Category Archives: Valdosta City Council

Videos: Oak St. Pregnancy Clinic, Val Del Wetherington, Baytree Nijem @ GLPC 2020-02-24

The longest time, almost 16 minutes, was for

Pregnancy Support Clinic of Valdosta

at 2203 N. Oak St.,
followed at 14 minutes by

REZ-2020-03 Wetherington Property, Val Del Road RA to PD
,
with 12 minutes for
the Jon Nijem rezoning
and
Planned Development at 406 & 410 Baytree Road,
in a relatively short February meeting of the Greater Lowndes Planning Commission.


VA-2020-05 Pregnancy Support Clinic

Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, with a few notes.
See also Continue reading

Val Del Wetherington, Baytree Nijem, Pregnancy Clinic @ GLPC 2020-02-24

Neither of the two Valdosta cases
at Monday evening’s Planning Commission Regular Session
looks controversial, although you never know.
Jon Nijem wants to rezone
and then get approval for a
Planned Development at 406 & 410 Baytree Road.
And Pregnancy Support Clinic of Valdosta wants to
rezone for office space
at 2203 N. Oak St.

In Lowndes County, yet another Val Del Road subdivision,

REZ-2020-03 Wetherington Property
,
is proposed diagonally northeast across the road from Nelson Hill,
which makes even clearer why the county wants to pave Clyattstone Road,
going from Val Del Road between those two west to Old US 41 North (see below).

[Wetherington property]

Lowndes County Property Appraiser,
Wetherington property,

WETHERINGTON FRANK L LIVING TRUST, parcels 0071 055, 056, 056A (not 55A)
, at
4154 and 4424 Val Del Road.

The subject property is in the watershed of Bay Branch, but apparently Continue reading

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

Surprisingly the longest item on this (possibly) longest-ever Planning Commission agenda was

5. CU-2020-01 Verizon Wireless, conditional use cell tower at Country Club
,
clocking in at almost an hour, accounting for almost a third of the more than three-hour meeting, and getting a denial recommendation on a split vote of 6:3:1.


VZ Country Club tower

Second longest at more than forty-two minutes was

6. CU-2020-02 Natalie Bailey, 4019 Forrest Run Circle – Halfway House
,
resulting in a very unusual unanimous recommendation for denial.
The actual decision will be made at the
Valdosta City Council meeting tonight.

Usually church requests sail through, but

13. HA-2020-01 Providence Missionary Baptist Church, 707 West Park Street,

took more than sixteen minutes, largely to everyhone acting as a committee designing an access ramp which turned out to already be there.


Pete’s Otto
had it pretty easy at nine minutes
Pete’s Otto was previously 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.

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

GLPC agenda
.
And the Valdosta City Council agenda for the meeting where they will decide the half-way house and other Valdosta items.

Half-way house for ex-offenders, Country Club tower, six Appointments @ VCC 2020-02-10

Postponed from last Thursday due to weather, the Valdosta City Council meets
tonight, to consider some rather contentious cases from the Planning Commission,
and to make a bunch of appointments, plus some bids for equipment.


CU-2020-02 Natalie Bailey, 4019 Forrest Run Circle - Halfway House @ GLPC 2020-01-27


Photo: Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE,

CU-2020-02 Natalie Bailey, 4019 Forrest Run Circle – Halfway House @ GLPC 2020-01-27
.

This Valdosta City Council bid item is interesting:

4.d) Consideration of bids for a Trailer-Mounted Mobile Televising Unit for the Utilities Department (Bid No. 27-19-20 A).

Maybe with that Valdosta Utilities can see what’s happening with equipment they leave in a park overnight,
for example maybe in McKey Park after
today’s 200-gallon sewage spill.

Here is the agenda.
It says February 6, but the
Valdosta calendar entry for today
says
“RESCHEDULED – Valdosta City Council Meeting,
Monday, February 10, 2020 – 5:30pm”
See also Continue reading

Videos: New Valdosta Mayor, Mayor Pro-Tem, and $2 million budget surplus while record raw sewage was spilling @ VCC 2020-01-09

A month ago at the Valdosta City Council we learned

that Valdosta has a $2,410,000 budget surplus
.


Valdosta municipal audit and budget surplus



5b) Presentation of the Municipal Audit for Fiscal Year 2019

Maybe they could spend some of that to help fix the well and river testing costs downstream on the Withlacoochee River of
Valdosta’s record 7.5 million gallons of raw sewage spill into Sugar Creek, which has taken two months to maybe finally get diluted down the Withlacoochee River, twice entering Florida, with three Florida river advisories, and with Georgia warning signs on the Withlacoochee River downstream of Sugar Creek by Lowndes County and by WWALS (but not by Valdosta).

One City Council member tells me that audit doesn’t mean Valdosta has $2 million cash lying around.
But they do have several hundred thousand unspent.

Maybe they could also budget some of that surplus to help fix the stigma,
the decades-long reputational damage to all our rivers,
caused by Valdosta’s chronic sewage spills.
That would involve for example water quality testing or paying for testing downstream on the Withlacoochee River and doing marketing.

Four Citizens spoke at the end of the meeting: Continue reading

New Mayor and Mayor Pro-Tem @ VCC 2020-01-09

Here is the agenda and a few pictures of the first Valdosta City Council meeting of 2020,
including the installation of new Mayor Scott James Matheson and new Mayor Pro-Tem Tim Carroll.

[Seldom seen this full]

Seldom seen this full

A few City Council members were re-elected and took the oath of office again; none are new.
LAKE videos will follow. Continue reading

Videos: One Valdosta case on Eager Road @ ZBOA 2020-01-07

The one case at ZBOA last month, a duplex on Eager Road in Valdosta, was quite contentious, because of its potential intended use.

The first speaker against, Deb Cox, wanted to know if it would be used as a halfway house for felons.
The applicant, Lawton White, said, “stated he rented some properties to Greenleaf for folks
who were attending Alcoholics Anonymous, and while this was not one of those properties, two people
who are licensed for such treatment wanted to rent a property for similar type folks.”

Ms. Cox came with many facts and figures, not surprising, since she also happens to be the Lowndes County Supervisor of Elections.
Much discussion ensued.


Deb Cox at ZBOA 2020-01-07


Deb Cox speaking against APP-2019-09 Lawton White (318 Eager Road) at ZBOA 2020-01-07.

However, “Mrs. Quarterman stated that ZBOA’s concern was land use, not who lives in
them. Mrs. Quarterman stated that if it had not become nonconforming, it would not be on the agenda.
Mrs. Quarterman asked Continue reading

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.


Pete's Otto ZBOA variance

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:

  1. 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

One Valdosta case on Eager Road @ ZBOA 2020-01-07

Only one case this afternoon at ZBOA, a duplex on Eager Road in Valdosta.

[Sketch map]

Sketch map

The entire ZBOA board packet is on the LAKE website, courtesy of ZBOA member Gretchen Quarterman.
Here is the agenda:

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

January 7, 2020

2:30 p.m.

  1. Call to Order


    CITY OF VALDOSTA CASE:


  2. APP-2019-09 — Lawton White

    (318 Eager Road)

    Request for a PELUC (Certificate of
    Previously Established Land Use Conformity) to re-establish a duplex
    in a R-15 Single Family Residential District


    OTHER BUSINESS:

  3. Approval of Minutes: December 3, 2019
  4. Attendance Review
  5. Adjournment

-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!