Previous post with link to the document being reviewed.
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Category Archives: Comprehensive Plan
Videos: Planning Meeting, Lowndes County Commission @ LCC 2016-02-04
Suing local businesses
helps run up fees to the county attorney, says County Manager Joe Pritchard.
He didn’t mention that continuing to promote sprawl for example through the county’s thoroughfare plan also runs up fees that property taxes will never meet.
Commissioners seemed
very concerned about “stakeholders” whom they said were “the development community, the real estate community” and “the construction and homebuilder industries”.
Maybe somewhere they mentioned the agricultural and forestry industries,
or sales tax payers even if they don’t own real estate; if so I missed it.
At least they’re thinking about the Comprehensive Plan
and the general direction of the county in a public forum.
And the County Planner did talk about quality of life.
Plus it seems business prospects bringing that up got the attention of the County Manager.
They said they have a responsiblity to set the direction of the county.
How about instead of continuing to drive sprawl outwards,
which is a fiscally (and environmentally) irresponsible path,
turn to directing development to be more dense in already-developed areas?
They continue this morning at 8:30 AM, and Gretchen is there again with the LAKE video camera.
Here’s the agenda followed by links to each LAKE video with a few notes. See also two previous pictures.
We are looking forward to the improved communication that was touted in the VDT headline. Jason Stewart, VDT, 4 February 2016, Slaughter wants to strengthen communication, Continue reading
Public Hearing, 2016 Comprehensive Plan Update @ SGRC 2016-01-19
Received Friday 5 January 2016:
Subject: Lowndes Comprehensive Plan Kickoff Jan. 19th
The kick-off public hearing for the joint Lowndes County and Cities of Dasher, Hahira, Lake Park, Remerton, and Valdosta 2016 Comprehensive Plan Update will be held on:
Tuesday, January 19, 2016, 5:30 p.m.
Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 W. Savannah Avenue
Valdosta, GeorgiaThe purpose of this public hearing will be Continue reading
Who are the Lowndes County Tax Assessors?
This should be an easy question, but it isn’t. Why not?
And the answer is a saw sales owner who previously promoted development in an agricultural region of Lowndes County, a realtor whose job is to promote development, and a preacher who previously chaired a board that wanted to take tax money from the county without rural citizens being able to vote on it. None of them appear to have any experience in agriculture. These are the people who oversaw the recent revaluation of rural (and commercial) properties that would drive development into parts of Lowndes County that the Comprehensive Plan says should be agricultural. Now I know all three of them, and they’re fine people. But perhaps some rural people need to ask them some questions.
The list on lowndescounty.com of Lowndes County’s elected Tax Assessors is not remotely correct: Doyle Kelly is no longer serving due to illness, yet he’s still on that list, along with Mike Hill and W.G. Walker.
Mike Hill runs Continue reading
Valdosta’s Penn Station to be torn down –Alfred Willis @ VCC 2014-10-23
Received as a response to
Outside corporation trumps Valdosta citizens about historical Nichols house? –Jim Parker @ VCC 2014-10-23. -jsq
The City Council’s deliberations on the 23rd had nothing to do with any construction project, but rather focused on the sale of a parcel — as Councilman Carroll’s message of the 25th accurately conveys. The Council’s vote was historic because it signified openly the supremacy of certain private property interests (specifically, those entailed in selling as a form of enjoyment) over civic cultural interests, at least within the municipality of Valdosta. In doing so it gave Valdosta’s citizens a peek behind a curtain that had remained drawn over historic preservation here since 1980. The construction of buildings, the demolition of buildings, the remodeling or moving of buildings, the maintenance and preservation of buildings, their sale and their purchase, their adaptive reuse — all of those processes are historical processes that turn on the resolution of conflicts among interests. Thus they all reveal structures of power and the machinations of powerful individuals and groups. How could they not?
The construction of the Nichols house in the early 1950s showed with a degree of clarity that probably no other Valdosta building of that time did, the identity, values, attitudes, and mode of operation of Valdosta’s leadership. Its demolition will Continue reading
Alfred Willis comments at Valdosta Historic Preservation 2014-10-06
Nichols House, in Valdosta’s Ultramodern Masterpiece: The Nichols House on Baytree
Dr. Alfred Willis speaking at VSU
Earlier in the month, LAKE covered Dr. Willis’ presentation at VSU about the Nichols House article here and video playlist .
I am Alfred Willis of 4153 Stone Hall Boulevard, Hermitage, TN. I am a consultant in architectural history and I speak for my clients, the Alden Park Homeowners’ Association. My clients engaged me to study a group of buildings threatened with demolition as part of a proposed student-housing complex. They were concerned by Continue reading
Frontage, trees, daycare, and Wal-Mart @ ZBOA 2014-06-03
Two
Lowndes County
cases (
road frontage and
tree protection),
and two
Valdosta
Valdosta cases
(daycares on busy streets
and
Wal-Mart parking).
The county cases are both variances from the
Unified Land Development Code (ULDC)
and the city cases are both variances from Valdosta’s
Land Development Regulations (LDR),
and both the ULDC and LDR are supposed to be consistent with the
Comprehensive Plan.
Here’s the agenda. The City of Valdosta puts ZBOA agendas and minutes online in real PDFs.
Continue readingValdosta -Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals
Matt Martin, Valdosta Planning and Zoning Administrator Carmella Braswell, Lowndes County Zoning Administrator 300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, Georgia 327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia (229) 259-3563 (229) 671-2430
AGENDA
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
2:30 p.m.
Local government pipeline responsibilities
Make pipeline companies answer questions, motivate implementation of safety standards, announce FERC Scoping meetings, and enforce reasonable local zoning restrictions: these are things local governments can do, and NTSB and FERC say they should do most of them. Gilchrist County Commission in Trenton, Florida has done most of them, and plans to continue doing more. The Lowndes County Commission and the Valdosta City Council still can, too, plus all the other county and city governments along the proposed pipeline path, and their statewide county and city government associations. Will our local elected officials represent we the people?
Make pipeline companies answer questions
There were
Real questions at the Gilchrist County Commission meeting in Trenton, Florida Monday.
Two hours of first questions from a citizens committee with
Spectra’s reps expected to answer right there in front of everybody,
then questions from locals and people from many counties around,
including attorneys representing landowners and other county
commissions cross-examining Spectra on the spot. The Chairman of the
Gilchrist County Commission said there was a general opinion among
the populace that they were asking specific questions and getting
only general answers. Congratulations, Chairman, Commission, staff,
Committee, and everyone who asked questions for showing the world
how it’s done, and for exposing Spectra’s evasions to public
scrutiny.
This is in sharp contrast to Continue reading
Aquifer recharge and drainage from Seven Out Superfund site, Mary Street, Waycross, GA
The
Seven Out Superfund site is not in any of the severe aquifer
recharge zones in Ware County, fortunately,
but
drainage from it goes right across Waycross into the Satilla River,
carrying who-knows-what pollution with it.
It’s time to find out what pollution, where it comes from, and
what plume of toxic chemicals it is making underground. Continue reading
SB 104 that changed comprehensive plan rules: good or bad?
The Georgia legislature overwhelmingly passed a rather brief
bill that changes
the requirements for Comprehensive Plans by local governments.
ACCG
and
GMA both supported it.
It seems to be related to recent
Department of Community Affairs (DCA)
rulemaking that was mostly positive.
Does that make it a good law?
Opinions seem to differ.
Here’s what I’ve found.