Tag Archives: zoning

Please reject REZ-2023-04 2.5-acre rezoning on Quarterman Road –Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE 2023-08-28

Update 2023-09-06: Please keep Quarterman Road in agriculture and forestry –WWALS to Greater Lowndes Planning Commission 2023-08-28.

Here is the letter Gretchen Quarterman sent on behalf of Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE) to the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) before their meeting of Monday, August 28, 2023.

[LAKE letter and map]
LAKE letter and map

As you can see in the LAKE videos of that meeting, GLPC recommended denial by 7:1 of REZ-2023-04 on Quarterman Road.

Thanks to everyone who signed the petition: a table of signatories and images of the petition sheets are included. Thanks to everyone who spoke at the GLPC meeting.

The final decision will be at the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session of Tuesday, September 12, 2023. More petition signatures would help, and more calls and letters to Lowndes County Commissioners, and more speakers in the Public Hearing on September 12th.

The LAKE Letter

In PDF and below in web format. Continue reading

Videos: Quarterman Road rezoning recommended against, Mt. Zion Church Road for @ GLPC 2023-08-28

Update 2023-09-05: Please reject REZ-2023-04 2.5-acre rezoning on Quarterman Road –Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE 2023-08-28.

The Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) voted 7:1 to recommend denial of the proposed E-A 2.5-acre-lot rezoning on Quarterman Road, in an agricultural and forestry area.

[Collage @ LCC 28 August 2023]
Collage @ LCC 28 August 2023

They unanimously voted to recommend approval of the R-21 half-acre-lot rezoning on Mt. Zion Church Road that is among numerous existing small lots.

In the first rezoning item, REZ-2023-04 on Quarterman Road, the County Planner mentioned that county staff had been unable to find any record of the previous (1980s) rezoning of the existing subdivision on Emily Lane west of Quarterman Road. Continue reading

Packet: Two county rezonings, one plainly inappropriate @ GLPC 2023-08-28

Update 2023-08-29: Videos: Quarterman Road rezoning recommended against, Mt. Zion Church Road for @ GLPC 2023-08-28.

The Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) has only two cases for Monday, both Lowndes County Cases.

[Two Lowndes County cases @ GLPC 2023-08-28]
Two Lowndes County cases @ GLPC 2023-08-28

County staff recommend approval of both rezonings, one in the middle of subdivisions on Mt. Zion Church Road, and the other in the middle of agriculture and forestry land on Quarterman Road.

For REZ-2023-04 on Quarterman Road, county staff strain really hard to dilute agriculture and forestry by including a nearby subdivision in their first calculation. Quarterman Road is almost all Continue reading

Videos: One rezoning each, Valdosta and Lowndes County @ GLPC 2023-02-27

It took the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) about an hour to consider the Valdosta and Lowndes County rezonings. Each case had quite a few citizen speakers and much Commissioner discussion.

The one Lowndes County case got a 6:2 recommendation to deny. It will be decided by the Lowndes County Commission tomorrow evening, March 14, 2023.

The one Valdosta case got a unanimous recommendation to approve. It was decided by the Valdosta Mayor and Council on March 9th.

[Collage @ LCC 27 February 2023]
Collage @ LCC 27 February 2023

Below are LAKE videos of each agenda item, followed by a LAKE video playlist.

See also the agenda and the board packet materials for the Valdosta item. And the board packet materials for the Lowndes County rezoning that the county got around to sending the day after the GLPC meeting are linked into the agenda post for the deciding Lowndes County Commission meeting.

Here’s a LAKE video playlist:


Videos: One rezoning each, Valdosta and Lwondes County @ GLPC 2023-02-27
Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC), Regular Session, February 27, 2023, Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, .
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq

Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!
http://www.l-a-k-e.org/blog/donate

One case each: Valdosta, Lowndes County @ GLPC 2023-02-27

Update 2023-03-13: Videos: One rezoning each, Valdosta and Lwondes County @ GLPC 2023-02-27.

The one Valdosta case before the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission tomorrow evening is for rezoning 1.76 acres from R-6 to R-M at 915 West Street, “to develop it as an apartment complex with 12 dwelling units.”

The one Lowndes County case is for rezoning about 8 acres from R-1 (Low Density Residential) to P-D (Planned Development) on Janes Road at Smith Street. That’s all I know, because the county has still not sent the relevant board packet materials in response to a LAKE open records request. As a placeholder, I put in a map from the Lowndes County Tax Assessors.

[Valdosta and Lowndes County cases @ GLPC 2023-02-27]
Valdosta and Lowndes County cases @ GLPC 2023-02-27

Here is the agenda. The board packet materials that Matt Martin sent on February 14, 2023, is on the LAKE website, and images from it are below after the agenda. Continue reading

Update: rezonings w. Tiger Creek, whose communications tower? @ LCC 2020-09-08

Here are the answers to these questions from Saturday:

  1. Why is the owner of the planned 300-foot communications tower off US 84 a secret?
  2. Why does the agenda sheet for REZ-2020-11 Bella Mill Plantation, 8450 Ousley Rd., next to Tiger Creek and a short distance upstream from the Withlacoochee River, make no mention of sewage or the size of the septic system relative to the number of expected attendees at the planned event facility?

[Proposed interior sketch]
Proposed interior sketch

  1. TWR 2020-02 is by Diamond Communications and AT&T.
  2. REZ-2020-11: the Department of Public Health determines septic system sizes. That Department won’t issue a septic system permit until they are satisfied.

These answers came from JD Dillard, Lowndes County Planning and Zoning Director. I called him yesterday before the Regular Session Tuesday, and he called back with the answers.

How does the Department of Health determine septic system sizes? Partly by Continue reading

Reappointment to GLPC, three rezonings w. Tiger Creek, whose communications tower? @ LCC 2020-09-07

Update 2020-09-09: Update: rezonings w. Tiger Creek, whose communications tower? @ LCC 2020-09-08

Why is the owner of the planned 300-foot communications tower off US 84 a secret? The Lowndes County Commission will deliberate on that rezoning and three more Monday morning at 8:30 AM and vote on it Tuesday at 5:30 PM, after these rezonings were heard Monday at the Planning Commission.

Why does the agenda sheet for REZ-2020-11 Bella Mill Plantation, 8450 Ousley Rd., next to Tiger Creek and a short distance upstream from the Withlacoochee River, make no mention of sewage or the size of the septic system relative to the number of expected attendees at the planned event facility? Why is there no mention of any speakers against this rezoning, even though there was at least one at the Planning Commission?

[Conceptual Plan]
Conceptual Plan
PDF

In addition to two other rezonings, the County Commission will most likely reappoint Tommy Willis to the Planning Commission.

Here is the agenda. The entire board packet for Monday and Tuesday is on the LAKE website, along with the minutes for the previous meetings two weeks ago, in response to a LAKE open records request. Thanks to new County Clerk Belinda Lovern and Sabrina Denson for speedy responses to such requests.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2020, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2020, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

  1. Call to Order Continue reading

Event facility on Tiger Creek, mystery communications tower @ GLPC 2020-08-31

Update 2020-09-05: Added to the LAKE website the files on late arrival Southern Tractor.

Lowndes County and Valdosta will hear several rezoning cases this week that were before the Planning Commission Monday. The County has a a family children partition case, an event center for weddings and such next to Tiger Creek, for which staff recommends four conditions, a 43.8 acre rezoning for Southern Tractor & Outdoors Valdosta Facility, and a 300′ communications tower for an unnamed company.

[Tiger Creek and Parcel 0017 096, Tax Assessors Map]
Tiger Creek and Parcel 0017 096, Tax Assessors Map

The GLPC board packet materials for the Lowndes County cases are on the LAKE website, thanks to new Lowndes County Clerk Belinda Lovern, in response to an open records request from LAKE.

The Lake Park and Hahira cases were already heard this week by their Councils and Mayors.

Here is the agenda. I’ve interpolated the WRPDO Site Map where I’ve got it (the county didn’t send anything for REZ-2020-12), and a Tax Assessors’ map otherwise. Continue reading

Videos: Oak St. Pregnancy Clinic, Val Del Wetherington, Baytree Nijem @ GLPC 2020-02-24

The longest time, almost 16 minutes, was for Pregnancy Support Clinic of Valdosta at 2203 N. Oak St., followed at 14 minutes by REZ-2020-03 Wetherington Property, Val Del Road RA to PD, with 12 minutes for the Jon Nijem rezoning and Planned Development at 406 & 410 Baytree Road, in a relatively short February meeting of the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission.

VA-2020-05 Pregnancy Support Clinic

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, with a few notes. See also Continue reading

Val Del Wetherington, Baytree Nijem, Pregnancy Clinic @ GLPC 2020-02-24

Neither of the two Valdosta cases at Monday evening’s Planning Commission Regular Session looks controversial, although you never know. Jon Nijem wants to rezone and then get approval for a Planned Development at 406 & 410 Baytree Road. And Pregnancy Support Clinic of Valdosta wants to rezone for office space at 2203 N. Oak St.

In Lowndes County, yet another Val Del Road subdivision, REZ-2020-03 Wetherington Property, is proposed diagonally northeast across the road from Nelson Hill, which makes even clearer why the county wants to pave Clyattstone Road, going from Val Del Road between those two west to Old US 41 North (see below).

[Wetherington property]
Lowndes County Property Appraiser, Wetherington property, WETHERINGTON FRANK L LIVING TRUST, parcels 0071 055, 056, 056A (not 55A), at 4154 and 4424 Val Del Road.

The subject property is in the watershed of Bay Branch, but apparently Continue reading