Terry Richards | The Valdosta Daily TimesLake Park City Council met in the town's civic center Thursday rather than its usual chambers in City Hall.

LAKE PARK — More than 100 residents turned out for a Lake Park City Council meeting Thursday as the council tackled a hot-button topic: whether to approve a zoning request for a proposed new housing development.

Instead of City Hall, the meeting was held across the street at the larger Lake Park Civic Center. Even so, a speaker had to be set up outside so people who couldn’t find seating inside the building could still hear the meeting.

At most Lake Park City Council meetings, it’s rare for more than half a dozen members of the public to attend. At the August meeting, no one from the public attended; City Hall was closed due to a COVID-19 scare, and councilmen met in the parking lot just long enough to approve a millage rate plan and officially move the September meeting from Sept. 2 to Thursday, Sept. 3. City Hall would still have been closed Sept. 2 under the COVID-19 concern.

The meeting started with a public forum on the zoning for the proposed Pointers Ridge development, located alongside U.S. 41 and 4-H Club Road. The land in question is zoned as R-15, requiring minimum lot sizes of 15,000 feet; the developer wants the zoning changed to R-10, requiring minimum lot sizes of 10,000 feet.

The Greater Lowndes County Zoning Commission recommended the city deny the rezoning request. The final decision is up to City Council.

Developer Justin Roberts opened the forum, displaying schematics of what the development would look like from above and using a projector to show examples of what the houses would look like.

During the forum, he defended the project against claims it is intended as “low-income” housing that would attract crime and devalue properties.

“These are $200,000-$250,000 houses,” Roberts said. “That’s not low income.”

The new development would offer a swimming pool, a 15-acre pavilion, a playground and a walking track, he said.

When the floor opened to the public, no one spoke in favor of Pointers Ridge. Several residents spoke in opposition of the project, and several emails and letters from other residents in opposition were read aloud.

Glen Gregory voiced a concern many residents mentioned: increased traffic on local roads. He pointed out that 4-H Club Road, with its snaking turns, is particularly dangerous.

Gregory said he is concerned about the density of the proposed project, which calls for 300 houses.

“There are too many houses, too close together with no vehicle access to the back yard,” he said. 

Roberts said the houses would not be crammed together.

Lake Park resident David Smith raised concerns about the impact of so many new families on Lake Park Elementary School. 

“The school may not be big enough for all the kids,” he said.

Another issue concerned running utilities to the new housing. Roberts said he had met with the county engineer and had assurances that Lowndes County could handle such things as water and sewage.

When the public forum ended, the council went straight into its regular meeting. The council voted to table a decision on the rezoning until the next meeting in order to get all its data together.

After the vote, Lake Park resident Robert Rogers spoke to the press.

“My family and I have lived in Lake Park for three years; we moved to escape the ‘compact housing’ situation in Hahira and north Lowndes County,” he said. “Now it looks like they’re trying to put it in right next door to us.”

Terry Richards is senior reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.