Category Archives: GLPC

Please reject REZ-2023-04 2.5-acre rezoning on Quarterman Road –Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE 2023-08-28

Update 2023-09-06: Please keep Quarterman Road in agriculture and forestry –WWALS to Greater Lowndes Planning Commission 2023-08-28.

Here is the letter Gretchen Quarterman sent on behalf of Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE) to the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) before their meeting of Monday, August 28, 2023.

[LAKE letter and map]
LAKE letter and map

As you can see in the LAKE videos of that meeting, GLPC recommended denial by 7:1 of REZ-2023-04 on Quarterman Road.

Thanks to everyone who signed the petition: a table of signatories and images of the petition sheets are included. Thanks to everyone who spoke at the GLPC meeting.

The final decision will be at the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session of Tuesday, September 12, 2023. More petition signatures would help, and more calls and letters to Lowndes County Commissioners, and more speakers in the Public Hearing on September 12th.

The LAKE Letter

In PDF and below in web format. Continue reading

Videos: Quarterman Road rezoning recommended against, Mt. Zion Church Road for @ GLPC 2023-08-28

Update 2023-09-05: Please reject REZ-2023-04 2.5-acre rezoning on Quarterman Road –Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE 2023-08-28.

The Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) voted 7:1 to recommend denial of the proposed E-A 2.5-acre-lot rezoning on Quarterman Road, in an agricultural and forestry area.

[Collage @ LCC 28 August 2023]
Collage @ LCC 28 August 2023

They unanimously voted to recommend approval of the R-21 half-acre-lot rezoning on Mt. Zion Church Road that is among numerous existing small lots.

In the first rezoning item, REZ-2023-04 on Quarterman Road, the County Planner mentioned that county staff had been unable to find any record of the previous (1980s) rezoning of the existing subdivision on Emily Lane west of Quarterman Road. Continue reading

Packet: Two county rezonings, one plainly inappropriate @ GLPC 2023-08-28

Update 2023-08-29: Videos: Quarterman Road rezoning recommended against, Mt. Zion Church Road for @ GLPC 2023-08-28.

The Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) has only two cases for Monday, both Lowndes County Cases.

[Two Lowndes County cases @ GLPC 2023-08-28]
Two Lowndes County cases @ GLPC 2023-08-28

County staff recommend approval of both rezonings, one in the middle of subdivisions on Mt. Zion Church Road, and the other in the middle of agriculture and forestry land on Quarterman Road.

For REZ-2023-04 on Quarterman Road, county staff strain really hard to dilute agriculture and forestry by including a nearby subdivision in their first calculation. Quarterman Road is almost all Continue reading

Videos: One Valdosta item for expansion of a Child Daycare and School facility @ GLPC 2023-07-31

The one case did not take long at the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) at the end of July 2023, only fifteen minutes. It was about a Planned Development amendment for a mixed-use Child Daycare and School facility in Valdosta. They unanimously recommended approval with all seven conditions.

[Collage @ GLPC 31 July 2023]
Collage @ GLPC 31 July 2023

There will be one county item for the August GLPC meeting, and none from the various cities.

Here are LAKE videos of each agenda item, with a few notes by Gretchen Quarterman, followed by a LAKE video playlist.

See also the ag enda and board packet. Continue reading

Packet: One Valdosta item for expansion of a Child Daycare and School facility @ GLPC 2023-07-31

The Greater Lowndes Planning Commission only has one case for Monday, a Planned Development amendment for a mixed-use Child Daycare and School facility in Valdosta.

[Collage, GLPC Packet 2023-07-31]
Collage, GLPC Packet 2023-07-31

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

Here is the agenda.

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission
~ Lowndes County ~ City of Valdosta ~ City of Dasher ~
~ City of Hahira ~ City of Lake Park ~ City of Remerton ~
Monday, July 24, 2023 5:30 P.M. Work Session
Monday, July 31, 2023 5:30 P.M. Regular Session
Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue, Valdosta, Georgia

Continue reading

Videos: ULDC amendments, Voting machine security, Library Board, Boat and RV Storage, Alapaha Plantation Water, Purchase houses by Griner Park, Insurance, LMIG @ LCC Regular 2023-07-11

Commissioner Demarcus Marshall asked for clarifications on chickens being excluded from conservation in 6.a. TXT-2023-01 ULDC Text Amendments, County Manager Bill Slaughter said there were two kinds of conservation: land use and taxes, and the exclusion only applied to one of them; not clear which one.

[Collage @ LCC 11 July 2023]
Collage @ LCC 11 July 2023

Gretchen Quarterman spoke against the amendments being voted on without more time for the general public to review and comment, as she did at the preceding Planning Commission meeting. She pointed out she still could not find the amendments on the county’s website, there had been only one county announcement of these changes, and no listing of the changes. Nobody spoke for. The Chairman asked for rebuttal, but there was none.

Commissioners had no discussion, and voted unanimously to approve the ULDC text amendments.

They unanimously approved everything else, except Continue reading

Videos: Complicated Library Board, ULDC amendments, Boat and RV Storage, Alapaha Plantation Water, Purchase houses by Griner Park, Insurance, LMIG @ LCC Work 2023-07-10

Update 2023-10-16: Videos: ULDC amendments, Voting machine security, Library Board, Boat and RV Storage, Alapaha Plantation Water, Purchase houses by Griner Park, Insurance, LMIG @ LCC Regular 2023-07-11.

This time the ULDC text amendments are on the agenda as a Public Hearing.

[Collage @ LCC 10 July 2023]
Collage @ LCC 10 July 2023

However, Lowndes County still has not put the proposed amendments on its website. You can see them in the board packet on the LAKE website (they are different from the draft that was in the Planning Commission packet).

But that’s only because LAKE sent an open records request for that packet and posted it. Why should the general public have to do that, when the county already showed draft amendments to the Homebuilders Association more than a month ago? We know this because the the County Manager said so in the June 12th County Commission meeting: “In addition to the Planning Commission, the amendments have also been shared with the Homebuilders Association, as our largest group of stakeholders, we’d like for them to be able to give us some feedback.” Continue reading

Packet: Complicated Library Board, ULDC amendments, Boat and RV Storage, Alapaha Plantation Water, Purchases houses by Griner Park, Insurance, LMIG @ LCC 2023-07-10

Update 2023-07-11: Videos: Complicated Library Board, ULDC amendments, Boat and RV Storage, Alapaha Plantation Water, Purchase houses by Griner Park, Insurance, LMIG @ LCC Work 2023-07-10.

Four terms expire on the South Georgia Regional Library Board (SGRLB) and all four people want to be reappointed. Plus another term will be vacant and two people want to be appointed to that: Catherine Ammons and Sarah Fitzgerald.

The Lowndes County Commission will hear these items this morning at 8:30 AM, and will vote on them at 5:30 PM tomorrow evening.

The text amendments to the Unified Land Development Code (ULDC) are on the agenda, even though the Planning Commission recommended tabling it for 30 days for the public to review. The version in this board packet is different from the version shown to the Planning Commission. Even county staff are asking for more time for the solar amendment.

[Collage, LCC Packet 2023-07-10]
Collage, LCC Packet 2023-07-10

The County Commissioners will vote on more than two and a half million dollars, mostly in road paving and insurance.

Plus they’re buying the houses next to where they want to make Griner Park near the county palace, and only a few blocks from where the City of Valdosta has already made Unity Park with an amphitheater.

And yet more of your tax dollars go to fix the private water system at Alapaha Plantation.

On the bright side, the land formerly rezoned for a biomass plant is now requested to be rezoned for boat and RV storage. Continue reading

Videos: ULDC chicken changes deferred, Biomass site to boat storage, Lake Park mini-storage, 2 Valdosta subdivisions and a church @ GLPC 2023-06-26

Update 2023-07-17: Added the Valdosta cases and Other Businesses that had inadvertently been left out of the playlist.

Update 2023-07-10: Packet: Complicated Library Board, ULDC amendments, Boat and RV Storage, Alapaha Plantation Water, Purchases houses by Griner Park, Insurance, LMIG @ LCC 2023-07-10.

Why does Lowndes County want the Planning Commission (GLPC) and County Commission to vote on changes to the Unified Land Development Code (ULDC) before the general public has a chance to review and comment on them?

[Collage @ LCC 26 June 2023]
Collage @ LCC 26 June 2023

When even the number of ULDC items changed from 10 to 7 in the week before the GLPC meeting? When somebody asked for more time for citizens to review and comment on these changes, why did the County Planning consultant toss out four straw men? Why shouldn’t the general public have such opportunity when the Homebuilders were shown draft changes weeks ago?

Lowndes County Planning consultant Jason Davenport attempted to explain the ULDC amendments and why the county had not shown them to the general county citizenry, at the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC). He said they had a plan for six public meetings and two social media posts. However, none of that had happened before this meeting. Continue reading

Packet: ULDC chicken changes, Biomass site to boat storage, Lake Park mini-storage, 2 Valdosta subdivisions and a church @ GLPC 2023-06-26

A longer version of the updates to the Lowndes County Unified Land Development Code (ULDC), including chickens and solar farms, is on the agenda for Monday evening’s Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC).

[Collage, GLPC Packet 2023-06-26]
Collage, GLPC Packet 2023-06-26

Rezoning for a boat and RV storage facility is on the agenda for the site of the biomass plant that was proposed a decade ago next to Valdosta’s Mud Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Lake Park has a rezoning for a climate-controlled mini-storage facility.

Valdosta has two housing rezonings and a church rezoning.

Here is the agenda.

The board packet is on the LAKE website.

Some day Lowndes County will put GLPC board packets on lowndescounty.com so no third party has to file open records requests and post the results. Larger and smaller counties in Georgia and Florida have been doing this for years.

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission
~ Lowndes County ~ City of Valdosta ~ City of Dasher ~
~ City of Hahira ~ City of Lake Park ~ City of Remerton ~
Tuesday, June 20, 2023 5:30 P.M. Work Session
Monday, June 26, 2023 5:30 P.M. Regular Session
Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue, Valdosta, Georgia

Continue reading