Author Archives: admin

An agenda! From the Industrial Authority!

Monday I remarked about the Industrial authority:
Here’s the agenda:

Just joking. They don’t publish their agendas!

Well, shiver me timbers and bless their little hearts! Their new executive director, Andrew Schruijer, remarked at Tuesday’s board meeting that the agenda for that meeting had indeed been posted since Friday. In Citizens to be Heard I readily admitted I didn’t look too hard for it, and expressed astonishment and pleasure at this positive development. Linked from their front page, there’s now an agenda page:
Agenda

Agendas will be posted one day prior to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority regular scheduled monthly meeting.

It has links to agendas for June, July, and August, each with an agenda in PDF. That seems a bit odd for some of those months, when there were several meetings. But, hey, it’s a start!

Here’s the aganda for yesterday’s meeting. That’s in PDF, so here’s a web-readable HTML version:

Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority Agenda Tuesday, August 16, 2011 5:30 p.m. Industrial Authority Conference Room 2110 N. Patterson Street
Continue reading →

Retrofitting suburbia —Ellen Dunham-Jones

There are many jobs in this. The Five Points redevelopment is an example of what she’s talking about. It’s a lot better than building more sprawl: safer, less expensive, more jobs, less energy cost, more energy independence, better health, and more community.

Georgia Tech Professor Ellen Dunham-Jones spole January 2010 at TEDxAtlanta, Retrofitting suburbia

In the last 50 years, we’ve been building the suburbs with a lot of unintended consequences. And I’m going to talk about some of those consequences and just present a whole bunch of really interesting projects that I think give us tremendous reasons to be really optimistic that the big design and development project of the next 50 years is going to be retrofitting suburbia. So whether it’s redeveloping dying malls or re-inhabiting dead big-box stores or reconstructing wetlands out of parking lots, I think the fact is, the growing number of empty and under-performing, especially, retail sites throughout suburbia gives us actually a tremendous opportunity to take our least-sustainable landscapes right now and convert them into more sustainable places. And in the process, what that allows us to do is to redirect a lot more of our growth back into existing communities that could use a boost, and have the infrastructure in place, instead of continuing to tear down trees and to tear up the green space out at the edges.
Here’s the video: Continue reading →

Jack Kingston from Valdosta to Tifton to Atlanta

You may have seen by the front page of the VDT this morning that Jack Kingston was in Valdosta yesterday morning and by the VDT editorial that he will be in Atlanta today. The VDT whines:
Why do you have to take the one politician that actually works for us?
Well, some farmers in Tifton didn’t take kindly to the main idea Kingston was pushing yesterday. Said a farmer:
I have tried working with probationers and I’ll just say that it was a very inconsistent supply of workers.
Hm, the VDT previously was of a similar opinion, an opinion that got quoted in the AJC. Maybe the VDT didn’t know Kingston was pushing HB 87, even though they sat down with him yesterday morning?

We don’t need an ALEC-organized private prison law like HB 87 to profit private prison company CCA, and we don’t need a CC private prison in Lowndes County. Spend those tax dollars on rehabilitation and education instead.

-jsq

Comprehensive Plan Update Due

Hm, does Lowndes County also have to provide an update for the Comprehensive Plan? If so, where is it? And how are we to find out about it?

Found in the August Valdosta Planners Post:

STWP Update Due Fall 2011

The five‐year Short Term Work Plan (STWP) for the 2030 Greater Lowndes County Comprehensive Plan is due for an update later this year. The STWP is a key implementation tool that reflects the activities and strategies to support the Comprehensive Plan goals, which the City of Valdosta has undertaken for the past five years (2007‐2011). It also sets future activities and strategies for the next five years (2012‐2017). A ‘report of accomplishments’ that identifies the current status of each activity in the current STWP must be submitted to the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. A local public hearing must be held and a local resolution passed in order to adopt a the STWP update. Please check our website at www.valdostacity.com/planning for news and meeting schedules related to the STWP update.
According to the FAQ for the 2030 Greater Lowndes Comprehensive Plan: Continue reading →

I live in the shadow of … the biomass plant —protester @ VLCIA 19 July 2011

A protester I hadn’t seen before:
I live in the shadows of where they were talking about building it. So I’m a little sceptical when they tell me that, you know, it’s safe.

They told me the same about Agent Organge before I went to Vietnam. It turned out it was dangerous to us.

He told me his name, but my memory for names is like, er, what was I saying? Somebody please help identify him.

Here’s the video: Continue reading →

Do we need more of the same unsafe roads?

Many T-SPLOST projects submitted by Lowndes County would make traffic safety worse.

More from Professor Ellen Dunham-Jones of Georgia Tech:

Even Buford Highway, she says, could be transformed with medians, trees and buildings set closer to the road. Changes that are known to slow traffic. But outside of the ivory tower, change does not come easily. Or quickly.

Last year Georgia spent more than two billion dollars on transportation, but only a tiny fraction, less than 1 percent, went specifically to pedestrian safety.

And what Lowndes County has sent in for T-SPLOST funding includes: Do we need more of the same unsafe roads?

-jsq

VLCIA meeting tonight 19 August 2011

According to their web site, the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority board will be meeting tonight:
August 16, 2011 Industrial Authority Board Meeting 5:30 pm at the Industrial Authority Conf. Room
That’s at 2110 N. Patterson Street in Valdosta. Here’s the agenda:

Just joking. They don’t publish their agendas! Or their minutes.

-jsq

Industrial Park Acreage —Andrea Schruijer @ VLCIA 19 July 2011

Apparently VLCIA has few or no tracts of 200 acres or up out of their 577 acres.

New Executive Director Andrea Schruijer said:

We’re looking at having prospects in, or existing industries are looking to come here, we don’t actually look like we have a 577 acre tract that we can market. It’s actually a lot smaller than that. So when a company comes in and wants 200 acres that’s something we have a gap in.
She’s following up on former chairman Jerry Jennett’s request. Jennett remarked at this meeting Continue reading →

LCC Lunch and Learn 11 August 2011

The first Lowndes County Lunch and Learn was Thursday, 11 August, 2011. Paige Dukes, County Clerk and Public Information Officer, presented.
“I work in everyone’s business, just a little bit.”
Commissioner Joyce Evans made a brief viridian green appearance. Gretchen Quarterman videoed for LAKE. I think that’s Jody making the loud paper crackling noises. I hear Paige is sending her slides for posting on the LAKE web pages. Looks to me like they could use some more attendees. They’re going to the trouble to do this; y’all come and help them out!

Here’s a playlist:


LCC Lunch and Learn 11 August 2011
Lunch and Learn, Lowndes County Staff (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 11 August 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Planners Post for August —Alexandra P. Arzayus

City of Valdosta Planning and Zoning is trying to keep people informed about Five Points redevelopment and other things.

Received 12 August 2011, with attached PDF. -jsq

Hi all,

We have some really interesting projects and events this issue. Since school is back in session most are planning for football games and other semester activities. Since we are in the planning mode, please read our article on Community Planning Month in October. We have lots of fun and exciting events for citizens to participate in this year. Our theme is “New Ideas for America’s Future”. Since the youth are our future, we want to extend this invitation to any youth groups that may be interested in government and planning. Please contact us to RVSP for a lunch & learn or tour. We look forward to seeing you there!!

Also, check out an update on the Five Points Project and Tax Incentives for Historic Preservation.

August 2011 Planner’s Post
http://www.valdostacity.com/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=3D4017

Continue reading →