Category Archives: Military

Moody MAZ text amendments to ULDC back again @ LCC Regular 2015-10-26

The Planning Commission meets Monday evening to consider

those ULDC amendments,

MAZ-ULDC-text-amendments-001
so county staff will recommend to the County Commission at their Monday 8:30 AM Work Session that they table the MAZ text changes
at their Regular Session Tuesday 5:30 PM evening.
Meanwhile,

the Air Force wants to maintain the road rights of way
for Davidson Road and along Grassy Pond.
And the
Land Bank Authority
wants to appoint some more members, acording to “the attached resolution”
which of course we the taxpayers aren’t allowed to see without an open records request.

Elected Probate Judge McDowell can appoint a part-time associate judge,
but she needs the county commission
to approve funding the salary.
The DA wants
to continue a Victims of Crime Act Victims Service grant.

Annual renewal of
health care service provider
and
Section 125 Plan Document.

Two more Lift Station (sewage) pumps, at
Val-Tech new for $20,076.42 and at
Whitewater repairs for $13,353.65.

Finally, bids for
Disaster Related Debris Removal Proposals required by FEMA, plus the usual beer, wine, and liquor licenses.

All that in Continue reading →

Kings Bay Submarine Base Solar Groundbreaking Tomorrow

Yay Georgia Power!
With Gulf Power in Florida
and following along.
How long until even FPL flips from fossil fuels to the sun?

Kevin McCaney, 25 August 2015,

Navy makes largest federal purchase of solar power,


Fourteen Navy installations in California will get as much as a
third of their power from solar energy, following the Navy’s
agreement to make the largest purchase of renewable energy of any
federal entity, an agreement that calls for the construction of a
210-megawatt direct-current solar facility….

With the Mesquite project, last month’s groundbreaking on a
17-megawatt project at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and an upcoming
groundbreaking on a 42-megawatt project at Kings Bay, Ga., the Navy
is on track to have 1.2 gigawatts of solar power….

A usually reliable source says groundbreaking is tomorrow for
Kings Bay Solar.

-jsq

Videos: Moody Family Housing doesn’t want to replace trees it cut down on Val-Del @ ZBOA 2015-08-04

They meet again today 2:30 PM.



Last month,
ZBOA voted 5 to 1 to let

Moody Family Housing
have a reduction of 25% (half of the 50% they wanted)
so as to include a requirement of native trees.
Gretchen Quarterman made the motion, Paul Alvarado seconded, and Satrina Plyler (filling the unexpired term of Scott Orenstein) voted against.

See for more background.

Here’s

a video playlist:



Videos: Moody Family Housing doesn’t want to replace trees it cut down on Val-Del

Regular Session, Valdosta-Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBOA),

Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 4 August 2015.

-jsq

Solar power for military bases in Florida: Gulf Power, a Southern Company

Southern Company solar farms at military bases are not just

for Georgia anymore;
SO subsidiary Gulf Power is building more and bigger ones in Florida.



Gulf Power,
Solar Energy Farms,

Gulf Power is partnering with the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force to build solar energy farms at three different facilities across Northwest Florida.
The projects could be in service as early as December 2016.

“This is an important collaboration between Gulf Power, the Navy and the Air Force,” said Stan Connally, Gulf Power president and CEO. “As military installations seek solutions to promote renewable energy generation, we have worked alongside our military customers to help provide cost-effective solutions — and all our customers will reap the benefit.”

HelioSage and Gulf Power, PRNewsWire, 22 January 2015,

HelioSage & Gulf Power Announce 120 Megawatts of Solar in Florida:
Landmark projects will span three sites through partnership with Navy and Air Force, Continue reading →

Moody Family Housing doesn’t want to replace trees it cut down on Val-Del @ ZBOA 2015-08-04



2:30 PM today,
should developers not have to follow code and put back trees
on the unnecessary and environmentally hazardous Moody Family Housing
on Val-Del Road?
You wouldn’t know who this was by a pretty name like
Azalea Commons,
or an acronym like
ACC Group III Housing,
and only the

board packet
mentions Balfour Beatty,
but it’s the same

Moody Family Housing
in an
aquifer recharge zone
that
already had a sinkhole
as admitted by
a K Street lawyer to the
Lowndes County Commission
and told to them and to the Air Force by VSU professors
that the Air Force proceeded to ignore in its
environmental assessment
and the Lowndes County Commission rezoned anyway.
Staff recommend 20% “relief” from planting trees.
How about the county get some relief from unnecessary sprawl?



They did provide

a table of the trees they want to cut down.

Here’s the agenda, which is not on the City of Valdosta website,
appearing here courtesy of Continue reading →

Videos: MAZ tabled, Naylor Boat Ramp and Sabal Trail CWTBH @ LCC 2015-07-28



The proposed MAZ changes were
tabled for 90 days,
they approved everything else, and

welcomed new Utilities Director Steve Stalvey again,
at the 5:30 PM Tuesday 28 July 2015 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.
Valdosta City Council

Sandra Tooley
didn’t fill out a form and so didn’t get to speak,
but

another citizen asked about the
Naylor Boat Ramp (answer after the meeting: on schedule for this fall)
and about Sabal Trail (answer: none).

See also Continue reading →

Videos: MAZ tabled + 2 small rezonings @ GLPC 2015-07-27



Once County Planner Jason Davenport admitted the
MAZ ULDC text amendments
weren’t ready (as he had indicated might happen at the same morning’s

County Commission Work Session),
and the Planning Commission recommended tabling it 4:1,
the meeting was very brief, even with the

SGRC Transportation presentation (which they weirdly heard after
adjourning the meeting, even though it was on the agenda).
The

David Brown Melody Lane rezoning
and the

Ron Borders Bemiss Road rezoning
flew through to 5:0 unanimous recommendations, with three Planning
Commissioners absent.

The

county rezoning
isn’t on the County Commission agenda yet,
and they will probably table the ULDC
MAZ item at its meeting 5:30 PM tonight.

See the Continue reading →

Videos: MAZ again, Lake Alapaha, Emergencies, but no Sabal Trail @ LCC 2015-07-27


300x297 Parcel 0181 001, in Davidson Road, by John S. Quarterman, 27 July 2015
The proposed MAZ changes have “absolutely nothing to do with”
the 23 acres on Davidson Road that were proposed to be rezoned R-21 back in 2010,
after the county paved Davidson Road, said County Chairman Bill Slaughter at yesterday morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session.
County Planner Jason Davenport said he had hoped to get “on the same page with Moody”
before that same evening’s Planning Commission meeting
for the
MAZ ULDC Text Amendments,
but as yet he had nothing to report, and tabling was an option.
I don’t think that word “ultimately” means what he thinks it does.
See more
below about Davidson Road.

Not on the agenda were three, no four, reports:

Like the MAZ changes, also requiring a public hearing Tuesday evening is Continue reading →

MAZ again + 2 small rezonings @ GLPC 2015-07-27

Planning Commission agenda is finally on county’s website


after this morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session,
which included

an item saying “The current public hearing/meeting timeline
is as follows: July 27th GLPC and July 28th LCBOC.”
Is it a public meeting if there’s no public agenda until a few hours before?

Yes, the notorious
TXT-2015-01 Moody Activity Zoning Districts (MAZ) ULDC text amendments
are back on

the GLPC agenda,
along with two small rezonings.
Plus
an SGRC Transportation presentation.

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission

Lowndes County City of Valdosta City of Dasher City of Hahira City of Lake Park


REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING

AGENDA


Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office

325 West Savannah Avenue


Monday, July 27, 2015 * 5:30 P.M. * Public Hearing

Continue reading →

MAZ again, Lake Alapaha, Emergency Management and Liability, but no Sabal Trail @ LCC 2015-07-27

While

Dougherty County, Albany, and their state and federal reps


plan a joint opposition meeting to the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline invader, there’s nothing about that pipeline
on
Monday’s
8:30 AM

agenda of the Lowndes County Commission.
Three items on

emergency response,

emergency planning,
and
911 operations,
plus one on
liability,
but nothing about the
invading pipeline soft target.

The highly controversial

Moody Activity Zoning Districts (MAZ)
are back, despite massive opposition.
The Planning Commission will hear MAZ again Monday evening,
and because there’s only one day from then until the County Commission
can vote on MAZ Tuesday, the County Planner says: Continue reading →