Category Archives: Lowndes County Commission

Videos: 4 long Lowndes County cases + 2 long Valdosta cases @ GLPC 2022-05-23

Update 2022-06-14: Agenda, 4 rezonings, 2 xourts, 1 appointment, and a big ARPA-funded water project @ LCC 2022-06-16

An overflow crowd, some in the lobby, came for the four Lowndes County cases at the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission, May 23, 2022. Two of the Valdosta cases were also contentious. The whole meeting took more than three hours, so long there was griping about people getting hungry. The door alarm went off at 8 o’clock, but they plowed ahead with three remaining cases. When they adjourned at 8:52 PM, nobody was left in the audience but Gretchen Quarterman with the LAKE video camera.

[Flannigan, Campus, Makesh, Pittman]
Flannigan, Campus, Makesh, Pittman

One county and one city case were on James Road. The county case got a unanimous recommendation to deny, moved by famously pro-development Franklin Bailey. The Commissioners really did not seem to like “speculative commercial use on the subject property.” Continue reading →

Videos: Budget Work Session, Lowndes County Commission 2022-05-23

No citizens showed up other than Gretchen Quarterman, behind the LAKE video camera. Commissioners did not vote, because this is presumably the first of several Budget Hearings. Or is it? It was billed as a Work Session. Anyway, it took seventeen minutes.

[Executives and Revenue]
Executives and Revenue

County Manager Paige Dukes said Continue reading →

5 Valdosta rezonings, 1 Hahira ordinance amendment, 4 Lowndes County rezonings with without packets @ GLPC 2022-05-23

Update 2022-06-03: 4 long Lowndes County cases + 2 long Valdosta cases @ GLPC 2022-05-23, including the board packet materials for the county cases and the minutes for the previous meeting.

Everything from a pair of personal care homes to a fraternity to a church to the Salvation Army wants rezoning or variances at this evening’s Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) meeting.

The board packet materials for the Hahira and Valdosta items are on the LAKE website, thanks to City Planner Matt Martin.

[Maps]
Maps

LAKE has no materials for the Lowndes County items, and no copy of the draft minutes from the previous meeting, because Lowndes County has not yet sent them in response to a LAKE open records request.

Here is the agenda:

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission
~ Lowndes County ~ City of Valdosta ~ City of Dasher ~
~ City of Hahira ~ City of Lake Park ~ City of Remerton ~

Monday, May 16, 2022 5:30 P.M. Work Session
Monday, May 23, 2022 5:30 P.M. Regular Session
Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue, Valdosta, Georgia

Continue reading →

Budget Work Session, Lowndes County Commission 2022-05-23

Update 2022-05-23: Videos: Budget Work Session, Lowndes County Commission 2022-05-23.

Appeared on lowndescounty.com/calendar a few days ago:

[Budget Work Session Notice]
Budget Work Session Notice

No agenda. No draft budget on the Finance Department web pages (the most recent is the one about to expire).

The budget meeting is after the 8:30 AM Work Session. Continue reading →

Hahira withdrawn, 4 Valdosta, 3 Lowndes @ GLPC 2022-03-28

The Hahira rezoning was withdrawn by the applicant, but all the other rezonings were heard by the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission last month, including the contentious REZ-2022-07 Hayden Park, Camelot Crossing and Val Del Road, which has already come before the Lowndes County Commission once and is back again today.

[Example rezonings]
Example rezonings

Here is the agenda. The board packet is on the LAKE website, The Valdosta rezoning items were sent by City Planner Matt Martin. The Lowndes County rezoning items were received in response to a LAKE open records request. The county did not send the agenda nor the minutes of the previous meeting, both of which LAKE got off the county website. The county also did not send the Valdosta items, in apparent violation of the Georgia Open Records Act (GORA).

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission
~ Lowndes County ~ City of Valdosta ~ City of Dasher ~
~ City of Hahira ~ City of Lake Park ~ City of Remerton ~
Monday, March 21, 2022 5:30 P.M. Work Session
Monday, March 28, 2022 5:30 P.M. Regular Session
Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue, Valdosta, Georgia

Continue reading →

Hahira, Valdosta, Lowndes County rezonings @ GLPC 2022-02-28

At the February 28, 2022, Regular Session of the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission, the Valdosta annexation and rezoning requests, 10. VA-2022-02 11. VA-2022-02 Murray Staten Farms, LLC, were both withdrawn by applicant.

All the other requests were unanimously recommended for approval, some with conditions. The various elected bodies will decide.

[Radney]
Radney

In the longest time at nineteen minutes, Four citizens spoke against 5. REZ-2022-04 Radney, 5761 Long Pond Road. Donna Weldon, the President of the Long Pond Property Owners Association, agreed that with the revised conditions accepted by the applicant, the rezoning would be acceptable. Glenn Gregory, the last speaker, emphasized that still more duplexes could be built in that heavy traffic hazardous area. GLPC modified the conditions to retain the conditions prohibiting mobile homes and duplexes, and to add a minimum heated size. Unanimous recommendation for approval with conditions.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the agenda. LAKE will publish the board packet as soon as we get the Hahira and Valdosta items from Matt Martin. It is now well over the statutory three days since LAKE sent the GORA request.

Two Hahira variances, two Lowndes County rezonings, four Valdosta rezonings and an annexation @ GLPC 2022-02-28

Update 2022-03-07: LAKE videos.

Two small lot variances in Hahira, two small lot rezonings in Lowndes County, three small rezonings in Valdosta, and one big annexation and rezoning by Valdosta, 35 acres for Murray Staten Farms, LLC, 3550 Lake Laurie Drive, all on the agenda this evening for the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC). GLPC recommends, and the elected bodies decide. For an annexation, the Lowndes County Commission will have to state whether it objects before the Valdosta Mayor and Council decide.

[Agenda, Lake Laurie Drive annexation]
Agenda, Lake Laurie Drive annexation

There’s no parcel listed for 3550 Lake Laurie Drive by the Lowndes County Tax Assessors. Why the agenda can’t just tell us which parcels is mysterious.

However, this parcel is where google maps finds that address: Continue reading →

Secrecy of Lowndes County Commission and Staff

Update 2022-02-06: Board’s Pleasure should be Deny: Miller Bridge Road rezoning @ LCC 2022-02-07.

It’s almost enough to make you wonder why the Lowndes County Commission does not want the public to know what it is doing?

A state-funded road restriping with the list of roads not revealed to the public for three months, and no minutes for the relevant meetings on the Lowndes County website (but LAKE kept a copy from their old website).

A petition with 300 signatures the County Planner just took out of the board packet so even County Commissioners did not see it.

Two board packets (for Planning and County Commission meetings) not returned for more than the statutory three days, and then one of them only partial.

No board packets on the county’s website, even though other counties larger and smaller in Georgia and Florida have been doing that for years.

No minutes (except one) before 2014, or maybe some hidden. Not even any agendas before 2012.

[Lowndes County Agenda Center for 2013]
Lowndes County Agenda Center for 2013

County Commission staff do take videos of the Commission meetings, but they only post videos of the Regular Session (not the Work Session), and not even those between October 2020 and October 2021. This is despite spending more than $100,000 for new audio visual equipment for the Commission Chambers, while the Valdosta City Council has livestreamed through the pandemic using an employee’s iPhone.

I could go on about the stealth reapportionment of Commission Districts and the half million dollar bailout of a developer, both at the same January 25, 2022, Lowndes County Commission meeting, both not revealed to the taxpaying public before the voting Regular Session.

But just items related to the Miller Bridge Road rezoning requests are enough to raise questions about the secrecy of Lowndes County Commission and staff.

Why don’t they want the public and the taxpayers to know?

What don’t they want us to know?

Road Striping

Continue reading →

Recommend deny 8:3, Miller Bridge Road Subdivision @ GLPC 2022-01-31

Update 2022-02-06: Board’s Pleasure should be Deny: Miller Bridge Road rezoning @ LCC 2022-02-07.

Everything else sailed through, but the Miller Bridge Road rezoning took half an hour.

Nick Clark from Quitman spoke for the rezoning. As Brad Folsom remarked on behalf of the opponents, the only significant difference between this and the previous request is the lot size, with the newly requested R-A zoning for 6. REZ-2022-03 Windy Hill Subdivision 7532 Miller Bridge Rd., E-A to R-A.

[6. REZ-2022-03 Windy Hill Subdivision, 7532 Miller Bridge Rd., 0010 022, ~34 ac., E-A to R-A.]
6. REZ-2022-03 Windy Hill Subdivision, 7532 Miller Bridge Rd., 0010 022, ~34 ac., E-A to R-A.

Some new arguments were heard against. Gretchen Quarterman said the taxpayers don’t need any more community wells that the county has to assume and pay for if there are problems with it. Chase Gregory said the current zoning is working well. People do buy larger size parcels (4-80 acres); he gave several examples.

Tommy Kenny, spoke against as immediate neighbor to north and active local farmer.

The Planning Commissioners voted to recommend denial, 8 for, and 3 against.

The Lowndes County Commission decides next Tuesday at 5:30 PM.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, with some notes, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the agenda, the Lowndes County board packet items, returned late by Lowndes County in response to a LAKE open records request, the Dasher packet item, returned in less than ten minutes by SGRC.

Dasher packet item: 10 minutes from SGRC vs. too many days from Lowndes County @ GLPC 2022-01-31

Update 2022-02-01: LAKE videos: Recommend deny 8:3, Miller Bridge Road Subdivision @ GLPC 2022-01-31.

Minutes from SGRC vs. too many days from Lowndes County.

In the previous post I detailed how Lowndes County had referred me to the Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC) to get the board packet item for the Dasher item on the agenda for tonight’s Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) meeting, Monday, January 31, 2022.

So I sent email to Loretta Hylton at the SGRC. She returned a PDF of the document within less than ten minutes. No need for an open records request.

[Land Use and Rezoning maps, DA-21-01, GLPC 2022-01-31]
Land Use and Rezoning maps, DA-21-01, GLPC 2022-01-31

That contrasts with more than three days and only after I quoted the open records law Lowndes County was probably violating.

So that Dasher packet item is on the LAKE website along with the others.

You may ask, why did it take me four days to put this packet item online?

Fair question, but I ask: why doesn’t Lowndes County put the entire GLPC board packet online where everyone can see it, like many counties larger and smaller in Georgia and Florida have been doing for years? Continue reading →