Tag Archives: Alapaha River

Help fix land revaluation: come to Farm Bureau –Board of Equalization

Come to the Farm Bureau in two weeks to hear Tax Assessor staff present their updates and provide your input Contents for changes to the rural land revaluation, this time taking into account rivers, aquifer recharge zones, and uniformity. Maybe the Tax Assessors actually don’t want more flooding in Valdosta; both the City of Valdosta and GA-EDP have already shown interest in attending about that point.

At an appeal on my property valuation, the Board of Equalization stopped short of actually ordering the Tax Assessors to redo last year’s rural land revaluation, because staff volunteered Continue reading

Videos: Rivers and Pipeline, Rehab homes, LAMP Lease, Rezonings, Alcohol, public defender, paving Stafford Wright Road @ LCC 2016-02-09

Gretchen thanked them for putting most of the response to her open records request on CDs, shortly after they had said at their recent planning session that they wanted to promote interaction with the community. Still nothing from the county attorney about the Sabal Trail documents, and it’s been well over three days. I invited them on behalf of WWALS to a workshop and a movie; there’s more below. See also the contested rezoning 5.d. REZ-2016-05 Union Rd Subdivision, E-A to R-A, ~114 acres for more water issues.

Three citizens spoke explicitly about the pipeline, Jim Parker, Michael Noll, and Dr. Mario Bartoletti, as also noted in Jason Stewart, VDT, 11 February 2016, Sabal protests continue. As I noted in another post,

I go to a lot of county commission meetings in Georgia and Florida. Nowhere but Lowndes County do I see Continue reading

Videos: votes on decisions already made, and paving Black Road, Naylor? @ LCC Regular 2015-09-08

They meet again today. Here are videos of when they voted last, after apparently already deciding before the meeting how they would vote, plus one citizen spoke for several in the audience who want their road paved (Black Road near Naylor), even though the Chairman said “we kind of minimize that dialog”. County Manager Joe Pritchard again reminded of the Annual 9/11 Memorial Service to be held 10AM Friday at Historic Courthouse,

Indeed they did not vote on the Roundabout Support. There was a bit of discussion on the water main to Lowndes Middle School to fend off suspected Valdosta annexation. Everything else they breezed through as fast as they could move, second, and unanimously vote, including the church rezoning and the two lift station pumps, on Bevel Creek and Coleman Road.

See also Continue reading

Videos: Six minute Work Session @ LCC Work 2015-09-08

They vote 5:30 PM today, after this morning’s six-minute 8:30 AM Work Session, in the LAKE videos below.

No vote tonight on the Roundabout Support, Chairman Bill Slaughter made pretty clear. Annual 911 Memorial Service to be held 10AM Friday at Historic Courthouse, reminded County Manager Joe Pritchard.

See also Continue reading

Scans of paper for board packet @ LCC Regular 2015-09-08

They vote tonight 5:30 PM, after this morning’s 8:30 AM Work Session.

LAKE did what the county staff didn’t: turned a mound of paper into electronic format and posted it. The added material is for the Shiloh Road Roundabout (county has to maintain lighting and landscaping) and the bids for the Bevel Creek and Coleman Road lift stations. Except there’s no bid from Xylem for replacing the Coleman Road pump. Did they not bid, or did the Clerk’s office not supply that bid?

See previous post for the agenda and other notes.

Also today: Development Authority 10AM, Chamber members to be Heard 3:30 PM, and Board of Elections 4:30PM, and the County Commission votes 5:30 PM.

-jsq

Videos: 3 small rezonings: Dasher, Lowndes, Valdosta @ GLPC 2015-08-31

Vice-Chair Jody Hall presided, sounding like he’d been practicing and it paid off at the 31 August 2015 Planning Commission meeting.

Nobody spoke for or against the agricultural rezoning in Lowndes County and the Planning Commission recommended it, but it may be more controversial than it looks now that the Lowndes County Commission agenda item and packet for Tuesday indicates it’s apparently related to that $16,915 the county agreed to pay to upgrade a water line near the Lake Alapaha subdivision.

The owner spoke for the automobile repair shop in Dasher with nobody against, and it was unanimously recommended.

Nobody spoke against the office rezoning in Valdosta. There was some Commissioner discussion of nearby neighborhoods. It was recommended 6-2 for R-15.

Here’s GLPC agenda, with links the the LAKE videos below, followed by a video playlist. Continue reading

Work and Regular Sessions both Tuesday @ LCC Work 2015-09-08

Both LCC meetings Tuesday, plus Development Authority 10AM, Chamber members to be Heard 3:30PM, and Board of Elections 4:30PM, before the Commission votes 5:30 PM.

Update 2015-09-08: LAKE did what the county staff didn’t: turned a mound of paper into electronic format and posted it. The added material is for the Shiloh Road Roundabout (county has to maintain lighting and landscaping) and the bids for the Bevel Creek and Coleman Road lift stations. Except there’s no bid from Xylem for replacing the Coleman Road pump. Did they not bid, or did the Clerk’s office not supply that bid? (Also updated links to other meetings in first line of this post.)

Parcel 0259 034 The Lowndes County Commission will consider a church rezoning on Mullins Road that’s so close to a county water line near the Lake Alapaha development on the Alapaha River that the County staff felt they had to warn the applicant. Bid awards for the utilities extension to Lowndes Middle School is on the agenda as South Perimeter Road Utility Extension, and it appears staff may have outsourced this million-dollar decision to Lovell Engineering. Utilities also wants $38,930.50 for Bevel Creek and $35,144.20 for Coleman Road for new Wilo lift station pumps. Their one-paragraph writeups sound like a good deal with substantial savings, but they reference multiple quotes which were not included. Where are those quotes? (They were on paper; see above.)

The county staff also wants wants a roundabout for Shiloh Road! Next they’ll be wanting speed humps on county roads they’ve made unsafe by paving (don’t hold your breath).

Here’s what LAKE got online for the commission packet and the Lowndes County Commission agenda. See also the LAKE videos of the preceding Planning Commission meeting.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
PROPOSED AGENDA
WORK SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2015, 8:30 a.m.
REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2015, 5:30 p.m.
327 N. Ashley Street – 2nd Floor

Continue reading

Monday August 10th deadline to appeal tax valuations –VLCoC

Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce members just got a message from Bruce Allred, Government Affairs Council Chairman, saying:

MONDAY IS DEADLINE TO APPEAL PROPERTY TAX ASSESSMENTS!

You can look up your property on the Tax Assessors’ website: www.qpublic.net/ga/lowndes.

See also the LAKE Videos: Rural revaluation meeting at Farm Bureau 2015-08-04.

That Chamber message includes this useful information: Continue reading

Videos: Rural revaluation meeting at Farm Bureau 2015-08-04

See for yourself the Tax Assessor response to local landowners, in these LAKE videos of last night’s meeting at Farm Bureau. Do you think there’s a problem? If so, what do you think we should do to fix it?

The attendees appointed Gretchen to take notes. Here are her notes, followed by the videos.

Accessibility is not about access, it’s about geographic location…. That was done by one of our appraisers on staff. —Chief Appraiser Silas Hrobar

Rural and commercial land owners got surprises in the mail in July when they received the updated assessments of their properties. Lowndes County Assessors engaged a contractor last year to help with the reassessments of approximately 10,000 properties. Rural properties were categorized as small (under 20 acres) and large (over 20 acres) but complaints were the same, inconsistent and confusing application of criteria.

On Tuesday evening, Farm Bureau hosted Continue reading

Rural revaluation meeting at Farm Bureau 2015-08-04

Are Bill Gates and subdivisions really more important than agriculture or rivers or public transportation? Come to Farm Bureau tomorrow evening and find out what’s going on with the rural land revaluation. facebook event.

When: 7PM, Tuesday, 4 August 2015

Where: 3296 Greystone Way, Valdosta, GA, (229) 242-7876

By: Farm Bureau board member Buddy Coleman called this meeting.

What: Compare the Comprehensive Plan to this revaluation here (PDF).

Sprawl: sprawling residential growth is a certain ticket to fiscal ruin (Or at least big tax increases). PDF of the report by UGA Prof. Jeffrey H. Dorfman Lowndes County paid for in 2007, The Local Government Fiscal Impacts of Land Use in Lowndes County.

Who: At least some of the Lowndes County Tax Assessors Continue reading