Commission unenthused with lumber proposal

By Brandon Shulleeta

Published: November 13, 2008

A Crozet lumber company’s bid to expand its business by altering Albemarle County’s Comprehensive Plan has taken a severe hit.
County planning commissioners voted 6 to 1 on Tuesday against further studying the proposal to expand the county’s growth area around R.A. Yancey Lumber Corp. If the proposal wasn’t killed, it was left “on life support,” Commissioner Eric Strucko said after the meeting.

Will Yancey, who made the proposal, said that while he was disappointed in the Planning Commission’s lack of interest, he will go back to the drawing board in hopes of formulating a more palatable plan.
The upside of the proposal, which ultimately aimed to have 148 acres rezoned, was that it would have provided employment opportunities in the Crozet area, said senior county planner Rebecca Ragsdale, noting that the property, which sits along U.S. 250 westbound, has access to a major highway with an interstate interchange. The proposal also would have provided additional light industrial space in the county — some officials say there is insufficient affordable land available for industrial use.

However, many officials believed the negatives outweighed the potential benefits.
“Frankly, I think this is a bad idea,” Michael Marshall, chairman of the Crozet Community Advisory Council, said during a public comment period.
Marshall said the proposal defies the Crozet Master Plan, which outlines a plan for development in downtown Crozet. The master plan was drawn with clear boundaries and an expansion could become an open door for development outside the designated area, he said, possibly turning parts of U.S. 250 into a commercial strip.
County planners recommended that no further study be done on the proposal but if there is further study, it should be done in conjunction with the five-year update of the Crozet Master Plan.

Linda Porterfield was the only commissioner to vote against the county staff’s recommendations. Porterfield said that the economic downturn has left the county hard pressed to “meet the bottom line.” While her vote wasn’t an endorsement of the proposal, she said, more information still needs to be gathered and the consideration should be left on the table.
There were several residents who spoke in favor of the Yancey Mills Business Park proposal, and several opposed it. Those in favor said that the expansion could create more employment, increase revenue and allow for proffers creating community recreational fields.

Tom Loach was the first commissioner to strongly oppose the Yancey Mills proposal on Tuesday. He said that if it were considered, residents should have a say in the matter, and because it would affect the Crozet Master Plan, it should be reviewed as part of the Crozet Master Plan update.

If a proposal to expand the Yancey Lumber Mill is resurrected in the future, it will likely be because Crozet residents strongly supported the proposal, Strucko said. Until then, the proposal has no legs, he said, and if the Planning Commission sees another such proposal, the expansion likely will have been massively scaled back.