Tag Archives: LAKE

Videos: Tucker Rd, West Ridge Business Park, Appointments VLCCCTA, VLCIA @ LCC 2017-12-11

They vote this evening on what you can see them discussing yesterday morning in these LAKE videos of the Lowndes County Commission Work Session. The longest business item was not even a minute and a half on REZ-2017-12 West Ridge Business Park.

By far the longest item was not on the agenda: 11. Reports – County Manager a. Steve Gupton- LODAC Presentation, about a local drug counseling organization, originally private, but for long now funded by Valdosta and Lowndes County plus grants. As one of the presenters noted, probably only Commissioner Joyce Evans was thoroughly familiar with LODAC.

Below are Continue reading

Tucker Rd, West Ridge Business Park, Appointments VLCCCTA, VLCIA @ LCC 2017-12-11

A very busy agenda this morning, including the controversial REZ-2017-14 Cothron, Tucker Rd rezoning.

They’ll probably reappoint Commissioner Joyce Evans and Gerone Anderson to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Conference Center and Tourism Authority, although Robert Jefferson and Ellen Hill have also applied.

Mary Gooding is retiring from the Valdosta-Lowndes County Development (Industrial) Authority, and four people have applied: Ed Hightower Jr., Brad Folsom, John (Mac) McCall (currently on ZBOA) and Giovanni Panizzi.

Mary Gooding, VLCIA

Nevermind the REZ-2017-12 West Ridge Business Park rezoning had nothing to do with the Industrial Authority that I know of.

No meeting would be complete without Continue reading

The shift has come: GE, Siemens massive job losses as fossil fuels crash and the sun rises

The carbon bubble is bursting, as jobs fly from some of the biggest companies in the world, because solar and wind power are taking over right now. It’s too late to bet on the wrong nuclear horse or the wrong pipelnie snake. Get out of fossil fuels now: the sun is rising.

Tiffany Hsu and Clifford Krauss, New York Times, 7 December 2017, G.E. Cuts Jobs as It Navigates a Shifting Energy Market,

General Electric, whose new leadership is moving to eliminate bloat and grapple with the fallout from earlier, ill-timed decisions, is taking drastic steps to keep pace with seismic shifts in the global energy industry.

GE ranks first in 2017 downsizing after 12,000 more jobs: Brandon Kochkodin, Bloomberg, 7 December 2017
Brandon Kochkodin, Bloomberg, 7 December 2017, GE Ranks First in 2017 Downsizing After 12,000 More Job Cuts.

The company said on Thursday that it would cut 12,000 jobs in its power division, reducing the size of the unit’s work force by 18 percent as part of a push to compete with international rivals in a saturated natural gas market, adjust to “softening” in the oil and gas sectors and stay abreast of the growing demand for renewable energy.

Solar and wind energy technology is increasingly being deployed Continue reading

Sign variances @ ZBOA 2017-12-05

“[V]ariances are designed to provide an opportunity for relief in circumstances beyond design’s control where it would be difficult if not impossible to meet the regulations,” said city staff, about APP-2017-07 — Messiah Lutheran Church, on the the agenda for this afternoon at the decision-making Valdosta-Lowndes Zoning Board of Appeals. Ditto APP-2017-06 — Axis Infrastructure, but they like the signs proposed in APP-2017-05 — Staten Station.

APP-2017-05 Tax Parcels Aerial

You can see all the details of the three Valdosta cases on on the LAKE website. I don’t have the packet items for the four Lowndes County cases.

Valdosta – Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals

Matt Martin,
Valdosta Planning and Zoning Administrator
300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, Georgia
(229) 259-3563

Carmella Braswell,
Lowndes County Zoning Administrator
327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia
(229) 671-2430

AGENDA
December 5, 2017
2:30 p.m.

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Videos: Cothron on Tucker Road and second West Ridge Business Park rezoning @ GLPC 2017-11-27

Twenty five minutes on 7. REZ-2017-14 Cothron 5310 Tucker Road 5 acres from E-A to R-A to split out two 2.5 acre house lots and a home business office (is there a deed restriction?), fourteen minutes on a storage building in 3. VA-2017-16 220-224 Myddleton Road 0.58 acres from R-6 to M-2 (probably will be at ZBOA for a variance later), and six minutes each on 5. REZ-2017-12 West Ridge Business Park 1.2 acres from C-G to C-H and 4. VA-2017-17 City of Valdosta LDR text amendments. Everything else sailed through.

They nominated the same Chair and Vice-Chair as currently: Franklin Bailey and Jody Hall. County Planner Jason Davenport pointed out traditionally they rotate every two years, but the Commission could decide to keep the same officers, and they did.

Below are links to each LAKE video with a few notes, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the agenda. Continue reading

Videos: Office in the woods, B&B, Church @ GLPC 2017-10-30

Well, it wasn’t all that brief, because 3. REZ-2017-11 Dasher Johnson & Howell Roads for an office far away from any similar zoning was contentious and almost 40 minutes long, with a split vote against, although later the Lowndes County Commission passed the rezoning anyway.

Second longest was 4. CU-2017-05 206 East College Street (B&B) at almost nineteen minutes. Everything else sailed through.

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Second West Ridge Business Park rezoning in two months @ GLPC 2017-11-27

Second rezoning in two months at West Ridge Business Park, which does not appear to be among the eight Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority business parks, none of which appear to be on the agenda for today’s Planning Commission meeting.

Parcel 0059 140B, 2812 Cameron Road
Lowndes County Tax Assessors, Parcel 0059 140B, 2812 Cameron Lane

Greater Lowndes Planning Commission Continue reading

Videos: Office rezoning, Georgia Power, Alcohol, and road abandomnent @ LCC 2017-11-14

They added and agenda item for 7.p. Solicitor-General’s VOCA Grant Renewal; yes, really, the agenda was so long that’s sub-item letter P and the meeting was 51 and a half minutes long.

Longest at seven minutes was 6a. REZ-2017-11 Arrow Engineering, in which the County Commissioners ignored the Planning Commission’s recommendation to deny, and the County Planner’s observation the previous morning that the applicants would accept one acre. Instead they approved 2.5 acres with no conditions as Office Institutional (OI) in an area with no other instances of that.

At six minutes, 7.n. Georgia Power- VisionFirst was about putting $25,000 to hire an unnamed consultant for a joint project for unspecified results.

Update 2017-11-22: According to Chairman Bill Slaughter, the consultant is VisionFirst Advisors out of Tallahassee.

Did they mean the sinkhole-infested Mission Creek instead of 7.k. Grant of Easement for Utility Right of Way Moody-Mission Point?

Five minutes included questions from the Chairman and resulted in a split vote and a stern warning on 7.i. Beer, Wine & Liquor License – Liquor Barn, 3990 N. Valdosta Rd.

One of the two road abandonments, 7.a. Abandonment of Lane Road and a Portion of Sheavette Road, got a very rare split vote, with Commissioner Clay Griner voting alone against.

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Development Authority sells land for solar arrays

Next to ERCO Worldwide, one of the few tenants in VLCIA’s “eight industrial parks”, SolAmerica is buying land for a solar farm that will take up most of the rest of the Perimeter East Business Park.

Site Layout, East of Valdosta
Site Layout submitted by SolAmerica to VLCIA in 14 November 2017 meeting.

Jason A. Smith, VDT, 15 November 2017, Solar arrays planned for land,

The Valdosta-Lowndes County Development Authority voted Tuesday to approve the sale of 27.42 acres for $137,100 to be used for solar arrays.

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Videos: Board of Health and an office in the woods @ LCC 2017-11-13

Quite a long Work Session yesterday morning, more than half an hour. Surprisingly, the longest was Liquor Barn’s Wine & Liquor License; apparently their state and county licenses don’t match. They vote tonight at 5:30 PM, in their Regular Session.

Below are links to each LAKE video, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the agenda in the previous post, especially about 6a.REZ-2017-11 Arrow Engineering, R-A and E-A to O-I, ~2.5 acres, which is now apparently really for 1 acre. Continue reading