Category Archives: Planning

Local Thanksgiving

Here in Lowndes County and the surrounding area we have plenty of things to be thankful for:
  • A growing local food community, anchored by Jason DeLoach’s F.M. Guess Pecan Company of Valdosta, the Packhouse Market of Hahira, and of course Jim Fiveash’s Food Store of Hahira. Let’s not forget the Valdosta Farmer’s Market (1500 South Patterson Street) and Farmer Brown’s Produce. There’s even at least one local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) starting up.
  • Long distance transportation: Interstate 75 near I-10, numerous state highways, and an airport.
  • Delta Airlines (I never thought I’d be writing this) for competitive airfares (except during holidays). And landing on one of the longest runways in the state.
  • Railroads going in every direction carrying freight, which can also carry passengers whenever state and local people and governments get organized to do it.
  • Businesses moving in to take advantage of the transportation; working towards enough good jobs that young people don’t have to move away to find one.
  • County and city governments that are at least a little bit sceptical about exactly which businesses they encourage to move in.
  • Moody Air Force Base, by far the biggest employer, bringing diversity to the community both in serving personnel and in later retirees.
  • Two hospitals: South Georgia Medical Center and Smith Northview Hospital.
  • There’s even a Valdosta Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) including the counties of Lowndes, Brooks, Lanier, and Echols, with a combined population of about 130,000. This is enough people to try things without waiting for Atlanta or Washington to tell us what to do.
  • Valdosta State University, one of two large regional campuses of the University of Georgia System, and one so active politically that it got its own voting precinct this year, the only college precinct in the state.
  • Live election results during each election, on the Lowndes County website. It’s the only county in the state that does this!
  • Georgia Military College, a liberal arts junior college.
  • Valdosta Technical College, or whatever it’s being called since the state reorganized it.
  • Thriving downtowns in Valdosta and Hahira. First Friday, Winterfest, Honeybee Festival: those are doing more to attract attractive businesses than any number of road projects.
  • Grand Bay Wildlife Management Area, preserving a little bit of the original ecosystem of the area; you know, pine trees, live oaks, wiregrass, pitcher plants, cypress swamps, alligators, great blue herons, and bobcats. Maybe you don’t. Go and see!
  • Trees, for forestry, and for themselves. See Patterson Street (a little planning kept it from looking like Ashley Street), and the oldest longleaf pines in the county are on the VSU campus; older than Valdosta. There are even a few left elsewhere in the county. Protecting forests is not just the right thing to do, it’s good business.
  • Rain, so trees and crops will grow.
  • Sunshine, much more than Germany, for example, so we can do solar if we want to.
  • Winning sports teams in Lowndes County and Valdosta high schools and VSU caused ESPN to name Valdosta TitleTown. Maybe that winning attitude can carry over to improving academics.
  • Theatre at the Dosta, VSU, and the high schools. If theatre was a sport, we’d be winning that, too!
    Dites-moi
    Pourquoi
    La vie est belle,
    Dies-moi
    Pourquoi
    La vie est gai?     		    Tell me why
    The sky
    is filled with music,
    Tell me why
    We fly
    on clouds above?
We live in an area with many advantages. You can probably list more of them.

Why stop with what we’ve got? Why not play up our advantages of transportation, natural environment, local culture, etc., and attract jobs for young people and make the place even better for everybody?

Economic benefits of protecting natural ecosystems

A longleaf pine on Quarterman Road. Protecting forests is not just the right thing to do, it’s good business, says Mike De Souza, Canwest News Service, November 14, 2009, about a recent UN report:
Protecting natural ecosystems and biodiversity is worth trillions of dollars in annual economic benefits around the planet, says a new report released on Friday by the United Nations.
The actual report is TEEB for Policy Makers Report released 13 Nov 2009. The article continues, quoting one of the lead authors of the report:
“The technology of planting trees or replanting forests is thankfully free, and it has no side-effects,” said Sukhdev, who also leads the UN Environment Program’s Green Economy Initiative. “It’s powerful, it’s effective and it’s time tested. We just have to get people’s mindsets changed to start using these natural technologies that are available.”
Or just don’t cut down trees when paving roads.

Thoroughfare Plan for Lowndes County

Lowndes County is proposing to update its Thoroughfare Plan. The current one was approved in 2003. The draft sent Friday by the County Engineer to the Commission for approval today is here. In addition, here is the county’s Road Inventory. The first of these items is available on the Lowndes County web pages. The other two items don’t seem to have been posted there yet. These public documents paid for by tax dollars were obtained through public records requests and are being posted by LAKE as a public service.

Thoroughfare Map, Lowndes County, Georgia

In case you haven’t heard of the Thoroughfare Plan, it was described by the County Engineer during the County Commission’s work session yesterday morning as

…works as a guide for development and potential use changes in property.
Here is the Valdosta Daily Times report on that meeting: “Thoroughfare Plan sparks lengthy debate,” By Malynda Fulton, 9 Oct 2009. She writes that:
The Thoroughfare Plan, first adopted in 1983, is used as a guide for road improvement projects, private developments and land use changes.

The “20/30 plan” referred to in that newspaper article is the Greater Lowndes 2030 Comprehensive Plan developed in conjunction by the South Georgia Regional Development Commission, the County Commission, and the Valdosta City Council. Its purpose is:

The Greater Lowndes 2030 Comprehensive Plan is a road map for ensuring growth and development in the Greater Lowndes Communities occurs in a way as to maintain our quality of life and unique community character.
It’s quite interesting that both plans are intended to guide development, yet they recommend opposite outcomes. In particular, the justification given at the meeting for the proposed reclassification of Quarterman Road from local to minor collector was that “if it were developed” within 20 years there would be enough trips to justify such a classification. Yet the Comprehensive plan shows the same area as agricultural through 2030:

Detail, 2030 Lowndes County Future Development Map

Perhaps better coordination is needed. Fortunately, the Chairman and the County Manager appear to be soliciting input.

The scheduled vote on approval of the new Lowndes County Thoroughfare Plan is at the regular Commission meeting at 5PM today, Tuesday 10 November 2009, at 325 West Savannah Avenue (near the water tower).

This blog post by John S. Quarterman.

-jsq

Valdosta Candidates at LCDP, 5 October 2009

All local candidates were invited to speak at the Lowndes County Democratic Party meeting on 5 October 2009. Here are videos of the ones who appeared:

Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE). More are still uploading. All the local candidate videos that LAKE took on 5 Oct 2009 are now in the playlist, as of 10PM 25 Oct 2009.

Videos taken at the 15 Sep 2009 political forum are already online.

RSVP Today for Federal Grants Workshop in Savannah, Oct 26th

Federal Grants Workshop Flyer, Savannah, 2009 Both Georgia Senators are holding a workshop in Savannah Monday October 26th about federal grants. To attend, you must register today, October 22nd. I called Isakson’s office, and the woman who answered the phone said they hold one of these a year. Last year it was in Atlanta, next year she thinks probably Macon. So this year this is the only one.

Hm, I wonder how much of this is stimulus money that these two senators voted against?

Anyway, here’s the text of the press release of 7 October:

Isakson, Chambliss to Host Federal Grants Workshop on October 26 in Savannah

Continue reading →

Hahira Discovers Planning Overlays

Hahira just put a three week moratorium on development from its only stoplight west along U.S. 122 to Interstate 75: Hahira Gateway LLC land in Hahira
The new development regulations were proposed in light of plans for the Gateway to Hahira project, which include a Harveys Supermarket. While the developer for the project has promised that its design will match the integrity of the small town, downtown atmosphere, there are no regulatory provisions in place to ensure this.

“During a previous work session, council members learned that there could be design overlay guidelines adopted along that corridor,” Sumner said. “Therefore, regulations are being developed and will go to the planning commission before they are presented to the council for consideration. This moratorium (or hold) just ensures that we have time to adopt the guidelines at the November meeting before anything is done along the gateway corridor.”

Or they could just trust the developers of a project bigger than downtown Hahira that it will preserve the Mayberry character of Hahira. The Lowndes County Real Estate database shows that Hahira Gateway LLC owns much more land north of 122 than it does in the angle south of 122.

As the developers say, Continue reading →

Price of Doing Nothing Could Be High

I’m not sure this is what the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce wanted to hear, but it’s something that could benefit all of us:
Bruce Bailey, energy conservation advisor for Colquitt EMC, said, “Conserving energy and making things more energy efficient is much more cost effective than having to build a new power plant to supply more power, so we are recommending that as a leading public policy. If our future does include more and more conversions to renewable energy sources, it’s going to be very important that we don’t short-circuit our economy in the short term.”

Bailey said it’s important that any policies implemented utilize proven and effective technologies, and he warned that the price for doing nothing could be high.

Story by Matt Flumerfelt in the VDT, 15 Oct 2009.

Nature Makes Healthy

Wide base Something to consider when planning development:
The closer you live to nature, the healthier you’re likely to be.

For instance, people who live within 1 kilometer (.6 miles) of a park or wooded area experience less anxiety and depression, Dutch researchers report.

The findings put concrete numbers on a concept that many health experts had assumed to be true.

“It’s nice to see that it shows that, that the closer humans are to the natural environment, that seems to have a healthy influence,” said Dr. David Rakel, director of integrative medicine and assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

That’s Amanda Gardner, writing in USA Today. A few other points:
Children and poor people suffered disproportionately from lack of green acres, the researchers found.
And what affects the most vulnerable affects all:
More green space may also be a way for whole communities to become healthier.
The cypress pictured is much like those in the swamp on Val Del Road that the county let a developer cut down last year.

What’s a Green Job?

Green money is pouring into Austin, Texas, which now has to decide how to spend it. Sandra Zaragoza, writing in Portfolio.com, looks into what to do with it:
Last week, American Youthworks, a nonprofit aimed at at-risk youth, received $1.4 million in federal funds to build a green charter high school that will prepare students for jobs in solar-panel installation, green facilities management, and other jobs.

In the last few years, Austin Community College received $99,031 from Workforce Solutions for solar and weatherization training and, more recently, $59,800 from the Department of Labor to increase the number of women in green job training programs.

And ACC is hoping to bring more funding to Central Texas in federal grants. ACC is part of a group of Texas community colleges that have applied for $3.5 million in funding to build solar-energy training programs.

Education, solar, weatherization; who could argue with those things?

But do those functions create new jobs? Continue reading →

Biomass: Twice the CO2 of Coal?

Dr. Thomas D. Bussing, Ph.D., former mayor of Gainesville, Florida, is among the numerous signatories of a Letter to the U.S. Senate from Environmental Groups (including SAFE) Regarding Biomass, which says in part:
When compared to coal, per megawatt, this burning [biomass and the like] emits 1.5 times the carbon dioxide (CO2), 1.5 times the carbon monoxide (CO, a toxic air pollutant), and as much particulate matter.
Georgia already has the country’s dirtiest coal plant, at Juliette, near Macon. Do we need still more CO2?

Maybe the Wiregrass biomass plant planned for Valdosta is somehow more efficient than the one near Gainesville. If so, it would be good to hear about that; I don’t recall the topic coming up at the Lowndes County Commission meeting in which this plant was approved.

Dr. Bussing elaborated in a recent letter:

The fallacy is in believing that plants take up all CO2 emissions. In fact plants absorb some, the ocean absorbs more (and as a consequence is becoming more acidic by the year), but a portion just stays and builds up in the atmosphere. That buildup is associated with global warming, and it doesn’t matter if the CO2 comes from coal, gas or biomass.
Thanks to Seth R. Gunning for bringing this up.