Tag Archives: Dasher

Videos: One big Dasher, two small Lowndes County rezonings @ GLPC 2022-06-27

At 22 minutes, that was probably the fastest Greater Lowndes Planning Commission meeting ever, on June 27, 2022.

The cases were so uncontentious that Chair Vicki Biles greeted the audience with “Welcome, lady and gentleman.” The lady was Gretchen Quarterman with the LAKE video camera. Lowndes County Commissioner Joyce Evans also arrived.

Nonetheless, there was one split vote.

Here are LAKE videos of each agenda item, with a few notes by Gretchen Quarterman, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the agenda and the Dasher packet materials, the Lowndes County packet items, and the July 11 and 12, 2022, Lowndes County Commission meetings where the Lowndes County rezonings will be decided. Continue reading →

Packet: the two Lowndes County Rezonings @ GLPC 2022-06-27

Update 2022-07-11 Videos: One big Dasher, two small Lowndes County rezonings @ GLPC 2022-06-27.

Here are the two Lowndes County cases for the June 27, 2022, Greater Lowndes Planning Commission Regular Session.

Rezonings

Those two packet items and the minutes of the previous GLPC meeting are on the LAKE website.

-jsq

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One big Dasher, two small Lowndes County rezonings @ GLPC 2022-06-27

Update 2022-07-11 Packet: the two Lowndes County Rezonings @ GLPC 2022-06-27.

The big Dasher item is to split out a couple of parcels for children, at the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) Regular Session Monday evening, June 27, 2022.

One of the two Lowndes County cases looks like they want to build a store. The other is a rare case of rezoning to more rural.

Agenda, Wisenbaker rezoning

Here is the agenda. Thanks to Loretta Hylton of SGRC, we already have the Dasher board packet item, which is on the LAKE website. We have sent Lowndes County an open records request for their cases and the preceding GLPC meeting minutes.

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission
~ Lowndes County ~ City of Valdosta ~ City of Dasher ~
~ City of Hahira ~ City of Lake Park ~ City of Remerton ~
Monday, June 20, 2022 5:30 P.M. Work Session
Monday, June 27, 2022 5:30 P.M. Regular Session
Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue, Valdosta, Georgia
Continue reading →

Videos: Remerton and Hahira cases @ GLPC 2022-04-25

Remerton at almost 28 minutes was far the longest item at the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission Monday. Second was for Hahira, at 12 minutes. Everything else breezed through.

Remerton and Hahira Cases @ GLPC 2022-04-25

The sound is not so good because the county has still not fixed the audio in the room.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, with a few notes by Gretchen Quarterman, followed by a LAKE video playlist.

See also the Lake Park packet item, which Loretta Hylton of the Southern Georgia Regional Commission sent, saying she heard I was looking for it. It’s now on the LAKE website (PDF). Also, she said “The attorney pulled the Dasher item before submitting it to the Planning Commission.”

We still don’t have the Remerton item. The Valdosta and Hahira items were already on the LAKE website, previously sent by City Planner Matt Martin. We still don’t have the Remerton items. There were no Lowndes County packet items. Continue reading →

Big Hahira rezoning, 4 small Valdosta @ GLPC 2022-04-25

Update 2022-04-25: Hahira subdivision proposed near Big Branch of Franks Creek @ GLPC 2022-04-25.

The one big rezoning on the agenda for this evening’s meeting of the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission is HA-2022-06, Sweet Bay Properties, 7440 Union Road, 0024 024, 72 acres, R-15 to R-6, on the site of Guthrie Lumber Company.

Staff recommendation is “Find R-10 zoning consistent with the Comprehensive Plan and the Standards for the Exercise of Zoning Power (SFEZP), and recommend approval of R-10 zoning (instead) to the City Council.”

Rezonings

Here is the agenda. The Hahira and Valdosta items, sent by City Planner Matt Martin, are on the LAKE website. The Dasher, Lake Park, and Remerton items are not; LAKE will send Lowndes County an open records request. The minutes of the previous GLPC meeting are not on the county’s website yet, so they are also not included on the LAKE website yet. Continue reading →

Recommend deny 8:3, Miller Bridge Road Subdivision @ GLPC 2022-01-31

Update 2022-02-06: Board’s Pleasure should be Deny: Miller Bridge Road rezoning @ LCC 2022-02-07.

Everything else sailed through, but the Miller Bridge Road rezoning took half an hour.

Nick Clark from Quitman spoke for the rezoning. As Brad Folsom remarked on behalf of the opponents, the only significant difference between this and the previous request is the lot size, with the newly requested R-A zoning for 6. REZ-2022-03 Windy Hill Subdivision 7532 Miller Bridge Rd., E-A to R-A.

6. REZ-2022-03 Windy Hill Subdivision, 7532 Miller Bridge Rd., 0010 022, ~34 ac., E-A to R-A.

Some new arguments were heard against. Gretchen Quarterman said the taxpayers don’t need any more community wells that the county has to assume and pay for if there are problems with it. Chase Gregory said the current zoning is working well. People do buy larger size parcels (4-80 acres); he gave several examples.

Tommy Kenny, spoke against as immediate neighbor to north and active local farmer.

The Planning Commissioners voted to recommend denial, 8 for, and 3 against.

The Lowndes County Commission decides next Tuesday at 5:30 PM.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, with some notes, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the agenda, the Lowndes County board packet items, returned late by Lowndes County in response to a LAKE open records request, the Dasher packet item, returned in less than ten minutes by SGRC.

1. Call to Order, Pledge, and Invocation Continue reading →

Dasher packet item: 10 minutes from SGRC vs. too many days from Lowndes County @ GLPC 2022-01-31

Update 2022-02-01: LAKE videos: Recommend deny 8:3, Miller Bridge Road Subdivision @ GLPC 2022-01-31.

Minutes from SGRC vs. too many days from Lowndes County.

In the previous post I detailed how Lowndes County had referred me to the Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC) to get the board packet item for the Dasher item on the agenda for tonight’s Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) meeting, Monday, January 31, 2022.

So I sent email to Loretta Hylton at the SGRC. She returned a PDF of the document within less than ten minutes. No need for an open records request.

Land Use and Rezoning maps, DA-21-01, GLPC 2022-01-31

That contrasts with more than three days and only after I quoted the open records law Lowndes County was probably violating.

So that Dasher packet item is on the LAKE website along with the others.

You may ask, why did it take me four days to put this packet item online?

Fair question, but I ask: why doesn’t Lowndes County put the entire GLPC board packet online where everyone can see it, like many counties larger and smaller in Georgia and Florida have been doing for years? Continue reading →

Packet: Staff says growth over agriculture and forestry for Miller Bridge R-A Rezoning @ GLPC 2022-01-31

Update 2022-01-31: Dasher packet item: 10 minutes from SGRC vs. too many days from Lowndes County @ GLPC 2022-01-31.

Lowndes County staff says “existing development pattern and growth of the community” is more important than agriculture and forestry for 6. REZ-2022-03 Windy Hill Subdivision, 7532 Miller Bridge Rd., 0010 022, ~34 ac., E-A to R-A on the agenda for the Monday, January 31, 2022, meeting of the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission. Nevermind the surrounding community overwhelmingly opposes this rezoning and it is the Lowndes County Commission (and the Chamber and others) causing this “pattern and growth” heading north into places it should not go and that the county will never be able to collect enough property taxes to support school buses, fire trucks, and Sheriff calls.

Also, they’ve found one R-1 lot nearby and apparently the Rural Residential Character Area on Morven Road counts heavily as “proximity to the Rural Residential Character Area”. And they’ve ignored numerous requirements of the Comprehensive Plan for for the Agriculture/Forestry/Conservation Character Area, as well as what used to be a hard-no county road safety requirement.

In case you had any doubt, this rezoning is not just about this case, it is about the “precedent set by this case for other similarly sized and located properties in Lowndes County.”

REZ-2022-03: Miller Bridge Road, E-A to -RA

Here is the main text of the agenda sheet for this rezoning. I have boldfaced certain phrases and interleaved the relevant maps from the board packet.

HISTORY, FACTS AND ISSUES: Continue reading →

Videos: Many objections at Comprehensive Plan Stakeholder Meeting @ LCC Comp Plan 2021-09-28

Update 2021-11-08: Videos: Comprehensive Plan Update Public Hearing 2 @ LCC 2021-10-26.

All of the speakers at the Comprehensive Plan Stakeholder Meeting were opposed to moving the Suburban Area line farther north on the Character Area Map. They presented cogent reasons, such as they live up there and aren’t going to sell, there are already 750 lots available for sale while it took a decade for Nelson Hill’s 500 lots to sell, and the county should be looking out for its people and preserving much of the county for the next 50 years.

Comprehensive Plan Update, Crowd, Lowndes County Character Areas, Map of those opposed to changing Character Areas

Most of the Commissioners acted like further development northwest in the county is a force of nature over which they have no control, and expressed more concern for developers and investors than for the room full of people in front of them or the 900 petition signatories opposed.

Here are links to each LAKE video of each speaker with copious notes, followed by a LAKE video playlist. There was no agenda. The lowndescounty.com online calendar had only a title, Comprehensive Plan Stakeholder Meeting, date, time, and place, with no agenda. The draft minutes are sketchy, omitting key points such as the Dorfman report, but you can find that report below. Continue reading →

Cities and Lowndes County settle service delivery dispute @ LCC 2020-01-08

Update 2020-01-10: Not quite settled. Valdosta still has to agree to it.

These must be golden words indeed, to have been worth the hundreds of thousands of legal fees expended over them:

In regards to water and sewer services:
The Parties’ current water and sewer service areas are delineated on the service area maps attached to the DCA Forms for water and sewer services approved herewith.
All existing intergovernmental agreements of the Parties regarding the provision of water and sewer services shall remain in effect.

Any request for an extraterritorial extension shall be negotiated by the requesting Party and the affected Party. Approval of the affected Party shall not be unreasonably withheld.

The wording is “based on trust,” said Commissioner Clay Griner. “Where’s the document?” responded Commissioner Mark Wisenbaker? “It’s on your ipad,” clarified Chair Bill Slaughter.

As the County Clerk proceeded to hand out paper copies, Griner elaborated:

And it’s all based on trust. It’s us trusting, the County Commission trusting the City Council, whichever municipality it is, to do the right thing. The city council has to trust the County Commission to do the right thing. And the citizens to trust all of us to sit down and do the right thing.

After the county didn’t put anything for the citizens to see on the county website about this Wednesday morning meeting until Continue reading →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange