Two months ago at ZBOA: setbacks, exterior buildings, parking, landscaping, buffers, and tree protection, in four county cases and four Valdosta cases.
There were split votes on
VAR-2019-08 — Grace Baptist Church of South Georgia (6749 US Highway 84 East, Naylor) and
APP-2019-04 Ian McTurk (1062 Ridge Road.)
Seven conditions were imposed on a unanimous vote on
APP-2019-03 Pete’s Otto Shop (401 E. Ann St./1113 Marion St.)
I’m slow posting these videos, but not as slow as the City of Valdosta,
where there’s no
Summary of Actions for any meeting since May,
and no
Minutes since June.
However, the minutes are on the LAKE website,
in the packet for the next ZBOA meeting, courtesy of ZBOA member Gretchen Quarterman.
Finance Director Stephanie Black said due to the
Property Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights,
if the tax digest (total assessed property value in the county)
goes up, the county has to reduce the millage (tax per $1,000 of property value),
or announce the difference as a tax increase and hold three public hearings,
so they’re rolling back the millage rate slightly: 0.126 mills,
down from 11.064 for 2018 to 10.938 for 2019.
That’s Georgia Senate Bill 177, Act 431, signed April 30, 1999, effective January 1, 2000.
Here is the millage resolution they adopted half an hour later,
in the
board packet, which LAKE only received after this millage meeting and after the Commission voted on this millage change:
She showed some quite informative slides, which for unknown reasons do not
seem to be on
the Finance Department’s web page.
For example, she had a nice summary slide of the five chunks of sales tax these days:
4 cents to the State of Georgia,
1 cent to Local Option Sales Tax (LOST),
split between county and its cities for property tax reduction,
1 cent to Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST), split between county and its cities for capital improvements,
1 cent to Educational Special Local Option Sales Tax (E-SPLOST),
split between the county and city school systems for capital improvements
1 cent to Transportation Special Local Option Sales Tax (T-SPLOST),
regionally approved, and split between the county and its cities for transportation capital improvements.
Billed on the lowndescounty.com calendar as
Millage Meeting,
5PM, Tuesday, 27 August 2019, in Commission Chambers before the voting Regular Session,
as usual almost nobody attended, and nobody from the public spoke.
Lowering the Millage Rate
Millage Meeting, Lowndes County Commission (LCC Millage),
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, August 27, 2019.
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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!
The
Val Del Road rezoning
breezed through unanimously in four minutes,
with one Planning Commissioner wondering if Val Del Road could
handle the traffic,
and nobody speaking against.
The
Valdosta cases took almost half an hour, with three split votes
(yes, three votes on two cases).
GLPC Chair Vicki Rountree
Final decisions will be made by
the Lowndes County Commission on Tuesday, September 10, 2019
for
REZ-2019-12 Val Del Rd.,
and
by the Valdosta Mayor-Council on Thursday, September 5, 2019,
for the
paired Valdosta cases,
as you can see in
the agenda.
The Greater Lowndes Planning Commission (GLPC) is an advisory body only,
with the actual decisions being made by those other bodies,
as
its Chair Vicki Rountree explained
at the beginning of the session,
before she had to vote thrice to resolve tied votes.
You can hear Gretchen Quarterman of LAKE explaining
it towards the end of the
final LAKE video.
After they adjourned, they kept talking about a
joint ordinance to the six governments, without saying what that was about.
Since Lowndes County Chairman Bill Slaughter was standing up there at the time,
I would guess it’s the SPLOST VIII agreement.
Below are links to each LAKE video of each agenda item, with a few notes, followed by a LAKE video playlist.
See also
the agenda.
And come to the Lowndes County or Valdosta decision meetings if you care about one of those cases. Continue reading →
Received Wednesday, after
the Lowndes County Commission voted on it Tuesday evening,
the board packet is on the LAKE website.
Apparently the County Clerk’s office is going to wait the full three
days after an open records request to press the button to forward the packet.
So we’ll be sure to send requests more than three days before the Regular Session.
Where along Val Del Road it wants to put them is not stated in the
Planning Commission agenda
for today.
I’d guess close to the existing lots to the south, but the county
ran water and sewer up to Nelson Hill, which you can see to the
northwest of the NATCO tract,
so the subdivision could be anywhere along Val Del in that tract.
Greater Lowndes Planning Commission
~ Lowndes County
~ City of Valdosta
~ City of Dasher
~ City of Hahira
~ City of Lake Park
~ City of Remerton ~
REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING AGENDA
Monday, August 26, 2019 5:30 P.M.
Public Hearing, Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 West Savannah Avenue, Valdosta, Georgia
County Manager Joe Pritchard said Finance Director Stephanie Black has
received a millage report from the Tax Commissioner.
He and she will prepare something from it for the Lowndes County Commissioners for a later meeting.
The board packet is
on the LAKE website,
in response to a LAKE open records request.