Category Archives: Lake Park

Follow the law and be aware what the citizens want –Judge Ellerbee @ Lake Park 2014-04-28

Apartments are expensive to local governments, developers don’t sue unless there is actual discrimination (which there isn’t in this case), water use is a big issue, and the primary responsibility of elected officials is to the citizens who elect them: Judge Wayne Ellerbee made these and other points relevant to many rezoning requests as he spoke for some of the opponents at the Lake Park Brookhaven rezoning.

He pointing out that the question before the Lake Park City Council was the rezoning, but the developers needed to take into account the effects on the entire city of Lake Park. He mentioned studies from the University of Georgia saying that the most expensive zoning Continue reading →

Citizens, lawyers, and developers @ Lake Park 2014-04-28

“A molehill to cover up an eyesore” pretty much summed up the neighbors’ opinions. Some of the usual local lawyers seemed surprised at the number and sophistication of the rezoning opponents, as you can see in these videos of the public hearing for the Brookhaven apartment building proposed rezoning. The Lake Park City Council took its duties to its citizens seriously, holding a separate zoning meeting just for this one subject.

Here’s a video playlist:


Citizens, lawyers, and developers
Rezoning Public Hearing, Lake Park City Council (Lake Park),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Lake Park, Lowndes County, Georgia, 28 April 2014.

Attorney Tom Kurrie’s apparent suggestion that the neighbors wanted to discriminate against the elderly and children Continue reading →

Gretchen Quarterman on Chris Beckham radio show 2014-04-29

“People would have a lot more confidence in the government if they understood it and they could see it happen,” said Gretchen Quarterman this morning on drive-time radio. She used last night’s Brookhaven apartment building rezoning public hearing in Lake Park to illustrate: local landowners have property rights and there was a lack of communication between the developers of a proposed apartment building, the Lake Park city government, and the neighbors.

She also talked about jobs, including in local agriculture. For example, she ran the 2014 South Georgia Growing Local Conference. Money spent on local agriculture supports the local economy, not companies far away.

She talked about stewardship of resources, including preserving local property and environment from the Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline. She advocated Continue reading →

Brookhaven apartment building rezoning public hearing 7PM tonight in Lake Park

Gretchen will be there with the LAKE video camera.

Stuart Taylor wrote for the VDT today, Zoning on the agenda tonight at Lake Park hearing,

City officials host a public hearing today at the Lake Park Elementary School cafeteria concerning a rezoning request for an apartment complex.

This is for LP-2014-02-26 Brookhaven III, Continue reading →

Videos: Brookhaven rezoning, road closing, text amendments @ Lake Park 2014-04-01

Opponents to the Brookhaven apartment building rezoning packed the room, like they did at the Planning Commission meeting the previous night. The Lake Park City Council tabled it, asking the developers to go talk to the citizens.

The annexation request discussed at length at the 10 March 2014 Lowndes County Commission Work Session was on the agenda for last night’s Planning Commission but was withdrawn. It’s still on this agenda.

And they have Citizens’ Concerns not once but twice, which resulted in several citizens praising the City Council and staff, especially for the Lake Park Rodeo parade.

Here’s a link to the agenda for the 1 April 2014 Lake Park City Council Regular Session, followed by links to the videos in the order they actually discussed things, plus a few notes. Continue reading →

Videos: Lake Park annexation dropped and apartment rezoning unpopular @ GLPC 2014-03-31

The annexation request for The Gardens was withdrawn (perhaps because the Lowndes County Commission had already explored options for modifying it or just not annexing it), and the rezoning for the Brookhaven apartments was very unpopular, both for Lake Park, plus a Zoning Ordinance change. The twin Hahira cases to rezone and then annex a lot on the east edge of town sailed through. No city of Valdosta cases this time.

Here’s the agenda, with links to the videos.

Continue reading →

Citizens at both GLPC and Lake Park City Council, Monday and Tuesday

Many of the same people went about the proposed Brookhaven apartment rezoning to the 300x149 Crowd, in Greater Lowndes Planning Commission, by Gretchen Quarterman, for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange, 31 March 2014 300x225 Crowd, in Lake Park City Council, by Gretchen Quarterman, for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange, 1 April 2014 Greater Lowndes Planning Commission 31 March 2014 and the next night to the Lake Park City Council 1 April 2014, where that item was tabled to give time for the developers to talk to the citizens. Video to come. Video ready for GLPC 2014-03-31.

Continue reading →

Controversial rezoning and no annexation @ Lake Park 2014-04-01

The Brookhaven apartment building packed the Planning Commission meeting last night and it’s on the agenda in Lake Park tonight.

The annexation request discussed at length at the 10 March 2014 Lowndes County Commission Work Session was on the agenda for last night’s Planning Commission but was withdrawn. It’s still on this agenda.

And they have Citizens’ Concerns not once but twice.

Here’s the agenda. They put it in HTML right on their website!

Date/Time
Date(s) – April 1, 2014
7:30 PM – 9:30 PM

Location
Lake Park City Hall

Continue reading →

Hahira twins and three each Lake Park and Lowndes County @ GLPC 2014-03-31

The twin Hahira cases are to rezone and then annex a lot on the east edge of town. No city of Valdosta cases this time, but three each for Lowndes County and Lake Park. One of the Lake Park cases is a Zoning Ordinance change.

Here’s the agenda, which arrived as a PDF of an image, which I have OCRed into HTML.

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission

Lowndes County City of Valdosta City of Dasher City of Hahira City of Lake Park

REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING

AGENDA

Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue

Monday, March 31, 2014* 5:30 P.M. * Public Hearing

Continue reading →

Lake Park Rodeo, tonight and tomorrow

Bull riding, barrel racing, calf roping, for the first-ever Lake Park Rodeo, at Raisin Cane, 3350 Newsome Road, gates open 5PM, events start 5:30PM, tonight (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday). Fun, community, and lots of business and political leaders.

Kay Harris wrote for the VDT 23 March 2014, Rodeo Lake Park a big event this week,

A small community can do great things when everyone comes together, and Lake Park folks are definitely coming together for this event.

Support the rodeo this week in Lake Park!

-jsq