Category Archives: Lake Park

Lowndes County and every city except Dasher @ GLPC 2020-01-27

Update 2020-02-10: Videos: Verizon Country Club tower, halfway house, and Providence Missionary Baptist Church @ GLPC 2020-01-27.

This may be the longest agenda ever for the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission, meeting tonight at 5:30 PM. Gretchen Quarterman will be there with the LAKE video camera.

Pete’s Otto was at GLPC in January 2017 about establishing its business, and at the Valdosta-Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBOA) in in July 2019 about setbacks.

This time Pete’s Otto seems to want to spread down the street.

And Nancy Hobby wants to go “backwards” to E-A on 10 acres on Loch Laurel Road.

Here is the agenda: Continue reading →

Cities and Lowndes County settle service delivery dispute @ LCC 2020-01-08

Update 2020-01-10: Not quite settled. Valdosta still has to agree to it.

These must be golden words indeed, to have been worth the hundreds of thousands of legal fees expended over them:

In regards to water and sewer services:
The Parties’ current water and sewer service areas are delineated on the service area maps attached to the DCA Forms for water and sewer services approved herewith.
All existing intergovernmental agreements of the Parties regarding the provision of water and sewer services shall remain in effect.

Any request for an extraterritorial extension shall be negotiated by the requesting Party and the affected Party. Approval of the affected Party shall not be unreasonably withheld.

The wording is “based on trust,” said Commissioner Clay Griner. “Where’s the document?” responded Commissioner Mark Wisenbaker? “It’s on your ipad,” clarified Chair Bill Slaughter.

As the County Clerk proceeded to hand out paper copies, Griner elaborated:

And it’s all based on trust. It’s us trusting, the County Commission trusting the City Council, whichever municipality it is, to do the right thing. The city council has to trust the County Commission to do the right thing. And the citizens to trust all of us to sit down and do the right thing.

After the county didn’t put anything for the citizens to see on the county website about this Wednesday morning meeting until Continue reading →

Videos: One Lowndes County case, solar fence, Lake Park, GA @ ZBOA 2019-08-06

Nancy Hobby recused herself before the lengthy discussion of the one ZBOA case for August 2019, which was actually in Lowndes County, VAR-2019-09 — Tycor Farms (6734 Georgia Highway 376, Lake Park) Request for a variance…. or 6530 GA 376, according to a followup letter from the applicant’s representative.

Photo: Gretchen Quarterman, Notice Sign

There was still nothing about the wetlands around the place, leading to Enoch Creek, then into the Alapahoochee River, into the Alapaha, the Suwannee, and on to the Gulf.

Map: John S. Quarterman, from WWALS Alapaha River Water Trail Map.

However, the likely wetlands seem to be along the eastern edge of the cleared area, so one can guess the solar panels are not going there.

Map: Lowndes County Tax Assessor, Parcel 0222 002, Tycor Farms LLC, 6530 GA HWY 376, Lake Park, GA 31636.

Nobody from the audience spoke for or against the application. The result was: Continue reading →

Videos: Four county, four Valdosta @ ZBOA 2019-07-02

Two months ago at ZBOA: setbacks, exterior buildings, parking, landscaping, buffers, and tree protection, in four county cases and four Valdosta cases.

There were split votes on VAR-2019-08 — Grace Baptist Church of South Georgia (6749 US Highway 84 East, Naylor) and APP-2019-04 Ian McTurk (1062 Ridge Road.)

Seven conditions were imposed on a unanimous vote on APP-2019-03 Pete’s Otto Shop (401 E. Ann St./1113 Marion St.)

I’m slow posting these videos, but not as slow as the City of Valdosta, where there’s no Summary of Actions for any meeting since May, and no Minutes since June. However, the minutes are on the LAKE website, in the packet for the next ZBOA meeting, courtesy of ZBOA member Gretchen Quarterman.

Below are links to each LAKE video, with Continue reading →

Videos: Private Roads, Alcohol, and Water @ LCC 2019-08-27

The longest item was 5. Proclamation Presentation to Lowndes County Fire Rescue at two minutes. The longest actual business, one and a half minutes, was 6.f. South Regional Joint Development Authority Resolution, endorsing appointing Jason Shaw to an At Large slot. Do you ever get the feeling they already decided everything before they arrived?

And you wouldn’t know about the somewhat contentious proposed process for accepting private roads into the county road system if Gretchen hadn’t been there the previous morning to video it.

Below are Continue reading →

Private Roads, Alcohol, and Water: Lowndes County Commission Packet @ LCC 2019-08-26

Received Wednesday, after the Lowndes County Commission voted on it Tuesday evening, the board packet is on the LAKE website. Apparently the County Clerk’s office is going to wait the full three days after an open records request to press the button to forward the packet. So we’ll be sure to send requests more than three days before the Regular Session.

The drainage easement agreement with Lake Park did not have a map. The abandonment of part of Ivandale Circle did:

Survey Plat, Hammock Hill Heights

There was also a map with the copiously documented Beer, Wine, and Liquor license: Continue reading →

Videos: Private Roads, Alcohol, and Water @ LCC 2019-08-26

“You’ll see on the attached drawing….” and “You will see in your packet….”, but you the taxpayers and voters cannot see, because the county has not put the packet on its website and has not yet returned it in response to an open records request by LAKE.

Did you know a rollback of 0.126 mills was scheduled for a 5PM meeting today, with adoption at the 5:30PM meeting?

Surprise eighteen minutes yesterday morning on procedures for taking private roads into the county road system.

Three Lowndes County Commission items are about water: Continue reading →

Alcohol, Roads, and Water @ LCC 2019-08-26

Three Lowndes County Commission items are about water: Transfer of Drainage Easement Agreement between Lowndes County and the City of Lake Park, and two Lift Station Pumps, Francis Lake for $49,103.25 to buy a new pump and Peterson Road for $29,689.20 for repairs for lightning damage, both to Xylem. There is no mention of bids.

Francis Lake or Frances Lake keeps coming up at the County Commission and the Planning Commission.

County Manager Joe Pritchard has a mystery item, Continue reading →

One Valdosta Lowndes County case, solar fence, Lake Park, GA @ ZBOA 2019-08-06

Update 2019-09-24: LAKE videos.

Only one case on the ZBOA agenda today: VAR-2019-09 — Tycor Farms (6734 Georgia Highway 376, Lake Park) Request for a variance….

Aerial photograph with buffers marked

Oops, it’s not really at that address; that’s a neighbor’s house. Also, the Technical Review Committee (TRC) changed from recommending denial due to no hardship to recommending approval. Actually it’s at 6530 GA 376, according to a followup letter from the applicant’s representative.

And it’s pretty obvious from the applicant’s aerial map that it’s next to a creek, which as it happens runs into Enoch Creek, then into the Alapahoochee River, into the Alapaha, the Suwannee, and on to the Gulf. Yet I don’t see a word about wetlands in the application.

Valdosta – Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals

Valdosta Planning and Zoning Office
300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, Georgia
(229) 259-3563
Lowndes County Zoning Office
327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia
(229) 671-2430

AGENDA
August 6, 2019
2:30 p.m. Continue reading →

Special Called Meeting to approve SPLOST VIII Projects @ LCC 2019-07-31

You got a notice about this meeting two days in advance, if you signed up for the county’s alerts, which is twice as long as they usually do. Special Called Meeting,

Wednesday, July 31, 2019
A special called meeting will be held to adopt the amended SPLOST VIII Agreement.
Date: July 31, 2019
Time: 8:30 AM
Location: Board of Commissioners
Administration Building
Address: 327 N. Ashley Street
2nd Floor
Valdosta, GA 31601

Lowndes Project List
PDF

Here is Lowndes County’s SPLOST VIII Project List. The biggest items are water and sewer at $23 million and sports at $13,274,912, followed by the historic Courthouse at $12 million. Note nothing about Continue reading →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange