Neighbors oppose Val Del rezoning @ LCC 2018-10-09

If not consistent with the Comprehensive Plan, nor with the water and sewer growth plan,
fire and rescue doesn’t want it, and the Planning Commission recommended rejecting it,
what does it take for the Lowndes County Commission to reject a zoning,
in this case for
REZ-2018-17 for
The Settlement North, 5999 Val Del Road?

Only three people were allowed to speak against, of the five whose hands went up.

The developer promised restrictive covenants enforced by nobody but the homeowners.
County-imposed conditions on the Nelson Hill development, also on Val Del, were largely waived by county staff without public hearings.
What promises should we believe?

Will the developer’s demand to ignore the Comprehensive Plan
because of “market conditions, supply and demand” prevail?
Do property values of neighbors not matter?
How about saddling the county school system with houses priced too low
for property taxes on them to cover expenses of sending school buses?
Or is profit for a few all that matters?

See the Continue reading →

Those Rascals are at it again @ LCC 2018-10-22

On the agenda for this morning,
a public hearing for a beer, wine, and liquor license for
Roy E. Taylor Sr.,
with merely “For Consideration” for
for beer and wine licenses for
Daniel K. Smith.
and
Kalpeshkumar B. Patel.

Also continuation of the
Solicitor-General's VOCA Continuation Grant
and
Bid on Two Motor Graders with Rome Sloper for Public Works.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2018, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2018, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Force Main, appointments * 3, Val Del rezoning @ LCC 2018-10-08

A
Val-Tech Road 16" Force Main Emergency Repair with
recommendation:

The 16” force main between Coleman Road lift station and James
Road has experienced repeated issues with pipe failure. Several
repairs have been made on one section near 3624 Val-Tech Road. After
detecting another pipe failure along this section staff recommends
we replace a 400′ section of the 16” force main. This is an
emergency and needs to happen ASAP to prevent a sewage spill. Staff
received a quote from RPI for $99,935.00. Staff recommends the
emergency repair be approved for $99,935.00 from RPI.

I think everyone would be in favor of fixing

that recurring leak,
near the green dot at the top of this map.

VALORGIS Map → Streams Waterbodies plus Utilities Service Areas and Lowndes County Sewer Line.

Plus
the annual
USGS Funding Agreement for Hwy 122 Stream Gauge,
on

the agenda
for this morning.
Also
appointments
to three boards,
as usual with no previous public invitation
to apply:
Linda Most reappointment to the
Lowndes County Library Board,
Clay Griner reappointment to the
Lowndes County Public Facilities Authority,
and
Jim Scruggs reappointment to the
Valdosta-Lowndes County Construction Board of Adjustments and Appeals.

A

a subdivision rezoning:
The Settlement North, 5999 Val Del Road.

GLPC voted 5-2-1 against and of TRC only Engineering wanted approval,
with the rest saying:

Overall Planning and Zoning found this request inconsistent with
with the Comprehensive Plan. Utilities found that
development in that area is not supported by the County Water System
Growth Plan.

And

road abandonment,
and
quit claims

for another road.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2018, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2018, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Videos: Backroom County Commission conditions @ ZBOA 2018-09-11

The interesting part was not that
ZBOA
approved everything unanimously in its September 11, 2018 meeting,
including
setbacks
for the same Stovall property at
6002 N. Oak Street Ext., Valdosta, for which
later that same day

the Lowndes County Commission
approved removal of the prohibition on personal care homes.
The news is that Lowndes County Commissioner Scottie Orenstein
stood up in a public meeting and
spelled out

at 30 minutes 47 seconds that “there was some behind-the-scenes conversation”:

Scottie Orenstein, Lowndes County Commissioner.
In March 2015, there was a condition put on this.
But after speaking with Chairman Slaughter this afternoon, Continue reading →

Videos: Appointment to Tourism Authority, Roads and Towers @ LCC 2018-09-24

“You have an appointee information sheet in your packet,”
said County Manager Joe Pritchard, and that’s all we learned about
Michael Smith, who did not appear to speak, either,
at yesterday morning’s Work Session.
County Chairman Bill Slaughter did encourage the Commissioners
to send in information sheets on any other nominees they might come up with

for the Tourism Authority
before tonight’s 5:30 PM voting Regular Session.
He did not encourage the public to apply.
But if you want to, here is
the application form.

Also apparently

the Internet really is made of pipes.
It’s durious how the county

can help a private company with television (that was the longest item at just under 2 minutes)
but can’t use
its plethora of towers to help with citizen Internet access.

And the county

discussed in executive session buying real estate.
The whole meeting before that took just under 8 minutes.

Below are Continue reading →

Appointment to Tourism Authority, Roads and Towers @ LCC 2018-09-24

Why does the county leave us guessing and not just name who resigned,
and say who Michael Smith is?
Maybe they’ll say at the Lowndes County Commission Work Session this morning at 8:30 AM,
or maybe when they vote tomorrow at 5:30 PM.

“Mr. Michael Smith has expressed interest in being appointed to” the
Valdosta-Lowndes County Conference Center And Tourism Authority,
says Continue reading →

Videos: farewell Jason Davenport, approval limits, CALEA, personal care home @ LCC 2018-09-11

The county held

a ceremony for departing Lowndes County Planner Jason Davenport.
I asked the person sitting in his former seat,

Engineering/Planning Technician Molly Stevenson,
if she was confirmed yet.
She would only say it was confirmed that she was sitting there right then.

They also had a

911 CALEA Re-Accreditation Presentation
and the Chairman recognized

Leadership Lowndes.

Citizens

Bob Harlan
and

Fred E. Blanton Jr
complained about road conditions.
I

thanked Utilities Director Steve Stalvey for sending
information about recent Lowndes County sewage spills (two in July),
and I thanked him advance for sending the NPDES-permit-required followup testing
(not yet received).

On
the REZ-2018-16 Stovall rezoning,
the applicant revealed the reason for the previous restriction
when Continue reading →

Videos: Naylor Boat Ramp, approval limits, CALEA, personal care home @ LCC 2018-09-10

News about
the Naylor Boat Ramp in

an Engineering Projects Report!
Chad McLeod also reported about the 911 center,
the North Lowndes Soccer Complex,
the fire warehouse classroom,
the animal shelter,
and
the courthouse renovation project,
all still to be completed from SPLOST VII funds, which run out next year.
Even with that three-and-a-half-minute special engineering report, the whole meeting took ten minutes Monday morning.

Also not on the agenda,
HR has a new employee.
Also there will be a new traffic signal.

Should

the County Manager and the Finance Director
be able to approve Continue reading →

Videos: fire truck, radios and phones, Hahira annexation, prison details @ LCC 2018-08-14

The most exciting thing last month was the

new fire truck, on display outside,
seen here driving off with its lights flashing:

See

LAKE video.

This was the most recent Regular Session, because the Lowndes County Commission meetings for the end of August were cancelled.

County Manager Joe Pritchard again said he wanted

higher staff approval limits for items in the budget.

There was some question about campaign contributions on the

Hahira rezoning and annexation; they didn’t know, but they approved it anyway.
The longest discussion was on the

Intrado phone system,
which will have Lowndes County be the first south of Atlanta with text to 911.
A suprising number of and variety of Commissioner questions on

the 911 radios.
The only question on the three utilities items was

whether they were in the budget; they are.
As usual, they rubberstamped

the three Valdosta State Prison work details,
with the only question being whether they were getting enough for the money.
A: Yes, because prisoners work cheap.

Below are Continue reading →

CALEA, personal care home, and county manager approval limit @ LCC 2018-09-10

Should

the County Manager and the Finance Director
be able to approve

2.5 times as much in dollar value
on budgeted items as they currently can?

Also a rezoning
to reconfigure for two parcels
and another
to permit personal care homes,
plus a
911 CALEA Re-Accreditation Presentation
are
on

the agenda for 8:30 AM this morning at the Work Session
and tomorrow evening’s voting Regular Session.

The rezoning
REZ-2018-16 Stovall, 6002 N. Oak St. Ext.
to permit personal care homes is

“as a result of a potential buyer’s interest in developing the property into an assisted living facility”.
This same Tuesday, the same property is on

ZBOA’s agenda
for a variance on the buffer condition.

The 2015-03-10 agenda for the earlier rezoning from R-21 to C-G, Well & Other did not say anything specifically about private care facilities,
nor did the Continue reading →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange