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.
Category Archives: Comprehensive Plan
SGRC: New DCA Minimum Local Comprehensive Planning Standards
Local governments are now required to update their Comprehensive Plans
every five years (used to be every ten years).
Here’s video of
the new rules
and
a playlist of the entire meeting at which this was discussed in Valdosta
on 7 February 2013.
In response to concerns about the complexity of the 2005 Local Government Planning Standards, Georgia DCA adopted new Rules for the Minimum Standards and Procedures for Local Comprehensive Planning (Chapter 110-12-1). The rules were adopted on November 1, 2012 and became effective on January 1, 2013. The five workshops are held as a continued education event around the region to familiarize all local governments elected and appointed officials, government staff, the development community, citizens and any other interested party with the new rules, so that all may remain in compliance with those rules.
This session was held Thursday, February 7th at the Valdosta City Hall Annex Multipurpose room.
Additional sessions are scheduled for:
- February 21, 2013 —Tifton
- March 7, 2013—Douglas
- March 21, 2013—Irwin County
- April 4, 2013—Waycross
Sessions are geared toward community planners but they are open to the public.
Here’s a video playlist:
Continue readingAcree Park at Hotchkiss Landing?
How about if Lowndes County buys the land next to Old State Road
at Hotchkiss Crossing on the Alapaha River and turns it into
Acree Park?
That would be a much better solution to the trash, tresspassing,
and hunting problems there than closing the road.
And Lowndes County itsels claims it has plenty of money available
for just such a purpose.
As we’ve seen, Lowndes County’s own Comprehensive Plan says the county has $500,000 in Acquisition Funds Available to “Adopt, implement, and update provisions of the Greenspace Initiative Plan to include land acquisition and resource enhancement/protection.” And that it plans to “Continue preparation and implementation of the Withlacoochee River Greenway Plan.”
What say the county acquires parkland at Hotchkiss Landing from Continue reading
What does Lowndes Comprehensive Plan say about river corridor protection?
Is the Lowndes County Commission a “Qualified Local Government”?
Georgia state law says perennial river corridors
shall be protected,
all of the major rivers in Lowndes County
(Alapaha, Withlacoochee, Little)
qualify as perennial,
and
GA EPD rules say
to be a “Qualified Local Government” a comprehensive plan including
River Corridor Protection Plans with protection for a natural vegetative
buffer area bordering each protected river is required.
GA DCA keeps a list of all the comprehensive plans in the state. Here’s Lowndes County’s 2030 Comprehensive Plan. The main document is the Community Agenda and here is the map. Hm, the map shows a light blue color for “Park/Recreation/Conservation” for parts of the Little, Withlacoochee, and Alapaha Rivers in Lowndes County, but not all. What about the rest of those rivers in the county?
What does the Community Agenda say? It doesn’t mention any River Corridor Protection Plans. However, it does say this:
Continue readingVideos @ LCC 2012-12-11
Moody and the Chamber won, rural residents got wasted,
and taxpayers still didn't get to see a single thing the Lowndes County Commission
voted on last night in 45 minutes (very long for them)
in front of the biggest audience I've ever seen there.
They appointed John "Mac" McCall to ZBOA. They revised the alcohol ordinance with some unspecified "changes to the fee schedule", and added another alcohol restriction to the Lake Park rezoning before approving it.
They approved the solid waste ordinance and granted a waste collection monopoly to a company from New York City despite all known public input being against it. Two more people spoke against it in Citizens Wishing to Be Heard.
Gretchen Quarterman recommended adding all the appointed Boards and Authorities to the county's calendar.
Commissioners accepted applicant's withdrawal of the rezoning request near Moody AFB and tabled indefinitely the related zoning code amendment. They approved rezoning for the Naylor Dollar General.
Commission approved four Decorative Lighting Special Tax Districts (forgetting it was supposed to be a public hearing), and a refund for one that wasn't.
Danny Weeks got approved a new netclock and new phones for the 911 center, and he and his staff got an award. The library railroad continues, the bonds renegotation was approved with about $2 million savings and some legal questions, the Annex has asbestos but they'll deal with it, and after Friday's demolition ceremony there will be a going-away reception for Chairman Paulk, and Bill Slaughter will be the new Chairman.
You missed all that and more at yesterday's Commission meeting.
Here's a video playlist of the Regular Session, followed by the agenda with the videos linked into it.
Update 2014-04-09: Fixed embedded video link.
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 11 December 2012.
For reference here are the videos of yesterday morning's Work Session. And here is the agenda with links to the videos and some notes.
Continue readingChamber of Commerce vs. County Commission Re: Moody AFB @ LCC 2012-12-11
Received today (yes, I’m a Chamber member). -jsq
From: “Tim Jones, Chairman of the Board ” <chamber@valdostachamber.com>
Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2012 12:47:01 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Alert: Chamber needs your help to protect Moody!Dear Chamber Member,
Our Chamber recognizes the $448 million economic impact Moody Air Force Base has on our regional economy each year. We meet with Air Force officials at the Pentagon annually and ask them, “What else can our community do to protect MAFB from the next BRAC?” The answer, every year: prevent encroachment, and the best way to do that is by protecting the Military Activity Zone (MAZ).
Today (Tuesday, Dec. 11) at the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners meeting there are two agenda items that could put Moody at risk.
Spot zoning for a proposed densely settled subdivision in the MAZ is an invitation to other developments and inherently sets a precedent. It’s a very slippery slope. How will the County tell the next one “no”?
The second agenda item would change the zoning ordinance to allow even more densely settled neighborhoods in the MAZ.
One of the reasons we’ve been able to keep MAFB here
for more than 70 years is because MAFB can be utilized for a number of types of missions, largely because of the protected activity zone. Both agenda items, if passed, could increase encroachment into the MAZ and could very well limit MAFB’s future mission possibilities.Another Georgia community (Warner Robins) is actually using taxpayer dollars to buy back residential properties in their military activity zones as a result of their failure to prevent encroachment.
The Planning Commission voted unanimously to deny this subdivision, and to deny the proposed changes to the MAZ that would allow more dense residential development. The County Commission should vote to deny, too.
The Chamber’s GAC Executive Committee voted unanimously to oppose actions that allow encroachment and weaken the MAZ. The Chamber encourages our members to contact our County Commission members to let them know how you feel about protecting MAFB. The Chamber encourages our members to attend the County Commission meeting at the Dec. 11 meeting at 5:30 p.m. at the Administation Building.
Please respond to this email to share your thoughts.
Sincerely,
Tim Jones, Chairman of the Board
Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce
I added the links above.
All that Tim Jones said,
plus Crawford Powell’s discovery that the proposed subdivision
would be a fire code violation,
plus
according to Forbes Valdosta MSA housing prices are still dropping,
so
do we even need any more housing, anyway?
-jsq
Videos @ LCC 2012-12-10
A surprising amount of discussion at yesterday morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session,
on ZBOA appointment, alcohol Sunday sales, rezoning next to Moody,
and more.
They said nothing about the solid waste ordinance, however;
maybe they’ll table that loser again.
They vote tonight:
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2012, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
Here’s a video playlist of the Work Session, followed by the agenda with the videos linked into it.
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 December 2012.
Here’s the agenda, this time with links to the videos and some notes.
Continue readingRezoning near Moody: fire code would prohibit a single entrance @ LCC 2012-12-10 @ LCC 2012-12-10
Commissioner Crawford Powell may have found solid grounds to deny
the proposed rezoning for a development near Moody AFB,
he revealed at
this morning’s Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission.
County Planner Jason Davenport explicitly linked this rezoning case,
7.a. REZ-2012-17 Lowndes Development, LLC, Davidson Rd MAZ II and MAZ III to R-10, County Water & Sewer, ~23.49 acres
to the zoning text code amendment on the same meeting agenda.
7.d. TXT-2012-02 MAZ II Residential Density
He also mentioned the TRC (the Technical Review Committee composed mainly of Lowndes County and Valdosta staff) had a split vote on this item, although he didn’t say how it was split. And he said the Commissioners had the Planning Commission recommendation before them, although he didn’t mention the Planning Commission recommended against.
Commissioner Crawford Powell brought up a good point:
The fire department and the TRC say in the notes that it fails to comply with fire rescue ingress-egress requirements.
Fire Chief Guyton appeared to confirm that was the case, although since he wasn’t at a microphone, it’s hard to hear. Commissioner Powell continued:
Continue readingGlimmers of open discussion about Moody AFB zoning by the County Commission @ LCC 2012-12-10
Lowndes County Commissioners had a small amount of open discussion about
the proposed changes to the zoning code related to Moody Air Force Base
at
their Work Session this morning.
However, most of the discussion was not about the changes currently proposed,
which the County Planner once again explicitly linked to a rezoning case
on the same agenda.
At least they discussed tabling the zoning code changes
until there could be more discussion.
They did not, however, say they would make drafts available to the public
or invite the public to discuss those drafts.
County Planner Jason Davenport introduced agenda item 7.d. TXT-2012-02 MAZ II Residential Density:
This text amendment is part of the response to some of the questions that were raised with the additional rezoning. At the end of the day what this text amendment is going to do is to take that very outer blue color, the lightest color, which is the MAZ-3, and recommend change the zoning to 1 acre. Currently it’s 2 and a half acres.
He mentioned they missed the 30 day requirement to inform Moody AFB by about a week, but Moody responded anyway. Hm, that’s not what he said to the Planning Commission; there he said they had allowed 31 days.
Commissioner Richard Raines said he’d prefer to table this amendment until next year, because:
I think there are other issues that we’ve discussed related to MAZ. If you have a mobile home and it becomes unlivable, under the restrictions you can’t replace it….
Chairman Ashley Paulk responded that he didn’t have a problem with that, and:
Continue readingMore developer favors at the County Commission Work Session this morning? @ LCC 2012-12-10
At the 8:30 AM Work Session this morning, will the Chairman
Clint Joyner (speaking) and J.D. Yeager (seated on right) of Joyner Realty at LCC Work Session 2012-11-12 |
invite Clint Joyner of Joyner Realty to speak like he did last month, without inviting anybody else? Will Chairman Ashley Paulk invite J.D. Yeager of Joyner Realty (and formerly Sheriff Paulk’s lieutenant at the Sheriff’s office) to speak? That plus solid waste (if privatization is bad for Moody, why is it good for a county public health and safety service like solid waste collection?), Dollar General (where’s the marketing plan to indicate whether tiny Naylor needs the area’s nineteenth Dollar General?), Library, (Houston County’s SPLOST passed in a landslide after they held public hearings; maybe Lowndes County should try that), and Alcohol (county staff say they’re coalescing previous changes into the body of the ordinance), all at the Lowndes County Commission Work Session this morning; here’s the agenda.
When he spoke 12 November 2012, Clint Joyner started by referring to a nearby subdivision “In 2007”. 2007 was the year Mr. Joyner got (according to the Commission’s minutes of 26 June 2007) $130,000 in road construction labor from the Commission because of “an unforeseen Department of Transportation requirement regarding a costly intersection improvement.” Why couldn’t the County Engineer or Mr. Joyner forsee such a requirement?
This time many people do forsee that rezoning to develop in the Moody Activity Zones would be a bad idea. Houston County is using state and local tax money to buy up houses in similar zones around Warner Robins Air Force Base. Doubtless Houston County would love it if Lowndes County encroached enough on Moody AFB that Moody’s missions moved to Robins AFB.
-jsq