Category Archives: Planning

Transportation Improvement Program for Valdosta Urbanized Area

Gretchen found this in the public notices in the VDT:
5/5/2010
gpn14

The Valdosta-Lowndes Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) has developed the Draft Fiscal Year 2011-2014 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) for the Valdosta Urbanized Area which includes all of Lowndes County and portions of Berrien and Lanier Counties.

This TIP is available for public review and comment from April 20, 2010 through June 3, 2010 at the Southern Georgia Regional Commission, 327 W. Savannah Ave.; the South Georgia Regional Library located at 300 Woodrow Wilson Dr.; the Valdosta City Hall located at 216 E. Central Ave.; the Lowndes County Administrative Offices located at 325 W. Savannah Ave.; or on the internet at www.sgrc.us/transportation; www.valdostacity.com; or www.lowndescounty.com.

A Public Open House will be held on Monday, May 17, 2010 from 12:00 PM to 7:00 PM at the Southern Georgia Regional Commission located at 327 W Savannah Ave., Valdosta, GA, for interested parties to view the document and ask questions of staff.

Comments are being accepted by email at chull@sgrc.us by fax at 229-333-5312, or by mailing them to VLMPO, 327 W Savannah Ave., Valdosta, GA 31601.

For more information, please call Corey Hull, MPO Coordinator at 229-333-5277.

23558663
04/25;05/16/10

The TIP is on the SGRC website.

Note this TIP is different from the longer-term 2035 Transportation Plan. The TIP is apparently for projects expected to be implemented in the next few years.

-jsq
John S. Quarterman

Impervious cover increase, Lowndes County

Sixty eight percent (68%) from 1991 to 2005, 22% of that from 2001 to 2005. Tree canopy change from 1991 to 2005: minus fourteen percent (-14%), almost all of it between 2001 and 2005.

Where’s all this change coming from and going to?


Source: NARSAL, UGA’s Natural Resources Spatial Analysis Lab

The dark green is labeled “Evergreen Forest” and decreased from 31.81% in 1991 to 26.47% in 2005. Meanwhile, the light pink labeled “Low Intensity Urban” went from 5.37% to 8.57%. Other changes include the red “High Intensity Urban” slice going from 1.15% to 1.98%. But the biggest change is piney woods being paved over for urban sprawl.

Could this have some effect on flooding?

-jsq
John S. Quarterman

WCTV on Biomass

A couple of biomass plant stories from WCTV.

On April 28 Deneige Broom wrote, Proposed Plant Raises Air Quality Questions:

A Biomass plant could bring business and money to the area. But some want to be assured their health won’t suffer in the name of progress.
Some good quotes in there:
Dr. Brad Bergstrom attended the hearing wants concrete answers.

“There’s not going to be anything in the permit that will say, you can only burn this much sewage sludge,” said Bergstrom. “The company plans to only burn a small percentage but once they get their permit, that could change.”

Continue reading →

South Losing Trees

Doyle Rice writes in USA Today about U.S. losing trees faster than other heavily forested nations:
Out of seven of the most heavily forested nations on Earth, the United States experienced a greater percentage of forest loss from 2000 to 2005 than did any of the other countries, a study said Monday.
But what part of the U.S.?
The one part of the contiguous USA that experienced the most forest loss was the Southeast, a large chunk of which lost more than 10% of its forest cover from 2000 to 2005, the year for which the most recent data were available.
Compared to what? Continue reading →

Biomass Plant Hearing Today

You can ask questions and expect answers.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Environmental Protection Division (EPD) Air Protection Branch issued a Press Release on April 12, 2010 announcing a meeting:

EPD will hold a question and-answer (Q&A) session and a public hearing on Tuesday, April 27, from 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. in the multipurpose room in the Valdosta City Hall Annex. The city hall annex is located at 300 N. Lee Street.
The subject is “on Proposed Biomass-Fired Power Plant Application Submitted by WireGrass Power, LLC”

You can also submit questions and comments in writing: Continue reading →

Media to Attract Local Industry?

In addition to those previously blogged, some other projects are also mentioned in Sunday’s VDT article about the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority. Malynda Fulton’s writeup of the February Industrial Authority meeting mentions a couple more projects, Project Butter, and Project Loaves, both about baking, that don’t appear in either the January or April articles. This leads to the question: what are the current projects, and what is their status?

Apparently the media campaign discussed in the January article didn’t happen, since it’s not mentioned in either of the later articles.

The February writeup does brag about the Industrial Authority’s “newly-designed Web site”. Well, it’s fancy, all right. Continue reading →

Oldest Building in Valdosta Renovated by Client Tell

Pat Sullivan, CEO of Client Tell, shows John S. Quarterman and Gretchen Quarterman his renovation of the oldest building in Valdosta.

Pat Sullivan and the Courthouse.

No, not the courthouse. Older than that. 119 North Patterson Street. Here Pat explains the hidden windows they found: Continue reading →

Biomass Air Quality Hearing Set

This appears to be the date and location for the Georgia EPD air quality hearing for the Wiregrass Biomass plant proposed for Valdosta:
6:30 PM, 27 April 2010
Multipurpose Room
Valdosta City Hall Annex
300 North Lee Street
Valdosta, Georgia
We’ve been waiting on this date for a while. EPD is going to send a press release to the VDT a few weeks in advance and post it on its own website, www.georgiaair.org. Assuming, of course, that the date and place don’t change again.

Why should you care? This plant proposes to burn sewage sludge, which can release numerous hazardous chemicals into the air. Here is Seth’s letter to the editor of the VDT of 21 Feb 2010: Continue reading →

The Jobs are in the Trees: Reforestation

Glenn Hurowitz writes in grist that The jobs are in the trees:
With Congress and the White House considering spending scarce dollars to jump-start employment, they’ll need to get the biggest jobs bang for the buck to give Americans confidence that they’re spending our money wisely. Probably the biggest jobs generator of all, and one of the least recognized, is investing in forest and land restoration and sustainable management, with conservation, watershed projects, and park investment coming close behind.

That’s a very interesting jobs comparison; I didn’t know that.

To summarize, reforestation and restoration outperforms even the second-most jobs-intense activity analyzed by 74 percent, and conservation exceeds other major jobs alternatives, including especially new highway construction, Wall Street, and conventional energy sources like oil and nuclear.
In fact, nuclear comes in dead last in this comparison.

And biomass produces less than half as many jobs as reforestation and land resto ration.