Category Archives: Agriculture

Dollar General, GA 122 & Skipper Bridge Road @ GLPC 2022-11-28

Update 2022-12-06: Videos: Opposition gets Dollar General on GA 122 & Skipper Bridge voted down @ GLPC 2022-11-28.

A line of people protested putting a Dollar General on GA 122 at Skipper Bridge Road, ~~north across from where Wes Scruggs’ store used to be.~~ That was at the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) last night.

Dollar General agenda item and waterway map @ GLPC 2022-11-28

GLPC voted 7:1 to recommend disapproval, according to LAKE’s Gretchen Quarterman who was there and who was the first to speak against. LAKE video she took will follow.

The actual rezoning decision will be made by the Lowndes County Commission at its Regular Session, Tuesday, December 13th, 2022, 5:30 PM. If you don’t want that store in an agricultural area, attracting still more subdivisions still farther north in the county, call or write your county commissioner or come speak against at that meeting. If somebody wants to start a petition, that might also help.

Here is the GLPC Board packet item for REZ-2022-20: REZ-2022-20-GLPC-Packet.pdf Continue reading →

Big rezoning inside Valdosta among 5 Valdosta cases, 2 Hahira, 3 Lowndes County @ GLPC 2022-11-28

Update 2022-11-29: Dollar General, GA 122 & Skipper Bridge Road @ GLPC 2022-11-28.

Inside the City of Valdosta, something may finally happen with the Loch-Winn Farms property off of James Road and Riverside Road, near the Withlacoochee River that has been becalmed since 2008. The inland part of the property may be rezoned for 130 house lots.

Hahira may get a Red Owl drive-through coffee shop with indoor and outdoor seating. And a landowner on Hagan Bridge Road wants to deannex some property from Hahira.

Lowndes County may get a subdivision way out west of Snake Nation Road, near the Little River: REZ-2022-18 Hilton, Chug A Lug Road, 0033 023B, ~8.3 acres.

Collage @ GLPC 2022-11-28

Here is the agenda. The board packet, received in response to a LAKE open records request, is on the LAKE website.

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission
~ Lowndes County ~ City of Valdosta ~ City of Dasher ~
~ City of Hahira ~ City of Lake Park ~ City of Remerton ~
Monday, November 21, 2022 5:30 P.M. Work Session
Monday, November 28, 2022 5:30 P.M. Regular Session
Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue, Valdosta, Georgia
Continue reading →

Videos: Hunter rezoning tabled, Beasley rezoning denied @ LCC Regular 2022-07-12

Update 2022-08-25: Videos: objections to rejection of Beasley rezoning @ LCC Regular 2022-07-26.

A very rare meeting: the Lowndes County Commission considered two rezonings, and did not approve either of them!

Rezonings, Juvenile Justice, 40 minutes

Two weeks ago at its Regular Session, the Commissioners tabled 8.a. REZ-2022-13 Hunter Property, Madison Hwy, E-A to C-C, ~7ac, and denied on a split vote 8.b. REZ-2022-14 Ben Beasley, River Rd. R-21 to R-A, ~13 acres. The first rezoning will be decided Tuesday evening, July 26, 2022. The second rezoning took 15 minutes, for a 40-minute meeting, which is very long for this group.

Everything else sailed through.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, with a few notes by Gretchen Quarterman, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the Continue reading →

Videos: Confusing rezonings, Hospital appointments, mosquitos, juvenile justice, road abandonment @ LCC Work 2022-07-11

Update 2022-07-25: Videos: Hunter rezoning tabled, Beasley rezoning denied @ LCC Regular 2022-07-12.

Two weeks ago at the Lowndes County Commission Work Session, there was much confusion about both of the rezonings, mostly about how many acres were being requested to be rezoned, but also about frontage on a road where no rezoning sign had been posted.

Rezoning, Mosquitos, Juvenile Justice, Boring Pond Road Abandonment

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, with a few notes by Gretchen Quarterman, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also Continue reading →

Packet: 2 appointments, 2 rezonings, road abandonment @ LCC 2022-07-11

Received Friday in response to a Monday open records request (it did come with an apology for being late), the board packet for the July 11 and 12, 2022, Lowndes County Commission meetings is on the LAKE website.

Rezonings and Road Abandonment

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Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!

Appointment, 2 rezonings, mosquitos, juveniles, road abandonment @ LCC 2022-07-11

Update 2022-07-25: REZ-2022-13 is back again: Appointments to ZBOA, Library Board, Hunter rezoning again, alcohol, insurance @ LCC 2022-07-25.

Update 2022-07-17: Lowndes County Commission board Packet: 2 appointments, 2 rezonings, road abandonment @ LCC 2022-07-11.

Update 2022-07-25: Videos: Confusing rezonings, Hospital appointments, mosquitos, juvenile justice, road abandonment @ LCC Work 2022-07-11.

Update 2022-07-11: Packet: the two Lowndes County Rezonings @ GLPC 2022-06-27.

This morning at the Lowndes County Commission Work Session, two appointments to the Hospital Authority of Valdosta and Lowndes County with six candidates, two small rezonings, a reimbursed grant for Juvenile Justice Court, renewal of the mosquito contract, and abandonment of some of Boring Pond Road.

Rezonings

Here are the candidates for Continue reading →

Secrecy of Lowndes County Commission and Staff

Update 2022-02-06: Board’s Pleasure should be Deny: Miller Bridge Road rezoning @ LCC 2022-02-07.

It’s almost enough to make you wonder why the Lowndes County Commission does not want the public to know what it is doing?

A state-funded road restriping with the list of roads not revealed to the public for three months, and no minutes for the relevant meetings on the Lowndes County website (but LAKE kept a copy from their old website).

A petition with 300 signatures the County Planner just took out of the board packet so even County Commissioners did not see it.

Two board packets (for Planning and County Commission meetings) not returned for more than the statutory three days, and then one of them only partial.

No board packets on the county’s website, even though other counties larger and smaller in Georgia and Florida have been doing that for years.

No minutes (except one) before 2014, or maybe some hidden. Not even any agendas before 2012.

Lowndes County Agenda Center for 2013

County Commission staff do take videos of the Commission meetings, but they only post videos of the Regular Session (not the Work Session), and not even those between October 2020 and October 2021. This is despite spending more than $100,000 for new audio visual equipment for the Commission Chambers, while the Valdosta City Council has livestreamed through the pandemic using an employee’s iPhone.

I could go on about the stealth reapportionment of Commission Districts and the half million dollar bailout of a developer, both at the same January 25, 2022, Lowndes County Commission meeting, both not revealed to the taxpaying public before the voting Regular Session.

But just items related to the Miller Bridge Road rezoning requests are enough to raise questions about the secrecy of Lowndes County Commission and staff.

Why don’t they want the public and the taxpayers to know?

What don’t they want us to know?

Road Striping

Continue reading →

Packet: Staff says growth over agriculture and forestry for Miller Bridge R-A Rezoning @ GLPC 2022-01-31

Update 2022-01-31: Dasher packet item: 10 minutes from SGRC vs. too many days from Lowndes County @ GLPC 2022-01-31.

Lowndes County staff says “existing development pattern and growth of the community” is more important than agriculture and forestry for 6. REZ-2022-03 Windy Hill Subdivision, 7532 Miller Bridge Rd., 0010 022, ~34 ac., E-A to R-A on the agenda for the Monday, January 31, 2022, meeting of the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission. Nevermind the surrounding community overwhelmingly opposes this rezoning and it is the Lowndes County Commission (and the Chamber and others) causing this “pattern and growth” heading north into places it should not go and that the county will never be able to collect enough property taxes to support school buses, fire trucks, and Sheriff calls.

Also, they’ve found one R-1 lot nearby and apparently the Rural Residential Character Area on Morven Road counts heavily as “proximity to the Rural Residential Character Area”. And they’ve ignored numerous requirements of the Comprehensive Plan for for the Agriculture/Forestry/Conservation Character Area, as well as what used to be a hard-no county road safety requirement.

In case you had any doubt, this rezoning is not just about this case, it is about the “precedent set by this case for other similarly sized and located properties in Lowndes County.”

REZ-2022-03: Miller Bridge Road, E-A to -RA

Here is the main text of the agenda sheet for this rezoning. I have boldfaced certain phrases and interleaved the relevant maps from the board packet.

HISTORY, FACTS AND ISSUES: Continue reading →

Videos: Comprehensive Plan Update Public Hearing 2 @ LCC 2021-10-26

Only one citizen showed up to speak: David Houtz, who asked Commissioners not to change the Character Area Maps, and said he had not seen the latest plan. SGRC’s Elizabeth Backe handed him a copy; she also presented a summary of the process at the beginning of the meeting, and clarified process later.

Citizen David Houtz, Elizabeth Backe of SGRC, Houtz receives plan, Sparse audience, City Planner Matt Martin, Commissioners Orenstein and Marshall, Commissioners and VDT reporter

You can see in this LAKE video a discussion between Valdosta and Hahira City Planner Matt Martin and Lowndes County Commissioner Scottie Orenstein about changes to the Hahira Character Area map is not recorded in the minutes, as well as the rest of the 17-minute meeting.

Commissioners discussed the Comprehensive Plan Update again this morning in their Work Session, and they will approve it tomorrow afternoon at 5:30 PM in their Regular Session. Continue reading →

Videos: River gauges, Lowndes County Extension Office @ LCC Work 2021-10-25

By far the longest item was the informative 7.a. Lowndes County Extension Office Presentation, at the Lownndes County Commission Work Session yesterday morning.

River Gauges, Beer and Wine, Reports, Extension Agent

The river gauges and the beer and wine license took not much longer than to read the agenda items.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, with a few notes, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the agenda and board packet, received in response to a LAKE open records request and on the LAKE website. Continue reading →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange