Another 157 homes and additional commercial properties could be coming to Crozet under a proposed development off of Route 240 and Park Ridge Drive.
Vito Cetta, the developer and architect on the project, is requesting a rezoning of about 12.2 acres from the county’s Rural Area zoning district and 5.32 acres from the Light Industry zoning district to Neighborhood Model District to build a development called Montclair.
An initial proposal for the property, called White Gate Village, was submitted in 2020 for a maximum of 125 homes but was later withdrawn.
The proposal would allow a minimum of 58 homes and a maximum of 157 homes under the rezoning, a maximum gross housing density of about nine units per acre and a maximum density of 12 units per acre.
Cetta said the development is proposed for a mix of villa-style attached homes, townhouses and apartments. He said the villas would be priced at about $550,000 to $725,000 and most of the townhouses will be priced at about $425,000 to $550,000.
With the county’s affordable housing policy, 15% of the homes, or a maximum of 24 homes, would be required to be affordable to those making 80% of area median income. The current AMI is $93,700 for a family of four.
However, Cetta said a total of 77 homes in the proposal would be available at rents or for sale prices that would be considered affordable by the county’s current standards, which is a price of $243,750 for a for-sale affordable house. He showed a rendering of a building that had the footprint of a row of townhouses but had 12 homes inside, with two 3-bedroom townhouses, four 1-bedroom efficiency apartments and six 2-bedroom apartments.
Montclair would also have nine to 12 townhouses built by Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville, Cetta said.
At a community meeting held during the Crozet Community Advisory Committee meeting last week, Crozet residents questioned the length of a stream on the property, as well as the number of homes being proposed and how that would affect current residents, traffic and school capacity.
“As a resident that lives in this general area, I have a lot of concerns about this,” committee member Marc McKenney said. “Just because we can pack a dozen homes in an area doesn’t mean we actually should.”
The future land use plan in the Crozet Master Plan, which is part of the county’s comprehensive plan, shows the area as middle density residential, neighborhood density residential and green systems.
Middle density residential recommends six to 12 units per acre, with up to 18 units per acre to accommodate additional affordable housing, while neighborhood density residential recommends a density of three to six units per acre.
The comprehensive plan is the county’s guiding document for its long-term vision for land use and resource protection, and includes master plans for the designated development areas of the county.
After a nearly two years process, the Crozet master plan was updated in October and the middle density residential future land use designation was added to the plan. Some community members took issue with the new addition of middle density, which is not currently in other master plans, but will likely be added when they are updated.
During the master plan update process, the Montclair property was changed from the future land use designation of all greenspace to residential, which most of the advisory committee did not support.
Public hearings before the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors have not yet been scheduled.
County staff has yet to give comments on the proposal to the developer. The rezoning will need to be approved by the Board of Supervisors for it to be built.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com
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