Tag Archives: Gretchen Quarterman

What happened at Nelson Hill on Val Del Road? @ LCC 2013-08-12

Staff promises evaporated, many of 13 conditions voted by elected Commissioners
didn’t get implemented: what happened at
Nelson Hill, the subdivision

County Planner Jason Davenport referred to
as the neighborhood on Val Del Road for
REZ-2013-09 Moody Housing?
Well, it has a reputation, as

someone nearby said in
opposing another development:

And we’re certainly not interested in what they built out on Val Del Road.

What happened at Nelson Hill?

As

Gretchen Quarterman mentioned to the Planning Commission,
there were supposed to be condominiums and a gated community there, but:

if you go out to Nelson Hill now you don’t find anything resembling a gated condominium community; you find ticky-tacky houses where they cut down the swamp.

So what was supposed to be there?
In the
Minutes for the Work Session of 12 February 2007 condominiums are mentioned: Continue reading →

Videos: Moody, Moody, acre, water, and SPLOST VI @ LCC 2013-08-12 @ LCC 2013-08-12

The “SPLOST VII Agreement” has been drafted among the county and the local
cities, but it isn’t quite done yet,
you can’t see what they’re still considering,
and there was no mention of any public hearings.
A local engineering firm is apparently going to get two no-bid contracts,
one for the
Alapaha Water Treatment Plant
and one for
the county’s Land Application Site.
A local attorney represented both

a bond refinancing
and

Moody Housing.
Many renewal contracts were presented, and the long-running
juvenile justice item saw some progress.
They ended with an Executive Session
but didn’t say what for.
Chummy lot, those Commissioners and staff and attorneys and engineers.

Here’s

the agenda,
with links to the videos and a few notes, including a few links to related posts.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2013, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2013, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2^nd Floor

Call to Order

Invocation

That’s only in the Regular Session, which is 5:30 PM Tuesday 13 August 2013.

Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag

That’s only in the Regular Session, which is 5:30 PM Tuesday 13 August 2013.

Minutes for Approval

Chairman Bill Slaughter said:
“Please take a look at those before tomorrow night.”

Continue reading →

REZ-2013-09 Moody Housing, Val Del Rd @ LCC 2013-08-12

County Planner Jason Davenport said the proposed
Moody Family Housing was “in the Nelson Hill neighborhood”,
and there were at least 30 pages of updates, but the
County Clerk wouldn’t show them to LAKE without an Open Records
Request, which hadn’t yet been satisfied at the end of the day.
Commissioners had some questions about acreage and traffic,
some of which were answered by the ubiquitous Attorney Bill Holland,
and others of which were not answered very well by County Engineer
Mike Fletcher, at

this morning’s Work Session of the Lowndes County Commission.

6.b.
REZ-2013-09 Moody Housing, Val Del Rd R-1 to Residential PD, LC Water & Sewer, ~64 acres

Davenport said:

As of last Friday we did receive an updated site plan as well as some
elevations from the applicants to let us know exactly what the houses
would look like, what they’re anticipating.
The site plan did have four changes and I’ll hand these out to you
in just one minute.
We added some notes about the uses.
We wanted to make them show us where
their proposed
signage was and we wanted to make them clarify who would be maintaining
the open space and the green space….

He passed those updates out, but the County Clerk refused to supply
copies for LAKE without an Open Records Request.
Gretchen filed an ORR, but if the county takes the statutory three days,
we won’t get copies, nor will you, before the Commission votes tomorrow evening..

Here’s

Part 1 of 2: Continue reading →

Moody, Moody, acre, water, and SPLOST VI @ LCC 2013-08-12

Does “SPLOST VII Agreement” mean the SPLOST lists are a done deal and
there will be no public hearings?
Two Moody and one small rezoning cases move from the Planning Commission
to the County Commission.
And that Alapaha Water Treatment Plant is back on the agenda for tomorrow morning and voting Tuesday evening by the Lowndes County Commission.

Here’s

the agenda,
with a few links to related posts.

LOWNDES COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

PROPOSED AGENDA

WORK SESSION, MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2013, 8:30 a.m.

REGULAR SESSION, TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2013, 5:30 p.m.

327 N. Ashley Street – 2^nd Floor

Continue reading →

Little guys must stick to the letter of the ULDC @ GLPC 2013-07-29

An individual with a request about family land
got told by staff he didn’t fit the letter of the zoning code,

in sharp contrast to the

Moody Housing item
which got to slide on traffic, safety, use of local contractors,
and vague affirmations from the developer that maybe there’d
be no mold or unpaid subcontractors this time.

Most of the attendees didn’t care, and walked out as soon
as this item started.
But some of the Commissioners did care.

County Planner Jason Davenport said nobody is currently renting
the property and “you have the recommendation from staff”.

The applicant said the land had been deeded by grandmother
to family members years ago,
and one now wanted to sell his part.
The

TRC’s analysis
said the request didn’t meet ULDC requirements and
the

TRC’s recommendation was laconic: Continue reading →

No mold or unpaid contractors this time for Moody Housing @ GLPC 2013-07-29

Unlike Moody AFB’s last go at privatizing housing,
no mold or unpaid contractors this time,
or so we’re told.
But not so solid assurances that local contractors will be used.
And what if this new thing turns into something radically different
like Nelson Hill did only a short way up Val Del?

Speaking for

that proposed privatized Moody housing on Val Del Road,
Lawyer Tom Kurrie said this was “an opportunity for our community”.
He spelled out that the proposal was “90 homes for off-base houses,
for enlisted personnel, non-commissioned officers, and officers”,
with gates.
He went on about

Balfour Beatty‘s experience in building such housing,
and their option to build Phase II, although at the moment
they’re only requesting Phase I.
He said “the unfortunate issue that took place with the
prior development” would not occur with this one.

I can guess he’s referring to the mold issue,

Beth Mahoney detailed in Little Rock Military Families Examiner 6 April 2009.

Or since he lauded Balfour Beatty’s credit rating, maybe
he was referring to the
nonpayment of subcontractors,
as Kari L. Sands wrote for VDT, 4 March 2007,

Military housing woes:
Non-payment forces work on military housing project to stop.

Preferred Builders and Renovators, LLC., the Home Builders
Association of South Georgia and CMS/ Dumpster Co. are among those
affected. Subcontractors are alleging that Continue reading →

Gated Moody housing on Val Del Road, REZ-2013-09 @ GLPC 2013-07-29

Only 81 of 396 proposed units have been built at current Moody Family

Housing on Roberts Road.
Why should we build more on Val Del Road?

At the 29 July 2013 Greater Lowndes Planning Commission meeting,
County Planner Jason Davenport said that in addition
to the

initial materials for GLPC,
he’d provided an update
about Magnolia Grove, which was Phase I of

Moody Family Housing.
The real reason for the rezoning wasn’t stated in the initial materials given
to GLPC.
In

the materials obtained through open records request,
we can see that
the

GLPC agenda item
contained the boilerplate
“The general motivation in this case appears to be so that the subject property
can be developed at a greater residential density.”
In the update
it’s assumed that the real reason is housing for Moody personnel,
since Magnolia Grove is the existing Moody housing off of Roberts Road.
Which isn’t even built out yet, as you can see in

this map from the county Tax Commissioners,
so why does Moody need more housing?

Lots of interesting back history in that

July 29th GLPC Lowndes County Rezoning Update – 2,
to which
I’ve added Continue reading →

Planning Commission on subdivision next to Moody AFB, REZ-2013-08 MFH Tract A @ GLPC 2013-07-29

Now you can see what they were looking at:

those documents are on the LAKE website
for

REZ-2013-08 MFH, for a subdivision on Roberts Road immediately next to Moody AFB.

First

County Planner Jason Davenport said a few words about

the TRC recommendation.

Commissioner Ted Raker (Hahira) wanted clarification about

this application would require additional changes to meet
the requirements of the Unified Land Development Code (ULDC),
specifically that it would not help with safety, fire, health, general welfare,
etc.
“In fact seven out of the eleven were negative.”

Davenport confirmed that that was correct, and that was

staff’s analysis.
Staff paid by your tax dollars, so you shouldn’t have to file an open
records request and pay ten dollars when staff could just put it on
the web with the

GLPC agenda, which they also don’t now but could easily put on the web.

Nobody spoke for the request.
Numerous people spoke in opposition.

Tom Kurrie said in 38 years of practicing law Continue reading →

Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline letters to Lowndes County

No letters from Lowndes County back to Sabal Trail were included in
the open records response of last week, so should we conclude
the county has not authorized surveys on any of its properties?

The request to Lowndes County was for correspondence with Sabal Trail Transmission LLC about the proposed
natural gas pipeline from Anniston, Alabama to Orlando, Florida,
and the response included
survey authorization forms for a list of
parcels owned by Lowndes County, plus assorted descriptions and
maps with very little detail.
Sabal Trail still didn’t have a contract with Florida Power and Light,

yet expected:

“Field survey work is scheduled to begin in September 2013.”

It looks like Sabal Trail sent letters about a bunch of parcels and then more about another one later.
First they sent
an introduction 19 June 2013 listing
parcels 0146A-074-A, 0171 178, 0172 119, 0204 001,
including a map.
This appears to be the same map

we’ve seen before posted by various news media:

Map: 36" Greenfield Pipeline Approx. 465 Miles

Then they sent

a letter 22 June 2013 with

a survey authorization form
for the same parcels.
Then they sent separate letters 25 June 2013 for parcels
0146A-074-A,
0171 178,
and
0172 119, 0204 001.

Also on 25 June 2013

Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter informed us:

Lowndes County does not benefit from this proposal and has no
responsibility for the approval other than that of a property owner
potentially impacted by the proposed route as any other property owner
in Lowndes County would be.

Apparently Sabal Trail thought of another one, because a few weeks later
they sent

a cover letter 15 July 2013
for Parcels 0098 003, 0098 004 with
a slightly more detailed map,
followed a few days later by
a survey authorization form 19 July 2013.

Map of Options A and B

Scans of all these letters are

on the LAKE website.

-jsq

Planning Commission considers huge subdivision near Moody AFB @ GLPC 2013-07-29

Remember last year when the Chamber helped mobilize opposition to

a subdivision outside Moody’s front gate and
won?

Well, here’s another, and it’s not 23.49 acres this time, it’s
123.45 acres even closer to the runways,
and from MAZ-I to P-D.
Plus a proposed
64.92 acre development on
(apparently

4958)
Val Del Road for
“Moody Family”.
That’s always the excuse, isn’t it?
More houses for Moody, nevermind whether Moody wants or needs them.
With all the vacant houses already in the county, we don’t need them.

Here’s

the agenda:

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission

Lowndes County City of Valdosta City of Dasher City of Hahira City of Lake Park

REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING

AGENDA

Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office

325 West Savannah Avenue

Tuesday, July 29, 2013* 5:30 P.M. * Public Hearing