Tag Archives: Activism

Rooftop solar for grid outage independence

Solar power can bring for energy independence, not just from foreign countries, also from the grid during storms and other outages.

Inspired by the need to deal with downed power lines in New York and New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy, David Crane and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote for NYTimes 12 Dec 2012, Solar Panels for Every Home,

Solar photovoltaic technology can significantly reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and our dependence on the grid. Electricity-producing photovoltaic panels installed on houses, on the roofs of warehouses and big box stores and over parking lots can be wired so that they deliver power when the grid fails.

Solar panels have dropped in price by 80 percent in the past five years and can provide electricity at a cost that is at or below the current retail cost of grid power in 20 states, including many of the Northeast states. So why isn’t there more of a push for this clean, affordable, safe and inexhaustible source of electricity?

First, the investor-owned utilities that depend on the existing system for their profits have little economic interest in promoting a technology that empowers customers to generate their own power. Second, state regulatory agencies and local governments impose burdensome permitting and siting requirements that unnecessarily raise installation costs.

I can tell you by experience that solar panels on the roof (with batteries) can supply power when the grid is out.

In regulatory-captured Georgia, the big impediment to solar is financing, because of 1973 Territorial Electric Service Act. When will Southern Company and Georgia Power admit their boondoogle on the Savannah River has failed and get on with conservation, efficiency, wind, and solar power?

-jsq

Videos @ LCC 2012-12-11

Moody and the Chamber won, rural residents got wasted, and taxpayers still didn't get to see a single thing the Lowndes County Commission voted on last night in 45 minutes (very long for them) in front of the biggest audience I've ever seen there.

They appointed John "Mac" McCall to ZBOA. They revised the alcohol ordinance with some unspecified "changes to the fee schedule", and added another alcohol restriction to the Lake Park rezoning before approving it.

They approved the solid waste ordinance and granted a waste collection monopoly to a company from New York City despite all known public input being against it. Two more people spoke against it in Citizens Wishing to Be Heard.

Gretchen Quarterman recommended adding all the appointed Boards and Authorities to the county's calendar.

Commissioners accepted applicant's withdrawal of the rezoning request near Moody AFB and tabled indefinitely the related zoning code amendment. They approved rezoning for the Naylor Dollar General.

Commission approved four Decorative Lighting Special Tax Districts (forgetting it was supposed to be a public hearing), and a refund for one that wasn't.

Danny Weeks got approved a new netclock and new phones for the 911 center, and he and his staff got an award. The library railroad continues, the bonds renegotation was approved with about $2 million savings and some legal questions, the Annex has asbestos but they'll deal with it, and after Friday's demolition ceremony there will be a going-away reception for Chairman Paulk, and Bill Slaughter will be the new Chairman.

You missed all that and more at yesterday's Commission meeting.

Here's a video playlist of the Regular Session, followed by the agenda with the videos linked into it.

Update 2014-04-09: Fixed embedded video link.

Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 11 December 2012.

For reference here are the videos of yesterday morning's Work Session. And here is the agenda with links to the videos and some notes.

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Chamber of Commerce vs. County Commission Re: Moody AFB @ LCC 2012-12-11

Received today (yes, I’m a Chamber member). -jsq

From: “Tim Jones, Chairman of the Board ” <chamber@valdostachamber.com>
Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2012 12:47:01 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Alert: Chamber needs your help to protect Moody!

Dear Chamber Member,

Our Chamber recognizes the $448 million economic impact Moody Air Force Base has on our regional economy each year. We meet with Air Force officials at the Pentagon annually and ask them, “What else can our community do to protect MAFB from the next BRAC?” The answer, every year: prevent encroachment, and the best way to do that is by protecting the Military Activity Zone (MAZ).

Today (Tuesday, Dec. 11) at the Lowndes County Board of Commissioners meeting there are two agenda items that could put Moody at risk.

Spot zoning for a proposed densely settled subdivision in the MAZ is an invitation to other developments and inherently sets a precedent. It’s a very slippery slope. How will the County tell the next one “no”?

The second agenda item would change the zoning ordinance to allow even more densely settled neighborhoods in the MAZ.

One of the reasons we’ve been able to keep MAFB here

for more than 70 years is because MAFB can be utilized for a number of types of missions, largely because of the protected activity zone. Both agenda items, if passed, could increase encroachment into the MAZ and could very well limit MAFB’s future mission possibilities.

Another Georgia community (Warner Robins) is actually using taxpayer dollars to buy back residential properties in their military activity zones as a result of their failure to prevent encroachment.

The Planning Commission voted unanimously to deny this subdivision, and to deny the proposed changes to the MAZ that would allow more dense residential development. The County Commission should vote to deny, too.

The Chamber’s GAC Executive Committee voted unanimously to oppose actions that allow encroachment and weaken the MAZ. The Chamber encourages our members to contact our County Commission members to let them know how you feel about protecting MAFB. The Chamber encourages our members to attend the County Commission meeting at the Dec. 11 meeting at 5:30 p.m. at the Administation Building.

Please respond to this email to share your thoughts.

Sincerely,
Tim Jones, Chairman of the Board
Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce

I added the links above. All that Tim Jones said, plus Crawford Powell’s discovery that the proposed subdivision would be a fire code violation, plus according to Forbes Valdosta MSA housing prices are still dropping, so do we even need any more housing, anyway?

-jsq

Videos @ LCC 2012-12-10

A surprising amount of discussion at yesterday morning’s Lowndes County Commission Work Session, on ZBOA appointment, alcohol Sunday sales, rezoning next to Moody, and more. They said nothing about the solid waste ordinance, however; maybe they’ll table that loser again. They vote tonight:

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2012, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street — 2nd Floor

Here’s a video playlist of the Work Session, followed by the agenda with the videos linked into it.

Work Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 10 December 2012.

Here’s the agenda, this time with links to the videos and some notes.

Continue reading →

Rezoning near Moody: fire code would prohibit a single entrance @ LCC 2012-12-10 @ LCC 2012-12-10

Commissioner Crawford Powell may have found solid grounds to deny the proposed rezoning for a development near Moody AFB, he revealed at this morning’s Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

County Planner Jason Davenport explicitly linked this rezoning case,

7.a. REZ-2012-17 Lowndes Development, LLC, Davidson Rd MAZ II and MAZ III to R-10, County Water & Sewer, ~23.49 acres

to the zoning text code amendment on the same meeting agenda.

7.d. TXT-2012-02 MAZ II Residential Density

He also mentioned the TRC (the Technical Review Committee composed mainly of Lowndes County and Valdosta staff) had a split vote on this item, although he didn’t say how it was split. And he said the Commissioners had the Planning Commission recommendation before them, although he didn’t mention the Planning Commission recommended against.

Commissioner Crawford Powell brought up a good point:

The fire department and the TRC say in the notes that it fails to comply with fire rescue ingress-egress requirements.

Fire Chief Guyton appeared to confirm that was the case, although since he wasn’t at a microphone, it’s hard to hear. Commissioner Powell continued:

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Glimmers of open discussion about Moody AFB zoning by the County Commission @ LCC 2012-12-10

Lowndes County Commissioners had a small amount of open discussion about the proposed changes to the zoning code related to Moody Air Force Base at their Work Session this morning. However, most of the discussion was not about the changes currently proposed, which the County Planner once again explicitly linked to a rezoning case on the same agenda. At least they discussed tabling the zoning code changes until there could be more discussion. They did not, however, say they would make drafts available to the public or invite the public to discuss those drafts.

County Planner Jason Davenport introduced agenda item 7.d. TXT-2012-02 MAZ II Residential Density:

This text amendment is part of the response to some of the questions that were raised with the additional rezoning. At the end of the day what this text amendment is going to do is to take that very outer blue color, the lightest color, which is the MAZ-3, and recommend change the zoning to 1 acre. Currently it’s 2 and a half acres.

He mentioned they missed the 30 day requirement to inform Moody AFB by about a week, but Moody responded anyway. Hm, that’s not what he said to the Planning Commission; there he said they had allowed 31 days.

Commissioner Richard Raines said he’d prefer to table this amendment until next year, because:

I think there are other issues that we’ve discussed related to MAZ. If you have a mobile home and it becomes unlivable, under the restrictions you can’t replace it….

Chairman Ashley Paulk responded that he didn’t have a problem with that, and:

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More developer favors at the County Commission Work Session this morning? @ LCC 2012-12-10

At the 8:30 AM Work Session this morning, will the Chairman

Clint Joyner and J.D. Yeager of Joyner Realty
Clint Joyner (speaking) and J.D. Yeager (seated on right)
of Joyner Realty at LCC Work Session 2012-11-12

invite Clint Joyner of Joyner Realty to speak like he did last month, without inviting anybody else? Will Chairman Ashley Paulk invite J.D. Yeager of Joyner Realty (and formerly Sheriff Paulk’s lieutenant at the Sheriff’s office) to speak? That plus solid waste (if privatization is bad for Moody, why is it good for a county public health and safety service like solid waste collection?), Dollar General (where’s the marketing plan to indicate whether tiny Naylor needs the area’s nineteenth Dollar General?), Library, (Houston County’s SPLOST passed in a landslide after they held public hearings; maybe Lowndes County should try that), and Alcohol (county staff say they’re coalescing previous changes into the body of the ordinance), all at the Lowndes County Commission Work Session this morning; here’s the agenda.

When he spoke 12 November 2012, Clint Joyner started by referring to a nearby subdivision “In 2007”. 2007 was the year Mr. Joyner got (according to the Commission’s minutes of 26 June 2007) $130,000 in road construction labor from the Commission because of “an unforeseen Department of Transportation requirement regarding a costly intersection improvement.” Why couldn’t the County Engineer or Mr. Joyner forsee such a requirement?

This time many people do forsee that rezoning to develop in the Moody Activity Zones would be a bad idea. Houston County is using state and local tax money to buy up houses in similar zones around Warner Robins Air Force Base. Doubtless Houston County would love it if Lowndes County encroached enough on Moody AFB that Moody’s missions moved to Robins AFB.

-jsq

Privatization: if it’s bad for Moody AFB, it’s bad for county trash collection

Why is Lowndes County Chairman Ashley Paulk decrying alleged privatization of Moody Air Force Base while promoting actual privatization of a basic Lowndes County public service, trash collection?

Jason Shaefer wrote for the VDT 5 December 2012, County disagrees with proposed zoning amendment,

Paulk alleged Moody’s intervention has prevented development before—the establishment of a small schoolhouse within a church near the base, for example, he said. He told the committee that Moody had 30,000 acres to the east on which to build, and that the air base has become “privatized.”

According to the free dictionary:

pri·va·tize: To change (an industry or business, for example) from governmental or public ownership or control to private enterprise:

And yet at the upcoming commission meeting, Chairman Paulk will ask the commissioners to vote on this agenda item:

8.b. Exclusive Franchise Agreement for Residential Solid Waste Collection Services with Advanced Disposal Services of Central Alabama, Inc.

Seems to me that’s a privatization of one of our own county governmental services. Perhaps the commissioners will reconsider the “curbside only by a private firm” path they are on and conduct some public hearings in an effort to understand what the citizens might want in solid waste disposal.

-gretchen

Re: The proposed text amendments —Richard Raines

Richard Raines answered again. He continues to be communicative and genial. -gretchen

From: Richard Raines
To: Gretchen Quarterman
Subject: RE: Text Amendment

The motion to table the issue is made by the Commissioners. Chairman Paulk thinks (and I agree) that this issue cannot be satisfactorily settled by December 11th and that the new Commission should take it up. It is not unusual for Chairman Paulk to weigh in on whether or not we should table an item. Often times he is in a unique position to give an informed opinion and in this case I concur.

The proposed text amendments, if approved, do not endanger Moody’s mission or survival. If I have my way, the MAZ will be strengthened in the areas closer to the base while easing development restrictions in the areas furthest away. Even a cursory glance at the ULDC and MAZ 1-3 reveals certain issues which must be addressed in an effort to be equitable.

I reject the template which argues

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Houston County has exclusion zones around Warner Robins AFB like the Lowndes County MAZ

Lowndes County is not “the only community in the country with a MAZ”: Houston County has very similar zones of encroachment protection around Warner Robins Air Force Base (RAFB).

As we’ve already seen, Houston County is buying up houses around RAFB using $7.5 million from the state of Georgia. That’s in addition to $6 million from Bibb County and some unspecified amount from the Defense Department. Plus Houston County allocated $7 million from SPLOST funds, and their SPLOST won by a landslide, apparently partly for that reason.

But what are Warner Robins Air Force Base encroachment zones those encroachment zones around Warner Robins AFB depicted on the buyback map? I called Houston County to find out. Their Community Planner, Jacob Cox, said yes, Houston County has crash zones, and noise attenuation zones in which they can have businesses but not residences.

He pointed me to The Robins Air Force Base and Middle Georgia 2004 Joint Land Use Study, which notes:

The 2004 JLUS examines land issues as they relate to RAFB flying missions and suggests measures to ensure compatible land use in the Base environs now and into the future. The 2004 JLUS process utilizes information provided in the 1998 RAFB Air Installation Compatibility Use Zone study (AICUZ) to evaluate land use compatibility and regulatory adequacy in areas subject to air hazard potential and noise impact. Additional considerations related to air navigation, including air protection surfaces are examined. Clear Zones and Accident Potential Zones are all considered compatible with AICUZ guidelines. Incidences of incompatible development are predominantly restricted to a limited number of non-noise attenuated residences built prior to 1994.

The results of the 2004 JLUS demonstrate that previously adopted land use regulations have been effective in limiting incompatible development within the Base environs. The 1994 adoption of the Base Environs Zoning District (BEZD) model by the surrounding communities has served to check most encroachment-type development. Only a very low number of sporadic, isolated examples of noise-related incompatible development was observed to have been built since implementation of the BEZD land regulation strategy. Consistent local government implementation of adopted provisions must be maintained in order to continue to provide the protection necessary to prevent incompatible development from restraining Base operations in the future.

So as far back as 1994 the communities around RAFB were using zoning to limit base encroachment. The 1998 AICUZ recommended further Clear Zones and Accident Potential Zones. Why? Mission changes at RAFB. So the 2004 JLUS made recommendations and the local governments, including Houston County, decided to go ahead and do something about it.

Continue reading →