{"id":25731,"date":"2026-05-28T09:41:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T13:41:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=25731"},"modified":"2026-05-28T09:41:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T13:41:37","slug":"packet-communications-tower-and-minutes-of-previous-meeting-glpc-2026-05-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2026\/05\/packet-communications-tower-and-minutes-of-previous-meeting-glpc-2026-05-25.html","title":{"rendered":"Packet: communications tower and minutes of previous meeting @ GLPC 2026-05-25"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nYesterday we finally got half of the missing items from\r\n\r\nthe board packet<\/a> for the Tuesday evening Planning Commission.\r\nWe got the draft Minutes of the previous meeting, but not the materials for the withdrawn communications tower item.\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[Packet:<\/a>\r\n
Packet: communications tower @ GLPC 2026-05-25, Minutes of previous meeting @ GLPC 2026-04-27<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) almost never modifies their minutes from the initial draft.\r\nFor example, for the \r\nJune 30, 2025, GLPC meeting<\/a>, there is no difference, other than the lack of a big slanted DRAFT marker, between the \r\ndraft minutes<\/a>\r\nand the\r\n\r\napproved minutes<\/a>, by my visual and mechanical comparison.\r\nThe approved minutes came from the\r\nArchive Center<\/a>\r\nlinked at the top of the Agenda Center<\/a> page on lowndescounty.com.\r\n

\r\nThe county could just go ahead and put the minutes of the previous meeting in the agenda center when they post the agenda for the current meeting.\r\n

\r\nThe agenda also is not approved until the actual meeting,\r\nand sometimes changes.\r\nFor example, for the May GLPC meeting, the TWR-2026-01 item was withdrawn after the agenda was posted.\r\n

\r\nI do not understand what advantage the county thinks it derives from lack of transparency.\r\n

\r\nWe got the other Lowndes County parts of the GLPC packet for May 25 on May 22, in response to a LAKE GORA request of May 19.\r\nThe City of Valdosta had already sent their items, and the other municipalities had responded saying they had none.\r\n

\r\nOn May 24, I asked the county again:\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n

\r\nPlease send this part of the request: -jsq\r\n

\r\nIncluding the minutes of the previous GLPC meeting (those are NOT on the lowndescounty.com website).\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nThen it was back to the bad old times with the May 26 county response:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nWhen the minutes are approved they will be uploaded to the county website.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nThat same day I reminded the county of state law:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nThe Georgia Open Records Act (GORA) doesn’t say anything about waiting until minutes are approved.\r\n

\r\nIt says:\r\n

\r\n“50-18-71.(a)<\/a> All public records shall be open for personal\r\ninspection and copying, except those which by order of a court of\r\nthis state or by law are specifically exempted from disclosure.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/law.georgia.gov\/document\/publication\/186385699r1pdf\/download<\/a>\r\n

\r\nUnless you can cite a court order or a law that prevents providing draft minutes,\r\n
\r\nplease go ahead and send the draft minutes. -jsq\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nAnd finally on May 27 we got the Minutes for April from Projects Assistant Jason Davenport.\r\nJason Davenport.\r\nMany of you may recall that Jason was the previous County Planner.\r\nMaybe he remembers back when we went through this rigamarole before.\r\n

\r\nAlso on May 24 I asked for the materials for the other Lowndes County case, TWR-2026-01.\r\nAnd on May 26, the response from BOC Records was, “As for the TWR-2026-01 it has been withdrawn.”\r\n

\r\nSo I asked again on May 26, noting, “However, you still have a copy of the board materials for TWR-2026-01 and my request still stands.”\r\n

\r\nAnd on May 27, Jason Davenport’s response included, “Initial research on the TWR-2026-01 case was done and then before the research was completed the case was withdrawn. We expect the applicants to update the case and then refile it with a new case number. They have not done that yet.”\r\n

\r\nYet TWR-2026-01 did get into the GLPC Agenda for May, so presumably the county did have something in writing.\r\nMaybe I’ll send another request again citing the Georgia Open Records Act (GORA).\r\n

\r\nFor the tower I have once again inserted a\r\n\r\nLowndes County Tax Assessors map<\/a>.\r\nYou may recall the proposed site is near Meetinghouse Branch, which runs into the Little River slightly upstream from GA 122 and Folsom Bridge Landing,\r\nwest of Hahira.\r\n

\r\nImages of each page of the Minutes from April are below,\r\nalong with images of the Agendas for April and May.\r\n

\r\nThe corresponding PDF files from the county are\r\n\r\non the LAKE website<\/a>.\r\n

\r\nSee also the\r\n\r\nApril 27, 2026, agenda and board packet<\/a>\r\nand the\r\n\r\nLAKE videos of that April GLPC meeting<\/a>.\r\n

\r\nAnd the agenda and board packet<\/a> for the May 25, 2026, GLPC meeting.\r\nTo come: the LAKE videos of the May GLPC meeting.\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>\r\n

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<\/a>!\r\n
\r\n\r\nhttp:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/donate<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

GLPC-Agenda-May-2026<\/a><\/H4>\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[Agenda<\/a>\r\n
Agenda 2026-05-26<\/a>\r\n
PDF<\/strong><\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

4. TWR-2026-01, Salem Church Communication Facility, Old Valdosta Road N. Hahira, GA ~25ac, Parcel 0008-010<\/a><\/H4>\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[Map:<\/a>\r\n
Map: TWR-2026-01, Parcel 2026-05-24 0008 010 –Lowndes County Tax Assessors<\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

GLPC-Agenda-April-2026-04-27<\/a><\/H4>\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[Lake<\/a>\r\n
Lake Park and Lowndes County Cases<\/a>\r\n
PDF<\/strong><\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[City<\/a>\r\n
City of Valdosta Cases<\/a>\r\n
PDF<\/strong><\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

Minutes-2026-04-27<\/a><\/H4>\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[3.<\/a>\r\n
3. LP-2026-01 304 and 402 Long Pond Road, Lake Park, GA<\/a>\r\n
PDF<\/strong><\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[4.<\/a>\r\n
4. REZ-2026-11 Webb Fish Farm & Blackwater Development, 4130 Old Bemiss Rd, 4.8 ac<\/a>\r\n
PDF<\/strong><\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[Page<\/a>\r\n
Page 3<\/a>\r\n
PDF<\/strong><\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[5.<\/a>\r\n
5. REZ-2026-12 4909 Bemiss Rd, ~2.4ac<\/a>\r\n
PDF<\/strong><\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[6.<\/a>\r\n
6. CU-2026-02 421 Cowart Avenue<\/a>\r\n
PDF<\/strong><\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[Nine<\/a>\r\n
Nine conditions<\/a>\r\n
PDF<\/strong><\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[Speakers<\/a>\r\n
Speakers for and against<\/a>\r\n
PDF<\/strong><\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[CU-2026-02<\/a>\r\n
CU-2026-02 Recommended approval 9:1, Commissioner Graham opposed; 7. VA-2026-03 510 & 512 North Barack Obama Blvd<\/a>\r\n
PDF<\/strong><\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[8.<\/a>\r\n
8. VA-2026-04 4255 N Forrest Street Extension<\/a>\r\n
PDF<\/strong><\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[9.<\/a>\r\n
9. VA-2026-05 4255 N Forrest Street Extension<\/a>\r\n
PDF<\/strong><\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n\"[Adjourned]\"<\/a>\r\n
Adjourned<\/a>\r\n
PDF<\/strong><\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yesterday we finally got half of the missing items from the board packet for the Tuesday evening Planning Commission. We got the draft Minutes of the previous meeting, but not the materials for the withdrawn communications tower item. Packet: communications tower @ GLPC 2026-05-25, Minutes of previous meeting @ GLPC 2026-04-27 The Greater Lowndes Planning […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[325,602,88,3,54,55],"tags":[13547,11867,8701,4720,8764,10885,326,8791,655,8702,127,12,7,8734,11445,9762,13546,13552,13551,11435,8700,13548,13542,6,8726,8727,8398],"class_list":["post-25731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-glpc","category-hahira","category-lowndes-county-commission","category-transparency","category-valdosta-city-council","category-water","tag-alan-neal-carter","tag-boc-records","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-open-records-act","tag-glpc","tag-gora","tag-greater-lowndes-planning-commission","tag-hahira","tag-jason-davenport","tag-lake","tag-little-river","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-lowndes-county-commission","tag-meetinghouse-branch","tag-old-valdosta-road","tag-old-valdosta-road-n","tag-projects-assistant","tag-salem-church-communication-facility","tag-salem-church-road","tag-transparency","tag-twin-lakes","tag-twr-2026-01","tag-valdosta","tag-valdosta-city-council","tag-water","tag-webb-road"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-6H1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25731"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25731\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25736,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25731\/revisions\/25736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}