To: Richard C. Lee, District 2 Cc: Rodney N. Casey, Chairman Cc: J. Edgar Roberts, District 1 Cc: G. Robert Carter, District 3 Cc: Jason Davenport, County Planner Lowndes County Board of Commissioners 325 West Savannah Avenue Valdosta, GA 31601

From: John S. Quarterman residence 6565 Quarterman Road 3338 Country Club Rd. #L336 Valdosta, GA 31605 229-242-0102 10 November 2008

Commissioner Lee,

Thank you for meeting with us Friday. That was a good beginning to a conversation, much like I had hoped we would have after you attended our neighborhood meeting of June 5 in which we requested further options and my letter of August 7 in which I also requested further options regarding Quarterman Road. Now we’re talking!

I understand that there has been some confusion as to who wants to do what with Quarterman Road. This is why we have clarified neighborhood opinion with the petition of 26 October showing that a majority of households on the road and the owners of a majority of the road frontage do not want the road paved, at least not using the current plan the county is pursuing of clearing a 60 foot right of way and tearing down the tree canopy.

Apparently there has also been some confusion as to what the state requires the county to do. I hear that some time in the past the county was planning to use state money to improve Quarterman Road. If so, I see how that money could have come with requirements from the state. That would explain why the current county paving plan, which was originally drawn up many years ago, looks more like a state highway than a rural local county road. However, as I am sure you are aware, SPLOST VI is a local tax, not state money, so there are no such requirements along with it. I confirmed this with the District Engineer with GDOT. He tells me that the state makes no requirements on the county as to what to do with Quarterman Road, which the state classifies as functional class 9, a rural local road.

I specifically asked GDOT whether the county could, for example, pave a road with a 30 foot right of way, and they said yes. The distance across Quarterman Road from tree to tree is more than 30 feet all the way through the canopy.

The county has already paved roads in the county with RoW less than 60 feet, such as Rusk Road near Lake Park (see March 11, 2006 County Commission minutes).

You expressed some doubt as to whether speed limits could be set low enough for safety if the right of way was narrow or trees were close to a roadbed, because of AASHTO standards. Standards are a good thing, but they are guidelines. You may not be aware that while Quarterman Road currently has a 35 MPH speed limit, Coppage Road heading west from Val Del has a 30 MPH limit, and Coppage Road heading east from Val Del has a 25 MPH limit. For that matter, Quarterman Road has a 15 MPH advisory limit at the first curve past the paved part. Even GDOT recommends in its Design Policy Manual, section 11.1.3:

“a speed limit on the road equal to or less than the selected design speed.”

So clearly the county can set a speed limit as low as is necessary for safety.

You mentioned potential liability on the part of the County Commission or its members if trees were too close to a roadbed. Yet Thomas County, Georgia, and Leon County, Florida, to name only two, have extensive scenic and canopy roads with trees no farther from the roadbed than the canopy on Quarterman Road. Thomasville and Tallahassee advertise their scenic roads and people drive from miles around just to see them. That’s a kind of tourism Valdosta and Hahira and Lowndes County could use.

Finding out how these other counties do it and adapting that to Lowndes County is a planning issue that would be quite useful to pursue.

As you know Dr. Dorfman’s report about the Local Government Fiscal Impacts of Land Use in Lowndes County recommended development close in to existing services for the most benefit to all parties. Sprawl is a sure path to fiscal problems. Paving a road way out here risks encouraging development in an area that has no infrastructure: no county water or sewer. I thank you for saying you would prevent that, but since you’ve said you’re retiring from the commission, you will be a commissioner only for another year or two, while those of us who signed the petition not to pave generally plan to live here until we die, and then leave the land to our heirs.

Let us take a step back and treat this issue of improving Quarterman Road not as a rushed job of “improvement” by clearing and paving. Instead, let’s take the opportunity to plan not only to Save Our Canopy Road, but also to preserve other canopies in the county while maintaining safety and community character.

Therefore I recommend several things:

1. Please halt the current Quarterman Road road clearing project. You did the right thing in making a motion to stop the rezoning for the proposed subdivision last year, sticking to the comprehensive plan that says that this area up here on the north edge of the county is supposed to be an agricultural and wildlife area. We’re counting on you to do the right thing again Tuesday, by stopping the current cutting and paving project, which is too destructive of this rural neighborhood.

2. I hope the county Public Works and Engineering departments will continue with ditch and culvert cleaning, building up roadbeds, and similar work such as has already improved the quality of Quarterman Road so much that it did not actually wash out even during Hurricane Fay. They were out working as soon as the rains stopped, and they have done quite a bit of work since. Soon they will have the road in good enough shape that there won’t be any more water running over the road, except in very unusual rains like hurricanes. This is the kind of improvement the majority of households around the road want. I know of no one who objects to using SPLOST VI money for some of that, such as for example a box culvert at the creek. Let me once again take the opportunity to thank Robin English and Mike Fletcher for their efforts to improve Quarterman Road by such methods.

3. Please start a planning project to evaluate canopy roads throughout the county and determine how best to preserve the canopies while maintaining their roads. Leon County, Florida, has a citizens’ committee that meets every other month to help with that. Lowndes County can, too. The result could be a tourist attraction that would not only preserve the environment, but also burnish the reputation of the county, and maybe even bring in more sales tax dollars. That sounds like a much higher and better use of canopy roads.

4. If after the above the county wants to come back to the residents of Quarterman Road with a better plan for improvement, a plan that includes preserving the rural nature of our country road, we’re all ears. That would be real progress for our neighborhood and the county.

It’s always a pleasure to communicate with you; let’s keep the lines open.

Sincerely,

John S. Quarterman

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