Jason Davenport, County Planner, has produced another redraft of the
proposed changes to the Lowndes County, Georgia Unified Land Devleopment Code (ULDC).
Here is his cover letter
and here is the PDF of the proposed changes.
Here’s the first table again:
During yesterday’s 3PM work session, Commissioner Lee asked the County Planner
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:
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.
-jsq
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.
-jsq
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.
-jsq
§ 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
We received the appended message this morning from the County Planner.
It includes a request to redistribute,
and it had attached
this PDF.
-jsq
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 UsesGood 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:
Dr. Michael Noll sent the appended message to all members of the
Valdosta Board of Education yesterday, 13 Oct 2010.
-jsq
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,
Here is a followup to
the VDT story in the previous post.
-jsq
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,
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!
-jsq
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).
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.
-jsq
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.
