This Reminder came in today, refreshingly explicitly mentioning agriculture. Note the different location, this time at the Health Dept. office after the Planning Commission meeting.
The next workshop for the 2016 Greater Lowndes Comprehensive Plan Update will be:
Monday, March 21, 2016
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 W. Savannah Avenue
Valdosta, GeorgiaAt this workshop we will Continue reading
As promised, there is
an updated Work Book online, dated February 29, 2016.
As Ariel Godwin also promised, the SGRC website says:
The next workshop will be Monday, March 7, 2016, 5:00-7:00 p.m. at the SGRC office, 327 W. Savannah Ave., Valdosta, GA.
It will be interesting to see if this version of the Work Book for the 2016 Greater Lowndes County Comprehensive Plan Update contains any changes about the issues Greg Odom raised last month (22 February 2016) about road paving, trees, and reducing expense to the county. And LAKE will be at the meeting with the video camera.
-jsq
So well attended there weren’t enough handouts,
as remarked on by Greg Odom,
who
later also said the proposed Comprehensive Plan Update didn’t have any plans for canopy roads, or roads on existing rights of way like in Virginia:
“For the past 25 years there has not been a healthy attitude
about people who want to maintain dirt roads.
There has been an attitude of let’s pave everything,
and let’s pave it in an outrageous way….”
Last night’s meeting was billed Continue reading
Received Friday 5 January 2016:
Subject: Lowndes Comprehensive Plan Kickoff Jan. 19th
The kick-off public hearing for the joint Lowndes County and Cities of Dasher, Hahira, Lake Park, Remerton, and Valdosta 2016 Comprehensive Plan Update will be held on:
Tuesday, January 19, 2016, 5:30 p.m.
Lowndes County South Health District Administrative Office
325 W. Savannah Avenue
Valdosta, GeorgiaThe purpose of this public hearing will be Continue reading
The Georgia legislature overwhelmingly passed a rather brief
bill that changes
the requirements for Comprehensive Plans by local governments.
ACCG
and
GMA both supported it.
It seems to be related to recent
Department of Community Affairs (DCA)
rulemaking that was mostly positive.
Does that make it a good law?
Opinions seem to differ.
Here’s what I’ve found.
The South Georgia Regional Commission held a public hearing on Wednesday June 6th to give an overview of the current Implementation Phase draft of the Joint Land Use Study (JLUS) for Moody Air Force Base and surrounding communities.
Todd Miller, the project coordinator, gave a power point presentation. When asked if the presentation could be made available on the SGRC web site, he said yes (and then called to make sure I could find it).
The complete draft implementation phase documents are available at http://www.sgrc.us/JLUS/implementation.htm and the comment period is open until the end of June. Comments should be sent to Todd Miller at tmiller (at) sgrc.us.
Here's a video playlist:
JLUS Transparency and Videos
Public Hearing, Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC), Todd Miller,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, Fri, 8 Jun 2012 10:21:39 -0400.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
-gretchen
Almost all the speakers from Lowndes County or Valdosta opposed T-SPLOST at the 19 September 2011 public hearing, as you can see in these videos.
Some of the videos have already been blogged separately, along with some closely related posts:
Five million dollars for one intersection? —Gretchen Quarterman 
Aviation Projects, and Valdosta is a substantial donor –Larry Hanson And finally, beware! Most of the discussion in these videos is about specific lists of non-discretionary projects. There’s also 25% of the T-SPLOST money that could be spent on discretionary projects, which are already being specified by the local governments,
and which may include many of the same projects that were on the original unconstrained project list but got bumped off the constrained list.
Here’s a video playlist:
Videos
T-SPLOST Public Meeting, Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC),
Corey Hull, Travis Harper,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 September 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
-jsq
Larry Hanson, Valdosta City Manager, asked for the regional council to reconsider aviation projects, especially considering that the tax was supposed to be for projects of regional significance. Then he pointed out
Out of that $503 million about 40% of it or $212 million is projected to be generated here in Lowndes County. And when you look at what's being returned, for instance to the city of Valdosta, it's $47 million. It is certainly one thing to be a donor, but that's a pretty substantial donor.
He said he appreciated all the other counties, but much of the money would go to counties that are not contiguous to Lowndes County and are not part of the Valdosta Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which includes the four counties of Lowndes, Brooks, Lanier, and Echols. He continued:
Lowndes County is about 26% of the region's population and we generate about 38% of the revenue, and we're not quite getting that back in terms of the distribution.
You may wonder why a City of Valdosta official was speaking for Lowndes County. County Manager Joe Pritchard was there at the start of the meeting, and I think County Engineer Mike Fletcher was, as well. County Chairman Ashley Paulk came in late and summoned Pritchard and Fletcher outside the glass doors of the meeting room. They stood there for quite some time, peering in, and then vanished.
Here's the video:
Aviation Projects, and Valdosta is a substantial donor –Larry Hanson @ T-SPLOST 2011-09-19
T-SPLOST Public Meeting, Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC),
Corey Hull,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 September 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
-jsq
I asked why the Old US 41 North widening project changed from $8 million on the unconstrained list to $12 million on the constrained list, an increase of $4 million or 50% when the description did not change?
The answer indicates GDOT and local governments want to drive development north in the county, leaving pedestrians and bicyclists stranded yet having to pay.
Corey Hull responded:
Halfway through we received new cost estimates….
GDOT did the cost estimates, in cooperation with the local government that was responsible for that.
A state employee told me after the meeting that GDOT raised some estimates because it thought the local government, in this case the Lowndes County Commission and staff, didn’t put in enough to cover the project. I don’t know whether GDOT was figuring by Atlanta costs or not…. At least the cost didn’t go up further in the final project list; I just checked and it’s still $12 million.
Corey elaborated that some projects increased and some decreased. I asked him which ones did which. He said he’d have to go back and compare. Later he helped me produce a list of comparisons of costs of Lowndes County projects, which shows that one went down by 30% and three went up by 50% or more. One, RC11-000099 St. Augustine at Norman Intersection Improvements, went up by 131.5%.
That $12 million for widening less than 3 miles of one road is more than one item that was in the unconstrained list 
but cut from the constrained list: $7.5 million for a bus system, with three bus lines that would connect Wiregrass Tech, Five Points, Downtown, Moody, East Side, South Side, West Side, and the Mall. A bus system recommended by the Industrial Authority’s Community Assessment to aid in employee attendance, industry recruitment, and workforce.
You could probably even start up a substantial commuter rail system using existing freight line tracks for less than $12 million. Even though GDOT apparently only believes in roads and bridges, busses and trains are actually more cost-effective, especially for lower-income people. The same lower-income people who will be disproportionately taxed by T-SPLOST as a percentage of their income.
Instead, the description for the Old US 41 North project admits the county is driving Continue reading
Roy Taylor pointed out gas taxes are higher in Florida, and:
The people who use the gas pay the tax.
Then he told a story about a woman he knows who can't afford T-SPLOST.
Yes, he seemed to be proposing a gasoline tax to pay for transportation projects, an idea which I've been floating for some time. That's how Eisenhower paid for the Interstate Highway System: gasoline and diesel fuel taxes.
Here's the video:
Gasoline tax? —Roy Taylor
T-SPLOST Public Meeting, Southern Georgia Regional Commission (SGRC),
Corey Hull,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 September 2011.
Video by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE).
-jsq