Don’t Mind Me, I’m New in Town – A Look at City and County Lines

in Albemarle Charlottesville Growth on

Or … a big giant “d’oh” … with an “I’m sorry” to the Albemarle County Architectural Review Board.

Remember in July when I mused about the ARB process and Stonefield (formerly Albemarle Place):

So, what exactly is the character? I looked at the existing “entrance corridor”:

Seminole Square mall – Cheeseburger in Paradise, the Express Car Wash, Chili’s, strip with Sprint and the UPS Store on the east side of 29, Burger King, and lots of parking lots. Stonefield is replacing the old Blockbuster and 7-11, and lots of trees and natural landscape. Continue south on 29 and you’re met with KFC and Best Buy.

If the ARB truly wanted to be consistent, the Shops at Stonefield would have to emulate trees.

Turns out …

Cheeseburger in Paradise, the Express Car Wash, Chili’s the strip with Sprint and the UPS Store on the east side of 29, Burger King and lots of parking lots … are in the City of Charlottesville, not the County of Albemarle.

I’ve been living in Charlottesville/Albemarle for only 23 years (I’m 35 now) … so I’m still learning my way around.

So … my apologies to the Albemarle Architectural Review Board.

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Could an Algorithm (help) Choose your Next Home?

in General Real Estate on

Search for homes for sale in Charlottesville, Virginia Google’s New Traveler Recommendations further Towards an Age of Algorithms* – But we should be very careful about the Filters through which we see our worlds. And be doubly careful about filters – they can be gamed and might not be as trustworthy as you thought. Read:Yelp. I have been reading for some time about the evolution…

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Charlottesville Tomorrow Gets a New Grant

in Albemarle Charlottesville on

Awesome. I couldn’t be as well informed on what happening in Charlottesville and Albemarle as I am without Charlottesville Tomorrow.

At the DP:

According to Charlottesville Tomorrow’s founder and executive director, Brian Wheeler, the grant will help the nonprofit news organization expand its presence on the web, improve cvillepedia, its community wiki, and increase its use of Google Earth-based 3D modeling.

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Trulia Enters the Cluttered and Confusing Home Valuation Arena

in General Real Estate Technology on

With one more entry into the (automated) home valuation arena, how does one make sense of all the methods of valuing a home in this market?

There are at least six methods of home valuation out there right now; I know that my customers and clients are going to use the ones that they find; my challenge in advising them is to put these valuations in context and either demonstrate their respective accuracies or most likely, prove just how wrong they are. And why.

– Trulia’s Estimates – (automated) – “Trulia has jumped into the home value game.” Now that they’re here, so what? While the Trulia Estimate are only in San Francisco right now, presumably they’ll be making their way nation-wide.

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A Plug for VPAP – Tracking Money in Charlottesville and Albemarle Elections

in Politics on

The Charlottesville City Council and Albemarle County Board of Supervisors races are going to be interesting this year. Take note: local politics matter.

Albemarle County on VPAP

City of Charlottesville on VPAP

If you don’t think local politics matter, read this story in yesterday’s Daily Progress about the proposed ramp at Best Buy … you have City of Charlottesville, Albemarle County and VDOT folks discussing a transportation project that will affect how many of us get around.

Heck, John Grisham is mighty involved in local politics, having given $20k to local candidates over the past two years. So are Realtors.

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