Tag Archives: 5 September 2013

Flood control measures encourage settling too close and provoke severe flooding events

Flood control to keep water out of houses seems like a good idea, but it turns out that it causes the flood control measures to keep needing to be raised higher, and it encourages people to build too close to flooding areas, plus “rare and catastrophic events take place”. Like the 2009 “700 year flood” and the four or more floods this year that have overflowed the Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant. In our case, there are also the issues of widespread clearcutting and buildings and streets with impervious cover. The local runoff containment requirements in the various local government zoning codes may be like levees: “flood control structures might even increase flood risk as protection from frequent flooding reduces perceptions of risk”.

This encourages human settlements in floodplain areas, which are then vulnerable to high-consequence and low-probability events.
Much simpler just not to give out building permits for flood zones. Or we could put medical buildings right next to a creek, assuming because it’s never flooded it never will….

Socio-hydrology: conceptualising human-flood interactions, G. Di Baldassarre, A. Viglione, G. Carr, L. Kuil, J. L. Salinas, and G. Bloschl, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 17, 3295–3303, 2013 doi:10.5194/hess-17-3295-2013, © Author(s) 2013. CC Attribution 3.0 License.

Abstract. Over history, humankind has tended to settle near streams Continue reading

Developing across Two Mile Branch and a sidewalk @ VCC 2013-09-05

Magaret Ellen Hill is Employee of the month, and they rejected the sidewalk bids putting them out for rebid, after they unanimously approved the medical development to span One Two Mile Branch at the Valdosta City Council Regular Session of 5 September 2013.

Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos, and a few notes.

AGENDA
REGULAR MEETING OF THE VALDOSTA CITY COUNCIL
5:30 PM Thursday, September 5, 2013
COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL
  1. Opening Ceremonies
    1. Call to Order
    2. Invocation
    3. Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag
  2. Awards and Presentations
    1. Consideration of the September, 2013 Employee of the Month Award (Margaret Ellen Hill, Main Street Department).

      She helped extend Downtown Valdosta Farm Days by two months.

  3. Minutes Approval
    1. Valdosta City Council – Regular Meeting – Aug 22, 2013 5:30 PM

      Approved unanimously with no changes.

  4. Public Hearings

    UHS Pruitt VA-2013-12 CU-2013-02 Continue reading

Dollar General (Teramore Development) @ GLPC 2013-08-26

Commissioner Franklin Bailey summed up the Dollar General proposal for Hahira:

There’s just a lot here we don’t have.

Hahira City Council votes tonight on the Teramore Development items, which are for a Dollar General (like the one in Naylor), as we discovered at the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission Regular Session 26 August 2013, even though the agenda doesn’t say. GLPC recommended for it, even though engineering details hadn’t been done for water management, the site plan wasn’t finalized, and no solution was proposed for Dollar General’s corporate habit of using sidewalks for cart storage, among many other issues.

309 W Main, Hahira, Tax Assessors map

Planning Commission Agenda for 2013-08-26, with links to the videos: Continue reading

Pruitt Corp. across One Mile Branch and a sidewalk @ VCC 2013-09-05

The medical development to span One Mile Branch recommended by the Planning Commission is up for a vote tonight, along with sidewalk bids elsewhere, by the Valdosta City Council.

Plus September, 2013 Employee of the Month is Margaret Ellen Hill, Main Street Department.

Here’s the agenda:

AGENDA
REGULAR MEETING OF THE VALDOSTA CITY COUNCIL
5:30 PM Thursday, September 5, 2013
COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL
  1. Opening Ceremonies
    1. Call to Order
    2. Invocation
    3. Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag
  2. Awards and Presentations
    1. Consideration of the September, 2013 Employee of the Month Award (Margaret Ellen Hill, Main Street Department).
  3. Minutes Approval
    1. Valdosta City Council – Regular Meeting – Aug 22, 2013 5:30 PM
  4. Public Hearings
    1. Consideration of an Ordinance to rezone 4.96 acres from Single-Family Residential (R- 6) and (R-10) to Office-Professional (O-P) as requested by UHS Pruitt Corporation (File No. VA-2013-12). The property is located at 1501 North Lee Street. The Greater Lowndes Planning Commission reviewed this request at their August Regular Meeting and recommended approval (7-0 vote).
    2. Consideration of an Ordinance for a Conditional Use Permit to allow a Residential Care Facility in Office-Professional (O-P) zoning as requested by UHS-Pruitt Corporation (File No. CU-2013-02). The property is located at 1501 North Lee Street. The Greater Lowndes Planning Commission reviewed this request at their August Regular Meeting and recommended approval with five conditions (7-0 vote).
  5. Bids, Contracts, Agreements and Expenditures
    1. Consideration of bids for the Sidewalk Installation Project on Lamar Street and North Oak Street.
  6. City Manager’s Report
  7. Council Comments
  8. Citizens to be Heard
  9. Adjournment

-jsq

Dollar General, trash, a tobacco warehouse, and alcohol @ Hahira 2013-09-05

The Teramore Development items are for a Dollar General (like the one in Naylor), even though the agenda doesn’t say (see Planning Commission videos). Since City Council District 2 Allen Bruce Cain, Sr. resigned to run for Mayor the ever-contentious, ethically investigated garbage contract last voted on 2 August 2012 could go differently this time. Thanks to City Clerk Jonathan Sumner for providing the agenda upon request, even though it’s not on the web. Stay tuned for LAKE videos. -jsq

Hahira City Council
September 5, 2013
Agenda
7:30 pm- Hahira Courthouse
  1. Call to order
  2. Establish quorum
  3. Pledge of allegiance
  4. Invocation
  5. Review/Correction of Minutes
    1. July 29, 2013 Work Session
    2. August 1, 2013 Council Meeting
    3. August 22, 2013 Special Called Meeting
  6. Public Hearing
    1. HA-2013-01: Rezoning Request by Teramore Development (Planning and Zoning Administrator)
    2. HA-2013-02: Variance Request by Teramore Development (Planning and Zoning Administrator)
    3. FY14 Budget Preliminary Adoption (City Manager)
  7. Citizens to Be Heard
  8. Review of Bills/Budget Overages
  9. Discussions Continue reading