Category Archives: Lowndes County Commission

Maps: Comprehensive Plan Final Public Hearing @ LCC 2021-10-26

Update 2021-11-08: Videos: Comprehensive Plan Update Public Hearing 2 @ LCC 2021-10-26.

Here is the almost-completed Lowndes County Character Area Map for tomorrow’s Public Hearing to Review and Transmit the 2021 Comprehensive Plan Update. It does not look like the Character Areas have changed much.

Still, if you care, be there.

When: 5:30 PM, Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Where: 327 N. Ashley Street, 2nd Floor Commission Chamber, Valdosta, GA 31601

[2016 and 2021 Lowndes County Character Area Maps]
2016 and 2021 Lowndes County Character Area Maps

Thanks to Elizabeth Backe of SGRC, who wrote this morning:

The most recent version of the comp plan update is located on our website here, however there is one additional update that our web team has not yet uploaded. This item is for each of the work programs and it is the completion of an electric vehicle report. I anticipate them uploading this today. The Character Area map is located in the Appendix of the plan.

More specifically, this is the draft I picked up from that SGRC web page.

That entire plan is now on the LAKE website, with images of each page:
http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/loco/2021-10-26–public-hearing-comprehensive-plan

This is the map from page 128: Continue reading →

Hahira office buildings, 3 small county rezonings + telecommunications tower @ GLPC 2021-10-25

We do now have an agenda for the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission meeting tonight.

When: 5:30 PM, Monday, October 25, 2021

Where: South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue, Valdosta, GA 31601

[Agenda, Hahira case @ GLPC 2021-10-25]
Agenda, Hahira case @ GLPC 2021-10-25

Here is the agenda, thanks to Trinni Amiot. It also appeared online this morning. Thanks to Hahira City Planner Matt Martin for the board packet materials for the one Hahira case. We have no board packet materials for the Lowndes County cases; we have heard nothing from County Planner JD Dillard.

What we have is on the LAKE website:
http://www.l-a-k-e.org/govt/glpc/2021-10-25–glpc-packet Continue reading →

No agenda for tomorrow’s Planning Commission meeting @ GLPC 2021-10-25

Update 2021-10-25: Agenda and Hahira case.

According to its schedule on the City of Valdosta website, the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) meets as usual tomorrow, the last Monday of the month.

When: 5:30pm to 6:30pm, Monday, October 25, 2021

Where: South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue, Valdosta, GA 31601

[GLPC Schedule]
GLPC Schedule

That’s at the exact same time as the Lowndes County Commission Regular Session, which normally would be Tuesday at 5:30 PM, but that time slot is taken by the Public Hearing to Review and Transmit the 2021 Comprehensive Plan Update.

Lowndes County’s website has nothing in its calendar for this meeting, and no agenda is posted.

I have sent a request for agenda and board packet to the city and county Clerks and Planners. While the other four cities in Lowndes County may also have items on the agenda, Valdosta and Lowndes County traditionally handle the agenda.

If I get anything in time before the meeting tomorrow evening, I will post it.

-jsq

Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today!

Comprehensive Plan final Public Hearing @ LCC 2021-10-26

Update 2021-11-08: Videos: Comprehensive Plan Update Public Hearing 2 @ LCC 2021-10-26.

Update 2021-10-25: Maps: Comprehensive Plan Final Public Hearing @ LCC 2021-10-26.

We’ll find out at 5:30 PM this Tuesday whether the Character Area Map for Lowndes County will change. Two sources tell me that it won’t for this update of the Lowndes County Comprehensive Plan, except for some tinkery fixes not in the northwest part of the county.

But many of us thought the County Commission might listen to the thousand people who signed a petition against subdivisions farther northwest of Valdosta towards Hahira and GA 122, but two weeks ago the Commissioners approved a subdivision way up Val Del Road almost to GA 122, in the middle of an agricultural and forest area, far out of any appropriate Character Area. So if you care, be there.

[Unfinished Lowndes County Character Area Map, courtesy Lowndes County Planner JD Dillard]
Unfinished Lowndes County Character Area Map, courtesy Lowndes County Planner JD Dillard
PDF

This is all the calendar on lowndescounty.com says: Continue reading →

Videos: Many objections at Comprehensive Plan Stakeholder Meeting @ LCC Comp Plan 2021-09-28

Update 2021-11-08: Videos: Comprehensive Plan Update Public Hearing 2 @ LCC 2021-10-26.

All of the speakers at the Comprehensive Plan Stakeholder Meeting were opposed to moving the Suburban Area line farther north on the Character Area Map. They presented cogent reasons, such as they live up there and aren’t going to sell, there are already 750 lots available for sale while it took a decade for Nelson Hill’s 500 lots to sell, and the county should be looking out for its people and preserving much of the county for the next 50 years.

[Comprehensive Plan Update, Crowd, Lowndes County Character Areas, Map of those opposed to changing Character Areas]
Comprehensive Plan Update, Crowd, Lowndes County Character Areas, Map of those opposed to changing Character Areas

Most of the Commissioners acted like further development northwest in the county is a force of nature over which they have no control, and expressed more concern for developers and investors than for the room full of people in front of them or the 900 petition signatories opposed.

Here are links to each LAKE video of each speaker with copious notes, followed by a LAKE video playlist. There was no agenda. The lowndescounty.com online calendar had only a title, Comprehensive Plan Stakeholder Meeting, date, time, and place, with no agenda. The draft minutes are sketchy, omitting key points such as the Dorfman report, but you can find that report below. Continue reading →

Videos: Church, Personal Care Home, RV vendor, Lake Park Zoning Ordinance @ GLPC 2021-08-30

Almost half an hour on the church on Woodlawn Drive (sidewalks and building size), eleven minutes on the personal care home on Slater Street, and three minutes each on the RV sales expansion and the Lake Park Zoning Ordinance amendments. That was a slack evening for the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC), at 47 minutes total.

[Welcome, Lake Park, RV expansion, Board]
Welcome, Lake Park, RV expansion, Board

GLPC recommends. The Lowndes County Commission is already meeting about its items. Lake Park and Valdosta Mayor and Council will decide their items.

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the agenda. Continue reading →

Lake Park Zoning Ordinance, LAR Properties, Valdosta Personal Care & Church @ GLPC 2021-08-30

Update 2021-09-13: LAKE videos.

For Monday evening it’s a light agenda for the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission.

[Map, Sales, Business, Agenda]
Map, Sales, Business, Agenda

One curious item is REZ-2021-14 LAR Properties of Lake Park, 5359 Mill Store Rd., 0200 292A, ±12.76 ac., P-D to C-H, County Utilities. That appears to be a vacant lot behind an RV store.

[Map: LAR Properties, Lowndes County Tax Assessors]
Map: LAR Properties, Lowndes County Tax Assessors

Google maps thinks the RV store is Day Bros RV, and their own website agrees. But if you go to google streetview, the sign out front says Alliance Coach RV Sales & Service.

According to the Lowndes County Tax Assessors, Day Bros RV Sales LLC sold both lots Continue reading →

Videos: Deannexation + 2 Valdosta cases, 2 Lowndes County cases @ GLPC 2021-07-26

Here are LAKE videos of each agenda item of the Monday, July 26, 2021, Regular Session of the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC), followed by a LAKE video playlist. The big item was 5. VA-2021-16 (pt 1) Uvalde Land Co. Deannex 310 acres from the City of Valdosta.

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission 2021-07-26

See also the agenda and Deannexation east of Withlacoochee River linked to subdivision west @ GLPC 2021-07-26. LAKE videos of the following Lowndes County Commission and Valdosta City Council meetings will also be up soon.

Deannexation east of Withlacoochee River linked to subdivision west @ GLPC 2021-07-26

What does a big parcel of flood plain property on the east (left) bank of the Withlacoochee River have to do with a subdivision to the west, both on the agenda for this Monday’s Greater Lowndes Planning Commission?

Well, both seem to have been requested by the same person, who is also somehow involved with the owner of the land in between.

What do the various LLCs and people involved want to do with hundreds of acres of floodplain next to the Withlacoochee River? They probably can’t build subdivisions on it, but they could log it, dig sand mines, put a shooting range there, or many other possibilities that might not be good for the river or nearby homeowners.

I have filed an open records request with Lowndes County so we can find out more.

Let’s start with the Valdosta deannexation case:

City of Valdosta Cases:

  1. VA-2021-16 Uvalde Land Co. (Cherry Creek — Withlacoochee River) Deannex 310 acres from the City of Valdosta

[Map: Uvalde Land Company, LLC:]
Map: Uvalde Land Company, LLC:

The Lowndes County Tax Assessor says: Continue reading →

Deannexation + 2 Valdosta cases, 2 Lowndes County cases @ GLPC 2021-07-26

A Valdosta deannexation and a Lowndes County rezoning case seem linked, although that is not obvious by the agenda for Monday’s Greater Lowndes County Planning Commission. See the next blog post for how.

[GLPC Agenda July 2021]
GLPC Agenda July 2021
PDF

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, July 19, 2021 5:30 P.M. Work Session
Monday, July 26, 2021 5:30 P.M. Regular Session
Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue, Valdosta, Georgia

Continue reading →