Category Archives: Lowndes County Commission

VDT Elevates Biomass and Renewable Energy as Political Issues

The Valdosta Daily Times (VDT) has apparently decided biomass and real clean energy instead are political issues. As part of the VDT’s sudden turn against the VLCIA and its biomass plant, which was provoked by citizen and student activism, the VDT started a week of articles with the headline “Proposed plant said to be ‘medical atrocity'”, about Dr. William Sammons’ Monday talk about health problems of biomass and how solar is better.

The VDT then featured biomass in its reporting on the AAUW Candidate Forum: Continue reading →

Lowndes County Commission Meeting Tonight

The Lowndes County Commission meets tonight:
Lowndes County Administrative Complex
Commission Chambers – 2nd Floor
327 N. Ashley Street
Valdosta, GA 31601
Time: 5:30 p.m.
They represent the entire county (including the cities).

Their mission statement:

To provide an efficient, effective and responsive local government to all citizens of Lowndes County while maintaining the financial strength to meet any contingency
Anyone can stand up in the Citizens Wishing to Be Heard section of the agenda and say what’s on their mind. Say who you are, where you live, and be brief and polite.

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ULDC Update Redraft for Monday’s Planning Commission

The Technical Review Committee (TRC) has reviewed the ULDC update and has produced a final draft for the Planning Commission, which meets Monday 25 October 2010 at 5:30 PM, still at the old county commission chambers at 325 W. Savannah Avenue.

More here about condominiums.

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Continue reading →

What is a Condominium?

Regarding condominiums and zoning in the Lowndes County ULDC, Georgia condominium law basically says that zoning can’t deny condos if some other form of ownership is permitted. If there’s a five acre minimum, only one condo unit could fit in that five acres, but with community membership with the other condos on the associated property.. For example, on an 18 acre piece of property, the maximum number of units would be 3 or 4.

Of course, a condominium doesn’t have to be a dwelling unit. As Gary Stock points out The key feature is joint ownership:

“A condominium is not a building. It is a form of ownership.”
it could be a horse farm, a hunting camp, a fishing club, or other. There usually needs to be a general common area, then some limited common areas with building envelopes for condo unit owners to use to build buildings (or maybe buildings are already there). The catch is that because a condominium is all one piece of property jointly owned, drawing limited common areas and building envelopes doesn’t require zoning approval.

Appended is one of the more relevant sections of the Georgia code.

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§ 44-3-114. Effect of article upon land use, zoning, building, and subdivision laws; effect of Code Section 44-3-92; applicability of land use and zoning ordinances or laws to expandable condominium
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Lowndes County – ULDC Update – TXT-2010-02 – Chapter 2 – Zoning Districts and Land Uses

We received the appended message this morning from the County Planner. It includes a request to redistribute, and it had attached this PDF.

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From: “Jason Davenport” <jdavenport@lowndescounty.com>
Date: Wed, 20 Oct 2010 10:30:40 -0400
To: “Lowndes County Land Development List” <jdavenport@lowndescounty.com>
Subject: Lowndes County – ULDC Update – TXT-2010-02 – Chapter 2 – Zoning Districts and Land Uses

Good morning. Please be advised that the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) and the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners (LCBOC) intend to hold public hearings to consider text amendments to the Unified Land Development Code (ULDC). The proposed amendments represent updates to Chapter 2 of the Lowndes County Unified Land Development Code (ULDC)(Please See Attached). Chapter 2 of the ULDC dominantly defines the zoning districts and classifies which land uses are allowed in those districts. The primary motivation for this request stems from direction by Lowndes County leadership to do a review of the ULDC. The guiding principles in that review were to simplify the ULDC, make the regulations defensible, and finally to make the ULDC processes timely. In the administration of that review the 10 chapters of the ULDC were put in order of priority and importance. Chapter 2 and subsequently in the coming months Chapter 4 were picked as the top chapters due to their focus on regulations that deal with the primary uses of land within the unincorporated areas of Lowndes County.

How the principles translated into a review of Chapter 2 dominantly turned into a repeated series of 3 questions:

Continue reading →

Michael Noll: precious gifts to all of us

Dr. Michael Noll sent the appended message to all members of the Valdosta Board of Education yesterday, 13 Oct 2010.

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Dear VBOE members.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share some important documents with you last night. As we recognized during the invocation, our children (and grandchildren) are precious gifts to all of us, and those of us who have healthy children (and grandchildren) can count their blessings every single day.

As a parent of two school-aged children and member of the community, I feel it is my responsibility to bring the issue of our children’s health into a clearer focus. It is my sincere hope that once you have had the chance to reflect on the materials I handed out last night, you will realize just how serious the issue is. As a responsible parent I am compelled to advocate for my childrens’ health.

All of us, whether we are parents, educators or members of the VLCIA,

Continue reading →

Michael Noll: “enough is enough”

Here is a followup to the VDT story in the previous post.

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Dear Lowndes County Commissioners.

My sincere thanks for letting me present my concerns at yesterday’s meeting. It is very much appreciated.

Please understand that what I presented is based on facts. I have worked for ten years at VSU as an educator, and my students and colleagues know me as a straightforward person. I may ruffle some feathers at times, but I clearly was brought up in a no-nonsense household.

If Mr. Lofton would not continue to ignore our concerns (as he again did at the BOE meeting), to misrepresent organizations such as the Sierra Club (an organization I happen to support), or to keep bringing up names of those who endorse the biomass plant (yet conveniently overlooks a conflict of interest), I  probably would have never brought this up. However, during these past couple weeks, and particularly with his behavior at the BOE meeting, Mr. Lofton has added insult to injury, and enough is enough.

To substantiate the comments I made yesterday,

Continue reading →

Michael Noll: “We owe it to our children, our neighbors and friends”

Appended is an extract from the VDT’s writeup on the Lowndes County Commission meeting of 28 Sep 2010. The “area schools” was the Valdosta Board of Education meeting of the previous evening, 27 Sep 2010. Much more about that here. The list of concerns Dr. Noll presented in writing is already blogged here as Let’s Think About This!

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During the citizens to be heard portionof the meeting, Dr. Michael Noll reiterated concerns his wife, Karen, presented to the board during its last meeting regarding the proposed Wiregrass Biomass Plant.

Noll spoke about his concerns with the project and lack of straight answers he has received from the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority’s (VLCIA).

Continue reading →

Biomass Rezoning Minutes, County Commission, 9 June 2009

In the message from Prof. Manning, he says
I did address the county commission on this topic over a year ago – in a public forum at a scheduled meeting.
He provided no date nor link, but since this is the only Commission meeting minutes for which I can find his name, I’m guessing this is the one he meant. I’ve quoted here the relevant item, and I’ve added paragraph breaks to it to make finding individual speakers’ names easier. See also the VDT writeup. I would like to ask people, especially academics, who want to cite sources to actually cite them, not allude to them by some vague description.

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LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
MINUTES
Regular Session
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
COMMISSIONERS PRESENT
Chairman Ashley Paulk
Vice Chairperson Joyce E. Evans
Commissioner Richard C. Lee
Commissioner G. Robert Carter
Chairman Paulk called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m.

[…]

REZ-2009-05 Wiregrass Power, LLC, 2637 Old Statenville Hwy, 0164 025. 22.1 ac., E-A to I-S,

County Planner, Jason Davenport, presented the item, stating that both the Planning Commission and TRC recommended approval with conditions.

Chairman Paulk asked those in attendance to be patient with the Commission as the item was considered, since it was an issue that many in attendance may want to speak.

Dr. Michael Noll, 2305 Glynndale Drive, spoke against the request and presented the Commission with a list of questions prepared by himself, Dr. Brad Bergstrom and Mr. Seth Gunning.

Mr. Fred Deloach III, 1411 New Statenville Highway, addressed the Commission requesting that tires and coal be added to the list of prohibited fuel items.

Continue reading →

Unanswered Concerns about the Biomass Plant

I’m quoting myself here, responding to Brad Lofton’s letter of 19 Sepember 2010.

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From: “John S. Quarterman”
To: <blofton@industrialauthority.com>, Leigh Touchton
Cc: [VDT and several elected officials; list available upon request]
Subject: Re: Brad Lofton, Executive Director Industrial Authority, doesn’t want his correpondence in the Valdosta Daily Times
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2010 14:08:17 -0400

Brad Lofton,

Leigh Touchton has forwarded me copies of the correspondence between you on behalf of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) with her and the VDT.

I must say I don’t agree with your assertion that:

“The vast majority of her concerns for our project would have been answered two years ago if she had come to any of our forums…”
Here are some examples of unanswered concerns.

Continue reading →