The City of Savannah hosted a set of open houses on future development at the Civic Center, showcasing a few scenarios for housing and commercial development.
* The Savannah Civic Center site is being considered for redevelopment with a focus on housing and commercial space.
* Three housing scenarios were presented, ranging from for-sale row homes to a mix including workforce and senior housing.
* Community feedback has shown a preference for greater housing affordability and smaller, local commercial businesses.
For-sale rowhouses and condominiums, workforce housing apartments and senior housing. Some 55,000 square feet of commercial and office space.
All are potential options for future redevelopment at the Savannah Civic Center site identified through a market analysis and land use study by consultants RCLCO and EDSA. At a series of open houses this week, the consultant team along with city staff laid out an array of scenarios to re-imagine what may be newly built in the heart of downtown.
Those scenarios weighed factors such as housing types, affordability, scale and types of commercial businesses for residents to provide input. More than 100 residents participated in the open houses over two days.
“The material I saw at the ballroom really reflects a wide reach of uses for that property,” said Downtown resident Paul Cobet, who is also president of the Downtown Neighborhood Association. Cobet spoke in his personal capacity as DNA formulates an official position on redevelopment through the engagement process.
The meetings marked another benchmark on the road to transforming a chunk of the city’s most valuable land in the heart of its National Historic Landmark District. The site, home to the Martin Luther King Jr. Arena and Johnny Mercer Theatre, has long been a target for redevelopment with city leaders saying the advent of Enmarket Arena made the Civic Center arena obsolete.
Savannah City Council passed a framework for the site’s future last summer, designating the arena for demolition, the theater for renovation, and for reestablishing portions of the Oglethorpe Plan on the site. The resolution also stated redevelopment should prioritize housing and prohibit short-term rentals or hotels on the site.
“This was the best decision we could make at this time,” Savannah Mayor Van Johnson told the Savannah Morning News when council made the vote. “It’s probably the most even-handed, thoughtful approach that gives consideration to our past and to our future.”
Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s engagement sessions laid out three potential scenarios for housing and three potential scenarios for commercial space. Residents spanned the room to learn about each before weighing their priorities with dots on a board and submitting a feedback survey.
The potential development scenarios provided were based on their potential to “pencil out,” or be supported by the market, said members of the consultant team. In crafting the scenarios, the team weighed how much certain developments may cost, how much a developer might pay for vacant land, and how particular developments could fit together for “placemaking.”
“When there’s a site like this that has the room to be able to build some of these uses, it’s just a once in a generation opportunity,” said Jake Ross, principal at RCLCO.
While renovation of Johnny Mercer Theatre is a major component to the project, the recent engagement focused on how to develop on the Oglethorpe Plan blocks that will be restored on the arena location and existing parking lot. In total, six Oglethorpe Plan blocks will be open for redevelopment (four of the larger tithing lots, and two of the smaller trust lots).
Feedback at the open houses showed favorability for greater housing affordability and density, with some support for middle ground on affordability and height, according to the feedback boards at the meeting. The Downtown Neighborhood Association will oppose any bonus stories on the site, Cobet said, which are allowed above the 5-story maximum when retail is used on the ground floor.
Most residents also supported smaller scale, local commercial space. Here is a breakdown of the different scenarios and how they may fit together.
Housing scenario one
The first housing scenario presented focused on a mix of for-sale rowhouses and condominiums, two housing types already common to downtown Savannah. These housing types would have the least affordability and density of the three scenarios.
Housing scenario two
The second housing scenario proposes a mix of row homes and condos, with a mix of rental workforce housing and apartments. This scenario would bring more density and affordability to the site, but move closer to the maximum height limits in the area.
Housing scenario three
Housing scenario three wipes the rowhouses and proposes a mix of condos, workforce housing, apartments and senior housing. This option would have the most density and affordability but likely would require using a bonus story on the site.
Commercial scenarios
The commercial scenarios propose sizes from 45,000-square-feet minimums to a 65,000-square-foot maximums. There are options for street-level commercial, street-level offices or multi-story offices.
“Putting it all together”
Those who attended the open houses ended with a station that overlayed housing scenarios with commercial scenarios.
What’s next?
Those who missed the week’s public engagement can still provide feedback online. The city’s survey about the project is open through Nov. 21.
Final project recommendations are expected in January, and city staff and the consultant team are slated to use the community feedback to craft those final options. The group will also incorporate implementation strategies into those recommendations, such as whether the city should sell certain parcels, retain ownership or offer developers ground leases for development.
Project leaders expect the final product will be a mix of the scenarios provided at the meetings.
“The public engagement part is just crucial in making sure that we’re not just thinking about numbers, but we’re thinking about what makes Savannah, Savannah,” Ross said. “So that’s what really matters and is why we are here today.”
Evan Lasseter is the city and county reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at [email protected].
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