To the Editor: County Budget

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477

At the May 3 meeting of the Board of Supervisors, the following comment was made.

At last week’s meeting here, I was struck by the information here that public education requires 54% of your budget.

And even that that is insufficient to keep up with the demands of population growth.

Which is one of the factors that necessitated the recent substantial increase in real-estate assessments.

I share the concerns expressed by the two very articulate Monticello HS students today, and agree with their desire to keep Albemarle County beautiful.

Along with that, I am becoming familiar with another of your responsibilities, which is creating and maintaining the Albemarle County Code of Ordinances.

In that code, Chapter 14 SUBDIVISION OF LAND, Sec. 14-101- Purposes.

“The purposes of this chapter are to:

A. Improve the public health, safety, convenience and welfare of the citizens of the county by assuring the orderly division of land and its development;

B.  Provide residential areas with healthy surroundings for family life by assuring that land is divided and developed in a manner that is harmonious with its surrounding lands;

C. Implement the comprehensive plan and the policies stated in section 1.4 of the zoning ordinance through the standards and procedures established herein;

D. Assure that the development of the county is consonant with efficient and economical use of public funds;

E. Assure that all improvements required by this chapter will be designed, constructed and maintained so as not to become an undue burden on the community (me: schools); and

F. Establish standards for lot development that are specific to, and most appropriate for, the lands within the development AND rural areas of the county.

I am concerned about how the 2021 Crozet Master Plan “Future Land Use Typologies” may or may not meet the standards of those Purposes.

Somewhere there must policy declaring the circumstances that would necessitate the dramatic density increases listed there, but we’re unable to find them.

Would it be possible for you to show me where we can find that information?

Following that statement Emily Kilroy, assistant to the County Executive, emailed the commenter the following:

“Our Comprehensive Plan is now under a formal update/review process. You can find out a lot about the process underway, under the project name AC44. The project site is here: engage.albemarle.org/ac44. The project team can be reached at [email protected].”

If the residents of Crozet make a wholehearted response to 2021 Crozet Master Plan based on the points raised in the meeting, there may be hope to put a stop to the mindless Paving of Paradise.

Pablo Miller
Crozet

 

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