Not clear houses are more important than agriculture —John S. Quarterman @ LCC 12 July 2011

If somebody puts a subdivision next to your field, beware of trash, and the same if you buy a lot in it. For that matter, why do we need more houses?

Some of what I said:

To expand a little bit on that subdivision next to our west field, one of the builders continued to push trash into our field until I had to sue him for trespass in Superior Court to get him to stop.
I meant to say in Magistrate’s Court.
I called code enforcement multiple times and they did nothing to help stop it. Now that there’s a new fire chief perhaps things are better, but anybody who’s got a field nearby might want to watch for that.

Anyone who hopes to buy houses in the subdivision might want to watch to see if there are any dumpsters in there, because the subdivision near us, the trash was buried in the yards; you can ask anyone who owns one of those lots.

As far as needing houses for Moody, there are usually ten houses for sale in that subdivision, and roughtly 10 or 15 more that are for rent. So it’s not clear we actually need more houses.

As far as lot size, this is the same issue as came up last year with Glen Laurel on Old Pine Road. … The room was filled with people for the same reasons that you’re hearing now. At that time the commission decided to say ….

You can see for yourself what happened in May of last year: the developers refused to budge on lot size, and the Commissioners caved and gave them the rezoning.

Here’s Part 1 of 2:


Not clear houses are more important than agriculture —John S. Quarterman @ LCC 12 July 2011 Part 1 of 2:
Nottinghill, Cat Creek, rezoning, REZ-2011-10,
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 July 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

I noted that in between the Glen Laurel rezoning and now, there had been a case (Laurel Brooke, 10 May 2011) where the developer had started off with bigger lots, gotten no objection from the community, and got his rezoning no problem. Same developer, all three cases.

I concluded by talking about the social implications of Gretchen’s point about sprawl being bad for the fiscal health of the county. Noting that everyone wants the county to grow in one way or another, it seemed to me that developers weren’t the only ones who should be given consideration, and that there should be consideration for families who have invested for generations, like those who came to speak at this meeting.

Here’s Part 2 of 2:


Not clear houses are more important than agriculture —John S. Quarterman @ LCC 12 July 2011 Part 2 of 2:
Nottinghill, Cat Creek, rezoning, REZ-2011-10,
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 July 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq