Put there for us to use —Barbara Herring

Should developers drive the extension of county services, or should there be a planning process that takes other factors into account? The Glen Laurel rezoning case suggests that developers drive the process now.

Speaking for the Glen Laurel subdivision were Bill Nijem and Barbara Herring. She described the original layout as “a very efficient layout”. She said they redesigned it and added a park in the middle and other green space in addition to natural vegetation.

All the neighbors on the outside wouldn’t be able to see into it very well.
She said they also increased the lot sizes, but they did not change the road plan.

Here’s Part 1 of 2:


Put there for us to use —Barbara Herring Part 1 of 2:
REZ-2010-06, Glen Laurel, Old Pine Rd,
Regular meeting, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 8 June 2010.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman, John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Barbara Herring argued that there was no choice but to make the lots larger because of the larger lot size in some other subdivision.

Now I know if that developer had had sewer, that those lots would have been a lot smaller. He wanted to get them as small as he could, but he had no choice. There was no infrastructure for him to draw from. And there is now. Now we have the chance to use this infrastructure that is there. It was put there at county expense, I’m sure, for us to use.
That’s right, she said the taxpayers put in infrastructure for her development to use. I’m told by people who have been involved in this process for a long time that that’s just how it works: a developer proposes a subdivision and the county extends utilities to it.

And that’s how we get sprawl.

Here’s Part 2 of 2:


Put there for us to use —Barbara Herring Part 2 of 2:
REZ-2010-06, Glen Laurel, Old Pine Rd,
Regular meeting, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 8 June 2010.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman, John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq