The Valdosta-Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBOA) had a somewhat unusual case to start out its March meeting, of someone wanting to revert to a previous zoning after the County Commission had approved a rezoning. The owner wants to do a development, but doesn’t have the resources in this economy, so wants to go back to agricultural zoning to make a little money while waiting. It was complicated, with issues of wetlands, costs, advice by county staff, and small business employment. Watch and see!

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They also had a sign request from Denny’s, with input from the neighboring Mobil station and others.

Both of these cases were numbered 2012-01 (one from the county and one from the city). How can they be numbered 01? If I understand correctly, these were the first cases ZBOA has received this year, and this was the first ZBOA meeting this year. That could be an indication of the state of the local economy.

ZBOA mostly considers variances as permitted in the Valdosta City LDR and the Lowndes County ULDC, typically to land uses, locations of buildings within lots, and sign sizes and locations. Here is a list of ZBOA members. Very occassionally many people show up, as when ZBOA denied McDonalds a sign variance. Mostly ZBOA has the same problem as all local elected and appointed government bodies: people show up only for one specific item that affects them directly, and then get up and walk out. They meet at the Valdosta City Hall Annex, if you want to go see them in action.

As decided at the December 2011 ZBOA meeting, there’s a place on the Valdosta web pages for ZBOA agendas and minutes, but none of those seem to actually be linked in there yet.

On that first case, about reverting to agricultural zoning, Mr. Robinson and Mr. Robinson got what they asked for, by unanimous ZBOA decision.

On the second case, the first motion required a tie breaking vote by the chair, who voted against it, and it went to a second motion to decide about Denny’s sign when the camera ran out. Maybe we’ll have to wait for the city to post the minutes….

Here’s a playlist:

Videos
Regular Session, Valdosta-Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBOA),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 6 March 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).

-jsq

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