Tag Archives: Loch Laurel Road

Videos: ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn LTD rezoning, adoption of millage rates, USGS stream gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection @ LCC Regular 2024-10-15

Update 2024-10-17: Packet: ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn LTD rezoning, adoption of millage rates, USGS stream gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection @ LCC 2024-10-14.

As Chairman Bill Slaughter said they would in the preceding Millage Public Hearing, they adopted the roll back millage rate of 7.356 rather than the advertized rate of 7.804. Last year (2023) the rate was 8.778.

The Fire District Millage Rate is continuing at 2.5 mil. The commission plans to continue this rate for 5 years from the start date. This is probably year 3, so apparently 2 more years.

[Collage @ LCC 15 October 2024]
Collage @ LCC 15 October 2024

They actually did table the 5.a. TXT-2024-03 ULDC Text Amendments and the rezoning 5.b. REZ-2024-15 Loch Laurel – Carroll Ulmer so the Planning Commission could hear them at the October 28 meeting and then voted on at the November 12 Lowndes County Commission Regular Meeting.

There was quite a bit of discussion between Commissioners and Lowndes County Manager Paige Dukes and Utilities Director Steve Stalvey about the Sprayfield Expansion. Continue reading →

Videos: Forestry, Weather, ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn LTD rezoning, adoption of millage rates, USGS stream gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection @ LCC Work 2024-10-14

Update 2024-10-17: Videos: Millage Public Hearing @ LCC 2024-10-15.

Only in the Work Session this morning, and if you weren’t there, only in these LAKE videos:

[Collage @ LCC Regular 14 October 2024]
Collage @ LCC Regular 14 October 2024

In regular items, County Planner JD Dillard recommended tabling the ULDC Text Amendments until stakeholders have more time to comment. He referred to the copy Commissioners had in their packet. We the taxpayers and voters do not have a copy.

He also recommended tabling 5.b. REZ-2024-15 Loch Laurel – Carroll Ulmer until the Planning Commission can review it. Which indicates that GLPC did not meet last month, even though there was no announcement that it had been cancelled.

Finance Director Stephanie Black said there would be a Millage Public Hearing at 5PM tomorrow, Tuesday, October 15, before the 5:30 PM Regular Session.

There was discussion in 7.a. Sprayfield Expansion Phase I. Continue reading →

Agenda: ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn LTD rezoning, adoption of millage rates, USGS stream gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection @ LCC 2024-10-14

Update 2024-10-14: Videos: Forestry, Weather, ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn LTD rezoning, adoption of millage rates, USGS stream gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection @ LCC Work 2024-10-14.

The long-quorum-and-hurricane–delayed REZ-2024-15 Loch Winn LTD rezoning will probably be decided Tuesday evening by the Lowndes County Commission. Before that, it will be heard at the Work Session Monday morning 8:30 AM, along with suprise ULDC text amendments, two millage rates, river gauges, sprayfield, and watermain interconnection between two northside subdivisions.

The adoption of the regular and Fire District millage rates will presumbably get presentations much like the last Millage Public Hearing on September 19.

We get a one-paragraph summary of TXT-2024-03 ULDC Text Amendments, but not the actual text.

We would have seen the text in the GLPC packet, but back in June the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission abdicated oversight of ULDC text amendments. And in June, the Lowndes County Commission rubberstamped that abdication.

The agenda item says, “9/2024 VDT Advertisements Published (Public Notice)” but I can’t find that in GeorgiaPublicNotice.com.

What is it the county planners and Commissioners do not want the public to see?

[ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn rezoning, millage rates, river gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection: Grove Pointe, Nelson Hill @ LCC 2024-10-14]
ULDC text amendments, Loch Winn rezoning, millage rates, river gauges, sprayfield expansion, watermain interconnection: Grove Pointe, Nelson Hill @ LCC 2024-10-14

Here’s a refresher for where this would be, between Old US 41 North and Val Del Road: Grove Pointe Nelson Hill Watermain Interconnection. Continue reading →

One Lowndes County Case, six Valdosta cases @ GLPC 2024-09-30

One of the two county cases from the lack-of-quorum GLPC cancellation last month is back on the agenda for tomorrow evening. The other former case was passed anyway by the Lowndes County Commission, without GLPC review.

[Collage @ LCC Packet 2024-09-30]
Collage @ LCC Packet 2024-09-30

The six Valdosta cases are new, and are all for small rezonings or the like.

Here is the agenda. Assuming the meeting actually happens despite hurricane damage.

The board packet materials, recieved in response to a LAKE open records request, are on the LAKE website.

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission
~ Lowndes County ~ City of Valdosta ~ City of Dasher ~
~ City of Hahira ~ City of Lake Park ~ City of Remerton ~

Monday, September 23, 2023 5:30 P.M. Work Session
Monday, September 30, 2023 5:30 P.M. Regular Session
Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue, Valdosta, Georgia Continue reading →

Videos: Loch Laurel Road subdivision tabled; Pine Grove Road townhouses passed; TIA Orr Road Extension @ LCC Regular 2024-09-10

Update 2024-09-29: One Lowndes County Case, six Valdosta cases @ GLPC 2024-09-30.

They tabled the Loch Winn Farms subdivision until it could be heard by the Planning Commission.

But they passed the Pine Grove Road Townhouses, without any Planning Commission review.

I guess the Planning Commission doesn’t matter if it’s in the Lowndes County Commission’s preferred development corridor in what staff call Central Lowndes County. Also, nobody spoke against, and Jack Langdale spoke for.

[Collage @ LCC 10 September 2024]
Collage @ LCC 10 September 2024

Commissioner Demarcus Marshall asked for a timeline for 6.a. Orr Road Extension, P.I. 0016273 TIA Project Agreement. Answer from County Engineering Services Director Chad McLeod: late 2025 bid process.

One citizen spoke: William Cary, about plastic recycling, saying Waste Management will no longer pick up plastic.

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 Continue reading →

Videos: Rezonings Loch Laurel Road subdivision & Pine Grove Road townhouses; TIA Orr Road Extension @ LCC Work 2024-09-09

Update 2024-09-11: Videos: Loch Laurel Road subdivision tabled; Pine Grove Road townhouses passed; TIA Orr Road Extension @ LCC Regular 2024-09-10.

The Lowndes County Commissioners spent quite a while discussing whether they would table 5.a. REZ-2024-15 Loch Winn Farms, LTD, ~62ac, R-A to R-1 – R-A, indicating they probably would, but informing the public was difficult, because the actual decision would be made at the Regular Session the next day.

They did not have as much discussion about tabling for 5.b. REZ-2024-16 Pine Grove Road Townhouses, 6.3ac, C-H to P-D, which may well be a signal that they won’t table.

Both rezoning cases were not heard by the Planning Commission due to a lack of quorum.

[Collage @ LCC 9 September 2024]
Collage @ LCC 9 September 2024

They didn’t have much to say about the $1,175,000 6.a. Orr Road Extension, P.I. 0016273 – TIA Project Agreement. Sure, that’s state money, but it’s still your tax dollars.

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 Continue reading →

Packet: Rezonings Loch Laurel Road subdivision & Pine Grove Road townhouses; TIA Orr Road Extension @ LCC 2024-09-09

Update 2024-09-11: Videos: Rezonings Loch Laurel Road subdivision & Pine Grove Road townhouses; TIA Orr Road Extension @ LCC Work 2024-09-09.

We will see how irrelevant the Planning Commission is.

The preceding GLPC meeting was cancelled due to lack of a quorum, yet the two county rezonings are on this Lowndes County Commission agenda for a decision this week. If the County Commission decides without hearing from the Planning Commission, that will be quite interesting.

Since both rezonings get Public Hearings, you can stand up and speak during those, without waiting for the Citizens Wishing to Be Heard ghetto at the end of the meeting.

[Packet: Collage @ GLPC 2024-08-26]
Packet: Collage @ GLPC 2024-08-26

Also on the agenda is Orr Road Extension, P.I. 0016273 – Transportation Improvement Act (TIA) Project Agreement, for $1,175,000. That’s in addition to the previous TIA projecta:

  • $2,400,000 Clyattstone and Simpson Road Grading, Drainage, Base, and Paving
  • $3,750,000 Hightower Road and Cooper Road NE Paving Project

Which totals to $7,325,000 in TIA money for just these three road projects. Sure, that’s state money, but it’s still your tax dollars.

Here is the agenda.

The board packet is on the LAKE website.

See also the board packet for the preceding meeting of the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC), which was cancelled due to lack of a quorum.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2024, 8:30 A.M.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2024, 5:30 P.M.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Packet: 2 Lowndes County cases; Loch Laurel Road subdivision & Pine Grove Road townhouses @ GLPC 2024-08-26

Update 2024-09-08: The GLPC meeting was cancelled due to lack of a quorum, yet the two county rezonings are on the Lowndes County Commission agenda anyway. Packet: Rezonings Loch Laurel Road subdivision & Pine Grove Road townhouses; TIA Orr Road Extension @ LCC 2024-09-09.

The Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) Monday evening at 5:30 PM will consider townhomes on Bemiss Road in the north of the county and apartments on Loch Laurel Road in the south of the county.

[Packet: Collage @ GLPC 2024-08-26]
Packet: Collage @ GLPC 2024-08-26

GLPC recommends. The actual rezoning decisions will be made by the Lowndes County Commission at a later date.

Here is the agenda:

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission
~ Lowndes County ~ City of Valdosta ~ City of Dasher ~
~ City of Hahira ~ City of Lake Park ~ City of Remerton ~

Monday, August 19, 2024 5:30 P.M. Work Session
Monday, August 26, 2024 5:30 P.M. Regular Session
Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue, Valdosta, Georgia

Continue reading →

Packet: Subdivisions, Land taking, trash @ LCC 2021-03-22

As usual, the items with the most long-term expense are in the agenda for zero dollars, for the Lowndes County Commission meetings Monday and Tuesday: two subdivisions, one opposed by 200 neighbors (REZ-2021-03 Johnston Subdivision, School House Pond Road), another wanting the county to accept its roads, water, and other infrastructure (Adopt Resolution Accepting Infrastructure for Quarterman [no relation] Estates Subdivision Phase III on Whitewater Road), meaning the county is on the hook for maintenance, in addition to costs of sending school buses, sheriff, fire, etc.

[Subdivisions, Taking, Trash collection sites]
Subdivisions, Taking, Trash collection sites

Cost What
$2,149,692.26FY 2020 Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant Application
$43,490.00Bid for Breathing Air Machine for the Fire Department
$339.00Approve Condemning Right of Way and Drainage Easement for Hightower Road – Cooper Road TSPLOST Paving Project
$0.00Advanced Disposal Services Residential Solid Waste Franchise Renewal
$0.00Deep South Sanitation, LLC. Residential Solid Waste Franchise Renewal
$2,193,521.26Total

Most of the $2 million acknowledged in the board packet is for fire and rescue, which seems good to me.

In a rare move, apparently negotiations fell through with a landowner for land for utilities, so the county has condemned it and is taking it for a nominal fee: Approve Condemning Right of Way and Drainage Easement for Hightower Road – Cooper Road TSPLOST Paving Project.

The board packet, obtained in response to a LAKE open records request, is on the LAKE website. Here is the agenda:

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2021, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 2021, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading →

Two rezonings, contractors for personal property assessments and water tank cleaning @ LCC 2021-03-08

In addition to the big ticket items of $1.5 million approved this week by the Lowndes County Commission, one rezoning will probably actually cost the county nothing, and the other will most likely eat up more tax dollars down the road.

The inexpensive one is REZ-2021-02 on Loch Laurel Road, where Nancy Hobby is returning some land to Estate Agriculture (EA) zoning. The pricey one is REZ-2021-01 Knights Landing Subdivision, Phase 5, where most likely the county will end up paying for road maintenance or fixing utilities or something else down the road, plus fire trucks and school buses.

[Two rezonings and $252,000 for contractor, personal property assessment]
Two rezonings and $252,000 for contractor, personal property assessment

Cost What
$1,322,274.00Tank Maintenance Contract
$252,000.00Deen’s LLC Contract
$1,574,274.00Total

The agenda packet item says that the Deen’s LLC Contract for personal property appraisal costs $84,000, but that is per year, and the contract is for three years, so the real price is $252,000. Continue reading →