to remind these decision makers about Crozet's educational infrastructure needs. This by-right development was approved unanimously by the Commission.  Brian Wheeler

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My name is Brian Wheeler and I am speaking as the At-Large Member of the Albemarle County School Board.  I’ll point out that I am not speaking for the Board, I am just speaking for myself as one board member.  Nor am I speaking for my employer, Charlottesville Tomorrow.  With those disclosures out of the way, I want to thank the Chair for calling this proposal up to allow for some public comment and I want to expand a little bit on school site issues, which is why I spoke last week [on the Pantops Master Plan] as well.  This is another opportunity to talk about school sites and our future.  As Mr. Don Franco mentioned, we have lost a school site with this proposal coming in by-right [instead of as a rezoning for higher density development].

Since your last meeting, the Albemarle County School Board had a work session on our capital needs for the schools.  The Board asked staff to prepare a capital budget that expands Brownsville Elementary out in Crozet to serve the growth that we are seeing, and that is adjacent to Old Trail.  We also kept in the plan the Western Albemarle High School expansion and of course, Henley [Middle School] has already been expanded.  The School Division is responding to the different developments as they are happening.

I took the opportunity to meet with the sub-committee of the Crozet Advisory Committee, appointed by the County, as that sub-committee was reviewing Foothill Crossing.  One of the issues we discussed with staff is the loss of the elementary school site as identified in the Crozet Master Plan.  This is where the dot on the map was for the elementary school in the Crozet Master Plan.  Long term, it is my opinion as one School Board member, that we will need another neighborhood school site in Crozet.

I know this is not something you can address tonight.  But, with this proposal in front of you, I do want to make you aware of that.  While I recognize that this parcel is coming in with a lower number of units [75 homes], Mr. Franco just said the previous plan was up around 400 [units] for a neighborhood model development, keep in mind that the School Division’s long range plans that are in the Crozet Master Plan are based on a population of 12,000 people.  That elementary school site was to serve that level of population.  And my understanding is that the housing recently approved in Crozet would already exceed that [population] if it was all built and all the people moved in.  I want to have you keep that in mind as you work on other projects.

Obviously, every new development that comes along will, in my opinion as one School Board member, drive the demand for additional capital needs for our schools to serve the Crozet growth area.  I just wanted to take this opportunity to get those issues on the table and I appreciate your consideration.  Thank you.

Comments

[Tom Loach]

Brian,
You bring up a valid point about the school site or more to the point the loss of the school site. That said, with the vote to move the library to the downtown location there is now the opportunity to resuse the old school or at least the site for a new school. I would point out that this fact was raised by the board during the discussion of the where the library would go. Obviously one of the problems is the board choose not to follow the Crozet Master Plan when they approved Old Trail at a density of over 100 percent of that found in the Master Plan. This decision had a ripple effect in as much as it causes an imbalance in the way the buiid out would occur. From calculations done by community members it appears that Crozet is now over the 12,000 population build out found in the Master Plan. The question now is how much will growth over and above the 12,000 number. For that reason it is my opinion that any further development should occur at no more then the by right development limit. I would point out that the county owns the land where the old school is, so there is no additional cost over and above either removing the old school or renovating it.

Regards,
Tom