Confronted with sharp criticism from both planners and the public, Southern Development withdrew the application on Wednesday, March 23.

Landowners who
own property that was zoned A-2 on or before Dec. 18, 1997 can now divide their
tract into a maximum of 18 1.5-acre lots without having to seek special
permission. However, any land that was zoned A-2 after that date must continue
to adhere to the county?s parent parcel
regulations.

…Louisa does not yet
have the problems that Albemarle/Cville have shown, but it certainly does have
promise.

Ethan Call, a real estate
broker and developer who lives in the Mountain Road district, told board members
that the construction industry is Louisa County?s largest employer, based
on information he obtained from a
U.

…Addressing affordable housing,
Gentry said that other localities are dealing with the same
issues.

…All in all, the Central
Virginian has a very informative article on this issue.

The site not only shows how schools’ and districts’ test scores compare to their neighbors, but it gives results for
particular minority groups and illustrates the different ways that districts spend tax dollars. One part of the Web site allows residents concerned about how
money is spent to see what portion of new revenue coming into each district is spent on instruction, and what portion is not.

“SchoolMatters will provide the kind of advanced analytical tool that education leaders need to help them
make the very difficult decisions they face,” said Tom Houlihan, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, one of the sponsors of the site.

Interestingly, Crozet Elementary did less well than Paul H. Cale Elementary, which is reported to be scheduled for expansion.

target="NewWindow">Schoolmatters.com seems to be the start of a great resource. Once I poke around some more, I’ll post a further report.

…I do in my house; heck,
I require a secure wireless connection at my house so that I can check email
from the couch rather than be bothered with having to get up
frequently!

…Eighty-five percent of
Internet buyers had at least a four-year college degree and 11 percent completed
post-graduate work. By comparison, 78 percent of traditional buyers held a
college degree and 4 percent completed post-graduate
work.

…Internet buyers spent an
average of 5.8 weeks considering buying a home before contacting a Realtor,
nearly three times more than traditional buyers, who spent 2.1 weeks in this
stage of the home-buying
process.

Internet buyers spent two
weeks looking for the home they ultimately purchased, compared with seven weeks
for traditional buyers.

Close to six
of 10 Internet buyers said the information that they gathered from the Internet
was less useful than that provided by their Realtors; none considered the
information gathered from the Internet to be more useful than that obtained from
their Realtors.

All first-time buyers
typically spent four weeks considering buying a home and four weeks
investigating homes for sale before contacting a Realtor. They then spent three
weeks previewing eight homes with their
Realtor.

All repeat buyers spent
three weeks considering buying a home and only two weeks investigating homes for
sale on their own.