Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce members just got a message from Bruce Allred, Government Affairs Council Chairman, saying:
MONDAY IS DEADLINE TO APPEAL PROPERTY TAX ASSESSMENTS!
You can look up your property on the Tax Assessors’ website: www.qpublic.net/ga/lowndes.
See also the LAKE Videos: Rural revaluation meeting at Farm Bureau 2015-08-04.
That Chamber message includes this useful information: Continue reading
See for yourself the Tax Assessor response to local landowners, in these
LAKE videos of
last night’s meeting at Farm Bureau.
Do you think there’s a problem?
If so, what do you think we should do to fix it?
The attendees appointed Gretchen to take notes. Here are her notes, followed by the videos.
Accessibility is not about access, it’s about geographic location…. That was done by one of our appraisers on staff. —Chief Appraiser Silas Hrobar
Rural and commercial land owners got surprises in the mail in July when they received the updated assessments of their properties. Lowndes County Assessors engaged a contractor last year to help with the reassessments of approximately 10,000 properties. Rural properties were categorized as small (under 20 acres) and large (over 20 acres) but complaints were the same, inconsistent and confusing application of criteria.
On Tuesday evening, Farm Bureau hosted Continue reading
June 2nd 2015, ZBOA approved
Fairway’s new billboard request,
and
building location variance for Gloryhill Cowboy Church, both unanimously, 6-0.
They meet again today at 2:30 PM (they didn’t meet in July).
They welcomed new ZBOA member, John Hogan III, who ran for Valdosta City Council in 2015, appointed to ZBOA by that Council 7 May 2015. Laverne Gaskins declined to be reappointed.
Here’s the agenda, from the City of Valdosta website, followed by the video. Continue reading
Are Bill Gates and subdivisions really more important than agriculture
or rivers or public transportation?
Come to Farm Bureau tomorrow evening
and find out what’s
going on with the rural land revaluation. facebook event.
When: 7PM, Tuesday, 4 August 2015
Where: 3296 Greystone Way, Valdosta, GA, (229) 242-7876
By: Farm Bureau board member Buddy Coleman called this meeting.
What: Compare the Comprehensive Plan to this revaluation here (PDF).
Sprawl: sprawling residential growth is a certain ticket to fiscal ruin (Or at least big tax increases). PDF of the report by UGA Prof. Jeffrey H. Dorfman Lowndes County paid for in 2007, The Local Government Fiscal Impacts of Land Use in Lowndes County.
Who: At least some of the Lowndes County Tax Assessors Continue reading
Does this
rural land revaluation map
resemble the
Comprehensive Plan Future Development map?
Why not?
And why were rivers and public transportation not considered either
by the Lowndes County Tax Assessors
while tracts with road frontage were considered the
“highest market area”
and
land purchases by Bill Gates
were considered
“benchmark sales” instrumental in pricing large tracts?
This rural land revaluation is yet another vehicle to drive development straight north into the agricultural areas of the county, not even stopping at the Withlacoochee River.
That way lies sprawl, which as Dr. Jeffrey H. Dorfman of UGA has said, “is a certain ticket to fiscal ruin* * Or at least big tax increases.”
The City of Valdosta better watch out! Much of this Continue reading
They meet again tonight with
a bylaw amendment scheduled, which is probably for extending officer terms to two years as Roy Copeland proposed.
(He first suggested that at least several years ago when he was re-elected Chairman.)
And their nominating committee nominated
the same officers again.
Lots of dials showing targets and where they are in reaching them, which is good, because I keep getting questions about what they’re doing with all that tax money and are they doing enough to justify it.
One citizen asked about the airport and another (OK, me) handed out Alapaha River Water Trail brochures and once again suggested solar panels at the airport to turn that otherwise-unusable space into profit.
Here’s the agenda and below are LAKE videos, followed by a playlist. Continue reading
VLMPO’s Corey Hull presents today at 5:30 PM to the Valdosta Development Authority. 
Their agenda doesn’t say about what, but one can guess about the proposed studies for public transit and for trucking around Valdosta. Don’t forget to go to the VLMPO Open House on 2040 Transportation Vision tomorrow.
Electrical Test Labs of Georgia, located in Lake Park, will talk about themselves.
And the Authority will elect officers, which I predict will be the same ones they’ve got now since that’s what their nominating committee recommended last month, plus the bylaw amendment I predict will be Roy Copeland’s recommendation to extend officer terms to two years.
Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority
Tuesday, July 21, 2015 5:30 p.m. Continue reading
They’re updating the regional water plan.
They want to cooperate with neighboring water councils
and with similar organizations in Florida.
They meet again
today at Aniston’s Restaurant, 1404 W. Baker Highway, Douglas, GA.
See also:
Please join the opposition to the Sabal Trail watershed invader —WWALS to SSRWPC.
Southern Company’s subsidiaries are all turning to the sun!
Even that titanic ship is affected by the tugboats of its corporate customers.
Ari Phillips, ClimateProgress, 16 July 2015, This Massive Utility Wants More Renewable Energy Because Corporations Are Demanding It,
In June, Alabama Power, one of the country’s largest electricity providers, filed a petition with the state’s Public Service Commission to add up to 500 megawatts of renewable energy over the next six years. The utility, which serves over 1.4 million customers in Alabama, cited customer demand as a primary reason for adding all this renewable energy — specifically corporate customers.
“This program was driven by conversations with customers looking to meet renewable mandates pushed down from their headquarters,” said Tony Smoke, Alabama Power vice president of marketing, in a statement announcing the request. “As a service provider, our focus is to make sure we are providing customers access to choices they want.”
It’s like Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning said in May Continue reading
Not on the agenda, discussed for fifteen minutes, then suddenly
approved:
more funding for the Airport Authority,
at the
14 July 2015 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission.
Which was similar to the previous morning’s transportation study
discussion, except the Commission didn’t vote that time on any possibility
of funding that one.
TSA has reduced the amount of money it gives to small airports like Valdosta and in order to have Continue reading