A crowd surpassing 200 people packed the cafeteria at Henley Middle School in Crozet October 26 to see Albemarle County’s recommendation for exactly where the Three Notched Trail from Charlottesville to the east portal of Claudius Crozet’s tunnel in Afton should run. The county is developing plans for the trail through a $2 million federal grant. The idea for the trail first arose in 2015. At a previous meeting in December, planners asked the public for reactions to three possible route alternatives. County officials met with about two dozen affected landowners to review the maps before the general public was invited in.
Deputy Director of Planning Kevin McDermott introduced the “preferred alignment” and asked the crowd to weigh in on it and to suggest which sections of it should have priority for construction. The route was divided into 18 sections of one to three miles each and at a table in the back of the room one could vote on priorities by stuffing green slips of paper into jars representing each section. Because the crowd consisted mainly of Crozet residents, the sections through town got the most votes. Once these choices are settled on, the next phase of the project is to raise funds. McDermott said that to have higher priority, various sections should possess “independent utility” before the trail as a whole is completed.
The 24-mile trail is envisioned as a “shared-use” asphalt path that does not allow cars, but most other forms of transportation. While it parallels roads along several stretches, it is intended to be safely set apart from highways. McDermott said planning for the trail stressed five attributes: connectivity, safety, access, user experience and constructability. It will cross Rt. 250 at four points.
“Public support for the trail is very strong,” said trail planner Amanda Poncy, reporting on a survey of 1,060 individuals. “It will be safely separated from traffic and have easy access.” The trail is intended to attract use by all ages and to promote health, she said.
Forty percent of the route passes through forested areas and 70 percent of it is on public land, McDermott said. He could not answer how many easements would be necessary to cross the privately owned sections of the trail. Trail planners said they have hiked parts of the proposed route to experience whether they are plausible…