Charlottesville Tomorrow again provides an excellent service and podcast of today’s discussion on WINA about Albemarle Place.
I held a Realtor’s Open House at my listing on Minor Ridge Road this morning. Thankfully, we had quite a bit of traffic from fellow Realtors – about 10 people or so came through. Of the Realtors to whom I spoke at length, the consensus was that we as a region had better slow down and recognize what makes the CharlAlbemarle area so desirable.
A few choice snippets from this morning’s dialogue:
Cox: we are doing … “Interim transportation improvements … the improvements that we will be making will help calm the situation for about a 5 year period … “
How much responsibility should the developers shoulder? At some point, the public sector needs to step up and find the funding to step towards solving the transportation issues. When? How?
Albemarle Place is also what Cox called, a “test case” for the area’s new planning regime under the “Neighborhood Model” concept.
By what metric does one determine whether they pass or fail this “test”?
I do not feel encouraged that anybody is looking out for the best interests of the resident, the region, or the long-term effects of this development. I will reiterate what I said earlier: “Will I want my daughters to live here in 25 years?â€
I think we need, as a region, to step back, take a breath, and think about what where we want our region to go from here.
Technorati Tags: albemarle, Central Virginia, charlottesville, growth, politics
By what metric does one determine whether they pass or fail this “test�
I am so glad you asked that. I have raised the same question at Bacon’s Rebellion and Road to Ruin about Albemarle Place, Metro West, and several other developments thaat are said to be smart growth friendly.
Someone (University?) needs to go take every sort of community and traffic measurement they can devise, and then go back and do it again after a few of these things are constructed. They may make a huge difference or no difference, we don’t know yet.
In the meantime a lot of people will get hurt if the powers that be decide this isw the only way to go.
My fear is that by the time they determine whether it has passed or failed, it will be far too late.
I was riding past the future location of Albemarle Place and it seems like they are preparing to break ground for the entrance. Anyone know if this is true?
My understanding from what I have heard and read/listened to on CvilleTomorrow’s site is that they are shooting for breaking ground in Spring/Summer. That intersection is going to be F-U-N.
The activity I saw over at Albemarle Place is actually a VDOT project to put a sign indicating what lane takes you to the 29 bypass, 250 East, etc.
There has been an awful lot of additional signage throughout the area lately. Thank you for the clarification … either way, there will be another (new) stoplight in that vicinity shortly … just what we need.
“either way, there will be another (new) stoplight in that vicinity shortly … just what we need.”
Oh of course thats what we need! Just kidding… I’ve always wondered and continue to wonder why they put so many stop lights on 29. In NOVA route 50, or the part I was on, was truly a limited access road with on ramps and very few stop lights (Actually I didnt see any!). Could you imagine the flow of 29 if there were interchanges at Airport-Profit/29, Rio/29, Greenbriar/29, Hydraulic/29, an extended Berkmar, and an elimation of all of the stop lights…… Let me wake up from my dream now I have to go to Target:)