Tag Archives: Greater Lowndes Planning Commission

Videos: 2 Lowndes County rezonings; 1 Valdosta @ GLPC 2013-02-25



Two applicants in a row said they didn’t know until recently
that their properties had restrictions on them,
and even staff seemed confused about at least one of them.
Maybe there’s something wrong with how the county makes that information
available to purchasers of property?
Almost nobody attended the
Greater Lowndes Planning Commission meeting of 25 February 2013,
as you can see from
these videos.


Agenda
Here’s

the agenda.
And here’s a summary of the cases.

Lowndes County, Final action,

Tuesday 12 March 2013


2. REZ-2013-03 Valler


REZ-2013-03 Rezoning for Jeremy Valler, Knight s Academy Rd. R-21 to R-A, Well/Septic, ~10.4

Knights Academy Road, Valdosta

Request to rezone 10 acres from
R-21 (Medium Density Residential)
to
R-A (Residential Agriculture)

They want two pet thoroughbred horses on the property.
Nobody spoke against.



Applicant spoke for, saying the property was purchased
by his mother, who is currently in Iraq, and they had
been under the impression it was already zoned agricultural.
When they discovered it wasn’t, they applied to change it.


In discussion
Jody Hall asked

Continue reading →

Agenda: 2 Lowndes County rezonings; 1 Valdosta @ GLPC 2013-02-25


Agenda
To get an agenda for tonight’s Planning Commission meeting,
apparently you have to go to the meeting; here it is.
It’s sloppier than usual:
Case REZ-2013-04 has neither a number of acres nor
a specific location.
Why is the Planning Commission not revealing this information?

Douglas O. Thompson owns two properties on Bemiss Road, but one
of them is in Valdosta taxing district, so presumably it’s
the other one, of 1.28 acres at 3432 Bemiss Road.
Why is this a secret?

Perhaps for the same reason that the county doesn’t just publish
PDF of this agenda on the web for all to see?

Here’s a summary of the cases.

Lowndes County,

Final action

Tuesday 12 March 2013 		2. REZ-2013-03 Valler

Knights Academy Road, Valdosta

Request to rezone 10 acres from
R-21 (Medium Density Residential)
to
R-A (Residential Agriculture)
3. REZ-2013-04 Thompson

Bemiss Road, Valdosta

Request to rezone [?] acres from
C-H/c (Highway Commercial conditional)
to
C-H (Highway Commercial)
Valdosta,

Final Action

Thursday, 7 March 2013 		4. VA-2013-01 Turner Brooks LLC

411 West Mary Street, Valdosta

Request to rezone 0.50 acres from
R-6 (Single Family Residential)
to
R-M (Multi-Family Residential)

-jsq

Planning Commission yesterday: did you know? @ GLPC 2013-01-28

Did you see an agenda or an announcement that the Greater Lowndes
Planning Commission (GLPC) was meeting yesterday?

Agenda @ GLPC 2013-01-28
Nor did LAKE.
Matt Martin, Valdosta City Planner, usually sends an agenda to
Gretchen, but there were no Valdosta items on this agenda,
so he apparently didn’t even get one.
And the county still doesn’t publish GLPC agendas,
so if there was an item on there that affected you, how could you know?
Does that seem right to you?

On the agenda were three Lowndes County rezoning items,
all involving C-H (Highway Commercial),
and one Lake Park rezoning case, going to
R-P (Residential/Professional).
Here’s a summary of the cases.
You know, if I can do this in a couple of minutes by
typing it in from a photograph that Gretchen took, Lowndes County could
do it in a second by pressing Export to PDF.
Now that there’s a new Chairman, maybe he’ll say they should do that.

Lowndes County,

Final action

Tuesday 12 Feb 2013 		4. REZ-2012-20 Corbett

US 41 South and Newsome Road, Valdosta

Request to rezone ~5 acres from E-A (Estate Agriculture) to
C-H (Highway Commercial)
5. REZ-2013-01 Barrentine

102 Davis Road East, Valdosta

Request to rezone 1.2 acres from
C-H (Highway Commercial)
to
R-1 (Low Density Residential)
6. REZ-2013-02 Interstate Land Management

Briarwood Road along I-75, Valdosta

Request to rezone 4.87 acres from
R-1 (Low Density Residential)
to
C-H (Highway Commercial)
Lake Park,

Final Action

Tuesday 5 Feb 2013 		LP-12-2012-01 Karen K. Nolan and Blanche C. Bush

105 Broadway Street, Lake Park

Request to rezone 0.46 acres from
R-15 (Single Family Residential)
to
R-P (Residential/Professional)

-jsq

Dollar General or not? @ LCC 2012-12-10



Is Naylor maybe going to get a Dollar General or something else,
if the unnamed applicant or applicants get their rezoning
with or without conditions?
None of that is clear from yesterday morning’s

Lowndes County Commission Work Session
for agenda item

7.c. REZ-2012-19 Naylor Dollar General, US Hwy 84 East, E-A to C-G, Well & Septic, ~2 acres.

County Planner Jason Davenport said:

The applicants have mentioned
trying to do a Dollar General at this site.
We believe that’s what they’re going to do,
but however whatever uses are allowed in C-G
would of course be allowed if it is approved
without any conditions.

He said they had the recommendations from the TRC and the
Planning Commission, but he didn’t say what they were.
The Planning Commission

recommended for,
apparently with the understanding that it was
for a Dollar General.
Davenport said there had been no further input since the Planning
Commission meeting.

The Commission could have staff submit written reports that
go in the agenda and minutes, like the Library Board does,
and then put those online as PDF or HTML linked to an HTML agenda,
like Glynn County
and Richmond County do, and we wouldn’t have to guess the
names of applicants or the details of rezoning requests.

Here’s

the video:


Dollar General or not?

Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),

Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 December 2012.

-jsq

Lowndes County’s 2007 and 2012 favors for the same developer

According to the Lowndes County Commission’s minutes,
the developer for whom the Commission now proposes
to change the zoning code back in 2007 got $130,000 in road
construction labor from the Commission.

In the

26 June 2007 Lowndes County Commission Regular Session Minutes:

County Engineer, Mike Fletcher, presented an item that was brought
to the Commission during the previous work session regarding the


paving of Davidson Road. Further, Mr. Clint Joyner was in the
process of building a previously approved development that was being
affected by an unforeseen Department of Transportation requirement
regarding a costly intersection improvement. Mr. Fletcher further
stated that Mr. Joyner was required to pave a portion of Davidson
Road; however, due to the intersection cost he was offering to
purchase the materials for the funding of the entire road, if the
county would provide the road construction labor at a cost of
approximately $130,000.00. Commissioner Lee made a motion to approve
the request, Vice Chairman Carter and Commissioner Roberts offered a
second. Motion carried.



Somebody help me here, is not that the same Clint Joyner back in 2007
getting a $130,000 subsidy from the County Commission
who last month

got invited to talk to the Commission in a Work Session
with nobody else invited to speak?
The same one for whom

the same Commission is now proposing to change the zoning code?
For another development on the same Davidson Road?
A development

the Chamber and Moody and the Planning Commission
are all opposing, while the VDT channels Ashley Paulk in promoting it?

What is it about this Clint Joyner or Joyner Realty or Davidson Road
that the County Commission should favor him or them so?
It can’t be the individual Commissioners: not a one of them is the
same now from 2007.
What is the same then and now?

Maybe we should find out before the Commission grants any more favors.

-jsq

Chamber opposes zoning code change for developer near Moody

Apparently it’s the Chamber and Moody and the Planning Commission

Red arrows on MAZ
and the TRC all against Ashley Paulk
on the Moody rezoning-and-zoning-code case, with the VDT sidling towards Paulk.
The VDT claimed Lowndes County Chairman stated something that’s
not true according to the agenda and LAKE’s videos of the
recent Planning Commission meeting.
And the VDT buried opposition by the Chamber of Commerce’s relevant committee
at the end of its article.

Jason Schaefer wrote for the VDT today,

County disagrees with proposed zoning amendment,
Paulk: Military intervention could prevent development near base,
and the caption of the picture on the right says:

The Greater Lowndes Planning Commission proposed a text amendment to
the Unified Land Development Code in November that would reduce lot
density restrictions from 2.5 acres to one acre, allowing landowners
within the Moody Activity Zoning (MAZ) district “more
flexibility” to parcel off their land holdings, Paulk said.

The Planning Commission’s own agenda says TEX-2012-02 was proposed by
“Lowndes County Board of Commissioners”.
And the Planning Commission

voted to recommend against approving that
text amendment to the ULDC.
According to Planning Commissioner John Page,
that vote was following the recommendation of the Technical Review Committee (TRC),
which consists of staff of Lowndes County and the City of Valdosta.
Page is also an incoming Lowndes County Commissioner, to take office
next month.
So either Paulk said something he as the Chairman of the Lowndes
County Commission should know not to be true, or the VDT wrote erroneously.

The VDT also seemed to indicate that Paulk was speaking for

Continue reading →

Developer didn’t get his way: change the zoning code! @ GLPC 2012-11-26

A developer didn’t get his way at the Lowndes County Commission last month,
so now the county is proposing to change the zoning code for him!
To change zoning right next to Moody Air Force Base,
the largest employer in this area.
A change opposed by Moody because

of flight safety and safety of property,
and
“the longterm viability of Moody Air Force Base.”
A change that would set a precedent for further sprawl,
as Moody indicated indirectly when
the related rezoning first came before the Planning Commission.
Apparently a developer can get whatever he wants around here,
no matter how much it threatens the livelihoods or well-being
of the rest of the citizens.
Does that seem right to you?
To their credit,

the Planning Commission at its 26 November 2012 meeting
unanimously voted against this TEX-2012-02 just as they
did the rezoning case REZ-2012-17 last month.
Both will be decided by the Lowndes County Commission
at its 11 December 2012 meeting.




4. TEX-2012-02

Lowndes County Board of Commissioners

A proposed text amendment to the Unified Land Development Code as it pertains to Single Family residential
Density and Minimum Lot Area within the MAZ (Moody Activity Zone)

County Planner Jason Davenport introduced this item.


TEX-2012-02 ULDC changes
Ultimately at the end of the day this text amendment is a request
to change the minimum lot sizes allowed and the minimum residential densities
allowed in a MAZ-3 zoning district.
We have those changes highlighted on the screen but they have also been
highlighted in the packet….
At the end of the day that is what has happened.

Well, yes, at the end of that day.
At the end of many future days this zoning code amendment
if approved will be used as a precedent for more sprawl
right next to Moody Air Force Base,
which is by far the biggest employer in this area.
The packet he referred to is not available to the public.
The changes he mentioned are not on his

Unified Land Development Code (ULDC) web page.
A view of them as seen from the back of the room is shown on the right here.
Can you read them?


Moody insert in ULDC Map
The

ULDC map linked on that page
includes the Moody Area insert map shown here on the right.

Davenport added that he had received one open records request and a response
from Moody.
Plus state law requires 30 days for Moody to respond and it had been 31 days.
Then he walked through some history using pages in Commissioners’ packets
that we the taxpayers, voters, and residents of Lowndes County can’t see.

Davenport

specifically tied this text amendment to a tabled zoning case:

Continue reading →

Planning Commission recommends nineteenth Dollar General @ GLPC 2012-11-26

The

Planning Commission 26 November 2012
ignored a Naylor citizen’s questions about
a market survey, traffic, trees, peace and quiet, rural living, and sprawl
and unanimously recommended a rezoning request for
the eighteenth Dollar General in the area.
They did this for a developer who doesn’t live in Lowndes County,
and who didn’t even have her name revealed by the Planning Commission,
even though anyone who spoke against had to show up in person
and state name and address.
All this for a location that wasn’t specified in the agenda.
Does this seem right to you?


Dr. Bobbie Robinson

3. REZ-2012-19 Robinson Milltown Properties, LLC

US Highway 84 East, Naylor, Georgia

Request to rezone 2 acres from E-A (Estate Agriculture)
to C-G (General Commercial)

It’s for a Dollar General.
County Planner Jason Davenport said nobody had called in.
The agenda doesn’t say which parcel is the subject,
and the County Planner didn’t specify.

Robinson Miltown Properties map
Judging by the map displayed on the screen, it’s the southeast corner of

parcel number 0250 003, 101.91 acres owned by
Robinson Milltown Properties LLC of 2605 Hall Ave., Tifton, GA 31794.

Dr. Bobbie Robinson of ABAC
According to the Georgia Secretary of State,

that LLC’s agent is
Bobbie Ann Robinson of 2605 Hall Avenue, Tifton, GA 31794.
I’m told she is the Dr. Bobbie Robinson

Professor of English and
Dean, School of Liberal Arts at ABAC in Tifton.
It’s curious how anybody speaking in opposition had to show up in
person and state their name and address,
but she the developer didn’t have to do any of those things.


Clayton Milligan of Lovell Engineering

Clayton Milligan of Lovell Engineering spoke for,
merely saying he offered to answer questions.
Commissioners asked him no questions.


Matthew Richard of 5569 Upper Grand Bay Road spoke against.

Continue reading →

Agenda @ GLPC 2012-11-26


GLPC Agenda 2012-11-26

The Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) meets next Monday,
26 November 2012.
Here’s the

agenda.

The agenda was emailed by Valdosta City Planner Matt Martin
to Gretchen Quarterman who provided it to LAKE.
GLPC itself still doesn’t have agendas online, sixteen months after
SGRC stopped posting them.

Here’s a summary table of the cases.

-jsq

Lowndes County,

Final action

Tuesday
11 Dec 2012 		2. REZ-2012-18 Roger Budd

1006 Lakes Boulevard, Lake Park, Georgia

Request to rezone 0.87 acres from C-C (Crossroads Commercial)
to C-H (Highway Commercial)
3. REZ-2012-19 Robinson Milltown Properties, LLC

US Highway 84 East, Naylor, Georgia

Request to rezone 2 acres from E-A (Estate Agriculture)

to C-G (General Commercial)
4. TEX-2012-02

Lowndes County Board of Commissioners

A proposed text amendment to the Unified Land Development Code as it pertains to Single Family residential
Density and Minimum Lot Area within the MAZ (Moody Activity Zone)
Valdosta,

Final action

Thursday
6 Dec 2012 		5. VA-2012-15 John McCranie

1404 Gornto Road, Valdosta, Georgia

Request to rezone 0.68 acres from Neighborhood Commercial (C-N)

to Community Commercial (C-C)
6. VA-2012-16 Tombrooks, LLC

316 Eager Road, Valdosta, Georgia

Request to rezone 1.80 acres from Single-family Residential (R-15)
to Single-family Residential (R-10)
7. VA-2012-17 El Toreo, Inc.

225 Norman Drive, Valdosta, Georgia

Request to rezone 15.04 acres from Single-family Residential (R-6)
to Highway Commercial (C-H)
8. VA-2012-18

City of Valdosta

Proposed text amendments to the City of Valdosta Land Development Regulations (LDR)

Car wash, parking, alcohol, and night flights: Videos @ GLPC 2012-10-29



The Greater Lowndes Planning Commission made recommendations on cases
involving buffering a car wash, sizing parking spaces, alcohol at a corner store,
and a development inside the Moody exclusion zone,
all at its 29 October 2012 Regular Session.

Here’s

the agenda,
and here’s

a video playlist,
followed by a summary of the cases.


Regular Session, Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC),

Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 29 October 2012.

Valdosta,
Final action
Thursday
8 Nov 2012





2. CU-2012-07 Stafford Properties

1609 Norman Drive, Valdosta

Request for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP for a Car Wash in a Community Commercial C-C zoning district.


Developer from Columbus spoke for.

Continue reading →