Tag Archives: property

Are Augusta and Richmond County special in transparency?

So why does

Augusta have the second highest high tech job growth in the country?
I can only speculate, but local government transparency could be a factor.
If you had a high tech company and were looking to open an office,
would you go for a place where you couldn't tell what the local governments
were up to, or one where you could easily find out?
Augusta's combined City Council and County Commission meetings
(it's a consolidated government)

are on video, online.
Their agendas are available in either HTML or PDF,

with attachments.

Here's an example, their



5 December 2012 Commission Meeting.
It includes

a proposed amendment to their land subdivision code.
The actual proposed ordinance

is linked right into the agenda so everybody can see it.

And yes, they link attachments into their agendas before
their meetings;
here's

Augusta's agenda for their meeting tomorrow 18 December 2012,
already with attachments, such as this one

about a zoning exception,
which was apparently submitted on a standard agenda submittal form,
and approved by the Clerk of Commission.

Meanwhile, the outgoing Lowndes County Chairman



complained the Chamber of Commerce hadn't read a proposed
zoning code change
even though

that change is not linked into the agenda (nor is anything else)
and
last year

the same Chairman said no drafts would be published.
Tuesday last week, Lowndes County Commissioners passed changes to the
solid waste ordinance
and to the

alcohol ordinance
that voters and taxpayers and business owners did not get to see
before the Commission voted on them.
Those ordinances seem to be on the county website now that it's
too late to provide input on them: alcohol and waste.
Both ordinances were revised with no public hearings.
And the Chairman even

forgot to hold a scheduled public hearing on special tax lighting districts.
Oh, and they

apparently now have property owners paying on almost $9 million
in bonds for a county palace
that only two years ago they said was already completely paid off
out of sales taxes.

If you had a high tech company and were looking to open an office,

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JC Cunningham against the charter school amendment and for HD 175



JC Cunningham, running for Georgia House District 175
against incumbent Amy Carter,

spells out his opposition to the charter school amendment.
-jsq


Video by George Boston Rhynes for bostongbr on YouTube.

Actually, it's even worse than JC indicates, because
because
HB 797 specifies more money per pupil for charter than for public schools,
and the difference has to be made up out of local sales or property taxes.

-jsq

Laws relevant to Foxborough McDonald’s —Vince Schneider



He’s back from Afghanistan and has a new plan to fight McDonald’s.
Vince Schneider asked the County Commission for an ordinance about hours.

After quoting from the U.S. Tenth and Fourth Amendments
and talking about privacy rights,
he read similar passages from the Georgia Constitution,
and this one, from

Section II. Origin and Structure of Government:

All government, of right, originates with the people, is founded
upon their will only, and is instituted solely for the good of the
whole. Public officers are the trustees and servants of the people and
are at all times amenable to them.

He then read a definition of ordinance,
and noted that many ordinances deal with issues of safety, health, morals,
etc.

His recommendation: for the Commission to pass an ordinance
limiting hours of operation for such type of enterprises.

That’s the county attorney visible directly past Schneider
(under the microphone).
Of course it’s the commissioners who must propose and pass any ordinance.
That will require

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Condos and Agricultural Zoning: latest redraft of ULDC update

Jason Davenport, County Planner, has produced another redraft of the

proposed changes to the Lowndes County, Georgia Unified Land Devleopment Code (ULDC).
Here is his cover letter
and here is the PDF of the proposed changes.
Here’s the first table again:

During yesterday’s 3PM work session, Commissioner Lee asked the County Planner

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ULDC Update Redraft for Monday’s Planning Commission

The Technical Review Committee (TRC) has reviewed the

ULDC update
and has produced a

final draft
for the Planning Commission, which meets

Monday 25 October 2010 at 5:30 PM, still

at the old county commission chambers at 325 W. Savannah Avenue.

More
here about condominiums.

-jsq


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What is a Condominium?



Regarding

condominiums and zoning
in the Lowndes County ULDC,

Georgia condominium law
basically says that zoning
can’t deny condos if some other form of ownership is permitted.
If there’s a five acre minimum, only one condo unit could fit
in that five acres, but with community membership
with the other condos on the associated property..
For example, on an 18 acre piece of property,
the maximum number of units would be 3 or 4.

Of course, a condominium doesn’t have to be a dwelling unit.
As

Gary Stock points out
The key feature is joint ownership:

“A condominium is not a building. It is a form of ownership.”

it could be a horse farm, a hunting camp, a fishing club, or other.
There usually needs to be a general common area, then some limited
common areas with building envelopes for condo unit owners to use
to build buildings (or maybe buildings are already there).
The catch is that because a condominium is all one piece of property
jointly owned, drawing limited common areas and building envelopes
doesn’t require zoning approval.

Appended is one of the more

relevant sections of the Georgia code.

-jsq

ยง 44-3-114. Effect of article upon land use, zoning, building, and
subdivision laws; effect of Code Section 44-3-92; applicability of land
use and zoning ordinances or laws to expandable condominium

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