Tag Archives: Valdosta

Buffer variance? VAR-2012-07 Copeland @ ZBOA 2011-06-05

A controversial case made its way from the Planning Commission for a rezoning recommendation to the Zoning Board of Appeals for a buffer variance decision, all before it reached the Lowndes County Commission for a decision on the rezoning.

Valdosta-Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBOA) had one Lowndes County case at its 5 June 2012 meeting, a buffer variance request, VAR-2012-07. Related aspects of this same property had already been heard by the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) on 21 May 2012 as the controversial rezoning case REZ-2012-09 Copeland. ZBOA member Nancy Hobby recused herself from VAR-2012-07. ZBOA discussed it at great length and eventually decided to table it. ZBOA, unlike GLPC, does actually make binding decisions, but chose not to do so at this meeting for this case.

Presenting the Case

  • Carmella Braswell, Lowndes County Zoning Administrator, presented the case, saying the property owner, John A. Copeland, wanted a buffer variance for his property at 3258 Loch Laurel Road. The applicant and four neighbors spoke for the buffer variance, but one neighbor spoke against, and others had hired locally famous lawyer Bill Nijem to speak against.
  • Carmella Braswell noted that GLPC had moved its meeting ahead a week, but staff had managed to meet statutory requirements. ZBOA wanted to know what they were buffering against. Answer seemed to be one single-family residence and a pasture. Ms. Braswell said staff had considered buffering according to the zoning statutes, and there were for example churches nearby, plus the existing buffering was mostly on other landowners’ property, and the applicant would be required to plant his own vegetative buffer, plus staff recommended a six foot privacy fence. Dave Kirk noted the abuse of the property had been occuring since 1967. Ms. Braswell said that was unbenownst to county zoning. Also there was no current business license on the property, not since 2007. Gretchen Quarterman asked how long the residents to the north had been there: before or after 2007. Ms. Braswell said well before 2007, and they were present at the meeting. (See Gail Hiers below.)

Speaking For

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Copeland rezoning REZ-2012-09 @ GLPC 2012-05-21

This difficult and complicated rezoning case went to all three of the Planning Commission, the Zoning Board of Appeals, and the Lowndes County Commission. First, here are videos of REZ-2012-09 Copeland at the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC), 21 May 2012.

Presenting the Rezoning Application

This is case REZ-2012-09 Copeland, 3258 & 3264 Loch Laurel Rd, R-A & R-1 to C-C, well & septic, ~5 acres.

  • County Planner Jason Davenport presented the case.

    The request is to rezone about 5 acres of the subject property to from Residentidal Agriculture (R-A) and R-1 to Crossroads Commercial Zoning (CC). He noted that Mr. Copeland was not proposing a new use of the property, but:

    It’s just he’s had a history of not operating with current zoning.

    Davenport said part of that was the fault of the county for not keeping up with what was going on, and part of it was to the credit of the applicant for operating in such a way he hadn’t disturbed his neighbors. And the case itself was very difficult.

    It was so challenging it split the staff.

    The staff meet as the Technical Review Committee (TRC) about cases before they get to the GLPC. New material before the GLPC, he said, included a new survey.

  • Ted Raker (GLPC for City of Hahira) had a question:
    This survey has changed from what the original packet indicated, and the differences of opinion among the staff was prior to this change?

    Davenport said when staff voted they had no survey, but he didn’t think the survey changed their opinions, since what they thought applicant was proposing was pretty much what the survey indicated.

  • Ryan Warren (GLPC for City of Dasher) wanted to know the entrance road frontage width.

    Jason Davenport’s answer was he believed the survey indicated 60 feet width.

Speaking For

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Better cities and counties make better watersheds

Want jobs, low taxes, and less flooding? Help maintain our watersheds with good local planning.

What’s a watershed? Kaid Benfield wrote for Atlantic Cities today, The Cost of Sprawl on Clean Water:

Watersheds are topographic areas where all the rain that falls eventually ends up in a namesake steam, river, lake, or estuary.

These are our local watersheds. Purple is the Little River Watershed, blue is the Withlacoochee Watershed, and Valdosta is where the Little River flows south into the Withlacoochee. Green is the Alapaha watershed, and Tifton is where all three meet. Every drop of rain or used well water or wastewater overflow or pesticide runoff or soapy shower water or clearcut mud that runs downhill into one of these rivers is in their (and our) watersheds.

Becoming greener doesn’t just mean a municipality’s adding a pleasant new park here and there, or planting more trees, although both components may be useful parts of a larger effort. How a town is designed and developed is related to how well it functions, how well it functions is related to how sustainable it really is, and how sustainable it is, is directly related to how it affects its local waters and those who use those same waters downstream.

Compact, mixed-use, well-designed in-town growth can take some of the pressure off of its opposite on the outskirts — or beyond the outskirts — of towns and cities. We know that sprawling growth is generally pretty bad for maintaining environmental quality in a region (air pollution from cars that become necessary in such circumstances, displacement of open land, water pollution from new roads and shopping centers that are begot by such growth patterns).

We also know, as UGA Prof. Dorfman told us several years ago,

Local governments must ensure balanced growth, as
sprawling residential growth is a certain ticket to fiscal ruin*
* Or at least big tax increases.

Kaid Benfield explains how town planning is related to watersheds:

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Appointments to 3 boards, a rezoning, and more: Video Playlist @ LCC 2012-06-11

Here are videos for the 11 June 2012 Lowndes County Commission Work Session. Including a speed zone ordinance they plan to pass this evening; we the public have no idea what's in it. Here's the agenda.

One item has already been blogged separately: Waste disposal has been decided: when?

Here's a video playlist:

Appointments to 3 boards, a rezoning, and more: Video Playlist
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 11 June 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq

Waste disposal has been decided: when? @ LCC 2012-06-11

The Lowndes County Commission continues to make decisions about waste disposal at meetings to which the public is not invited.

County Manager Joe Pritchard said at yesterday morning’s Work Session:

Mr. Chairman and Commissioners, I’d like to give you an update concerning the sales of the trash cards for use for access to the convenience centers. As we discussed in our retreat as well as in consideration of the budget staff will be having, will have these cards ready by this Friday for sale to the public. Cards will be for a six month period. The cost will be $50 for that six month period. We will not be able to allow those cards to be
[interjection from unknown commissioner: “prorated”]
as we did the previous ones. This will enable us to complete the process that Commissioners asked us to do concerning evaluation of several RFQs and RFPs that we will be presenting to you in the next weeks or months. This will be available this Friday. A notice will be placed [inaudible].

So apparently waste disposal was decided at the 4 June 2012 stealth meeting or at their April retreat at an undisclosed location. We don’t know where our elected officials made this decision about a matter that directly affects us. Apparently what they’ve decided so far is they’re going to buy time to pick one or more waste disposal pickup contractors (“RFQs and RFPs”) by issuing trash collection center cards for only six months at a time instead of a year at a time. And oh by the way they won’t prorate any time if you don’t happen to buy yours Friday. So the Commission continues to move towards privatizing the profits of trash pickup and socializing the losses onto landowners (who have to pay for fences and gates), onto the general public (who have to pay for law enforcement to catch dumpers), and onto those who can’t afford to pay for private dump fees (who will get stuck with fines instead).

Here’s the video:

Waste disposal has been decided: when?
Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 11 June 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq

 

Waste disposal decided at stealth Lowndes County Commission meeting? @ LCC 2012-06-04

On today's Work Session agenda, the cancelled 21 May Work Session and 22 May Regular Session are mentioned, but not an unscheduled 4 June 2012 Lowndes County Commission meeting. There is no agenda for it online. It's not in their online calendar, either.

We know about this meeting because of a story by David Rodock in the VDT 5 June 2012, Commission reviews budget proposal,

Commissioners met briefly Monday morning to review the 2013 county budget proposal, which addresses waste management and cost of living increases for county employees.

The whole story is well worth reading, especially since it seems to be the only public record of that public "open" meeting. It includes this paragraph:

“Commissioners also plan to outsource waste management services to a private contractor in the next year. Currently, county residents purchase a card for $100 that allows for annual usage at collection centers. This year, citizens will be able to purchase a six-month card for $50. No firm commitment has been made concerning when the waste management Request for Proposals will be issued, but it's expected before the year's end.”

When did the Commissioners decide this? There's been no such vote recorded in any minutes I've seen. Did they vote at this unannounced and unminuted meeting? If not then, when did they?

-jsq

 

Agenda for work session @ LCC 2012-06-11

Better late than never, I suppose; yesterday there was no agenda posted; this morning it’s there: the agenda for this morning’s work session. It does not appear to have anything about waste management. It does have appointments to there boards, a rezoning, and a bunch of for considerations.

-jsq

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, MONDAY, JUNE 11, 2012, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 2012, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor
  1. Call to Order
  2. Invocation
  3. Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag
  4. Minutes for Approval
    1. Work Session — May 7, 2012 (May 21, 2012, Work Session cancelled)
    2. Regular Session — May 8, 2012 (May 22, 2012, Regular Session cancelled)
  5. Appointments
    1. Lowndes County Department of Family and Children Services Board
    2. Public Facilities Authority
    3. South Georgia Community Service Board
  6. Public Hearings – REZ-2012-09 Copeland, 3258 & 3264 Loch Laurel Rd, R-A & R-1 to C-C, well & septic, ~5 acres
  7. For Consideration
    1. Speed Zone Ordinance
    2. Abandonment of a portion of Brinson Drive
    3. Motorola Support Agreement for Offendertrak and PMDC
    4. Nondisclosure Agreement with JMF Solutions, Inc.
    5. Contract with Municipal Code Corporation
    6. Lowndes County Fire Rescue Firehouse Subs Grant
    7. Funding approval for a new Message Switch (Server) for Lowndes County Telecommunications
  8. Bid — SCBA Cylinders
  9. Reports-County Manager
  10. Citizens Wishing to be Heard Please State Name And Address

-jsq

Solar Lowndes High?

What does the world see driving north up I-75 past Valdosta? The empty roofs of Lowndes High School. Every south-facing one of which could hold solar panels.


View Larger Map

That would do more to put Lowndes County and Valdosta on the map as supporting solar and thus knowledge-based jobs than any amount of exit beautification.

Run out of roof space? What about those parking lots:


View Larger Map

And it wouldn’t take a Ted Turner to do it. In all but a few states the Lowndes County Board of Education (LCBOE) could let a private company finance and install all those solar panels and then lease the electricity for a fixed rate for 20 years, greatly reducing the school’s electricity bill and promoting our local community, all without any expense to we the taxpayers.

But you can’t do that in Georgia! Because Georgia Power doesn’t want us to. Unless we get some laws changed. Follow the link for how.

-jsq

PS: I haven’t forgotten Valdosta High School. All the economic advantages would apply just as well for the Valdosta Board of Education and Valdosta taxpayers. Even Valwood could do this and profit. If we get Georgia law changed to permit it.

Video Playlist @ LCC 2012-05-08

An appointment, a road abandonment, three rezonings, and a bunch of for considerations: they did take longer than five minutes. Here are videos of the entire Tuesday 8 May 2012 Regular Session of the Lowndes County Commission. Here’s the agenda. Here are videos of the previous morning’s work session.

They unanimously reappointed four people to the Lowndes County Development Authority. They held a public hearing about abandoning part of an unopened right of way off US 41 South. Nobody spoke either for or against, and they approved the abandonment unanimously.

They heard several items we saw discussed at much more length in the GLPC 30 April videos.

They zipped through everything else on the agenda, approving everything unanimously, including a no-bid item for $60,354.32 to Scruggs Company. There was some discussion about the need for a contract with an audit firm they hadn’t used for three years. They tabled that one, unanimously, of course.

One citizen spoke, me, about Internet speed and access in Lowndes County as necessary for knowledge-based jobs and businesses.

Here’s a video playlist:

Video Playlist
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 8 May 2012.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq

SPLOST with Lowndes County and the cities @ SPLOST 2012-06-11

The second of two meetings on the Lowndes County Commission According to the calendar for Monday morning, 11 June 2011, is about SPLOST, and also involves all the cities in the county.

SPLOST Meeting/ (6/11/2012)

The Lowndes County Board of Commissioners along with the City of Valdosta, City of Hahira, City of Dasher, City of Lake Park and City of Remerton will be holding a SPLOST meeting on Monday, June 11, 2012, at 9:30 a.m. in the Multi-Purpose Room on the 2nd floor of the Administration Building.

SPLOST is not to be confused with LOST (created by the legislature), nor with ESPLOST for educational purposes, and certainly not with T-SPLOST for transportation.

Unlike the work session, which has no description of what it's about, there is at least a link on the county Quick Links for SPLOST, which says:

Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST)

As of July 1, 1985, Georgia law enabled local jurisdictions to use SPLOST proceeds for capital improvement projects that would otherwise be paid for with General Fund or property tax revenues. SPLOST stands for Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax. This is a one-cent sales tax, which the State of Georgia allows counties to collect to fund specific improvement projects. SPLOST must be approved by voters in a general referendum in order to be enacted and last for a maximum of 60 months (five years) or until the total amount of revenue specified in the referendum is reached. The SPLOST projects and the amount of money raised by SPLOST were identified prior to voting on the SPLOST referendum. The proceeds of the tax must be spent for capital (non-operating) items by the county government and participating municipalities within the county.

That page also includes a list of SPLOST projects completed by January 2010.

-jsq