A 2.5-acre portion of a 13-acre tract designated for conservation Savannah’s Future Land Use Map (FLUM) could be redesignated for commercial development adjacent to wetlands.
The Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission voted Tuesday to recommend changing 2.5 acres of the tract to commercial-suburban on the FLUM, despite objections from multiple community members with concerns of environmental disruption and worsening floods.
The Planning Commission also recommended approval of an accompanying rezoning request that would change the 2.5 acres from residential single-family to neighborhood business. The petition was brought by self-storage company Stop n Stor with plans to place a storage facility on the site.
“(This property) has
ecological value, and allowing this conversion from conservation to not conservation is an example of death by a thousand cuts,” said Savannah resident Randy Tate, who lives in the nearby Victory Heights neighborhood.
The petition will go before Savannah City Council for final approval.
However, a critical part of the Planning Commission’s recommendation was for the city to engage the developer about a potential land donation to put the undeveloped acreage into a permanent conservation easement. The recommendation requested the donation be discussed before council considered the land-use changes.
Hunter MacLean Attorney Harold Yellin, who represented Stop n Stor at Tuesday’s meeting, said the developer would be open to potentially deeding the rest of the property to the city. Savannah City Manager Jay Melder floated the idea during Tuesday's discussion, saying the balance of the land should likely be conserved.
“I just look at the balance of that parcel, and it looks wet to me,” Melder said, “and it should probably remain in conservation in perpetuity.”
The property is nestled off Skidaway Road behind the NCG Cinema in the Victory Square shopping center home to Target and Home Depot. The area already has an array of self-storage facilities, including another Stop n Stor behind Whole Foods off Victory Drive.
The plans for a new storage facility on the site drew objections from some commenters Tuesday, although the primary objections focused on disruption to wetlands and the potential for worsening floods. Yellin confirmed the intended use would be a self-storage facility, although Tuesday's request focused on zoning and land use designations rather than the specific development proposal.
The Planning Commission ultimately recommended a Business-Neighborhood district, which is a less intense zoning than the Business-Commercial initially requested. The BN district allows a variety of business uses ranging from retail to restaurants.
The rezoning and FLUM amendment considered Tuesday also differed from an initial proposal continued at MPC’s meeting last month. The initial request proposed the rezoning and FLUM amendment for the entire 13 acres.
The updated proposal shrunk the changes to just the 2.5 acres as a response to concerns that the entire property would be developed.
“We’re taking away the theoretical development of the entire tract,” Yellin said, who added that developing the site for its currently zoned residential would not be feasible.
Evan Lasseter is the City of Savannah and Chatham County government reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at ELasseter@savannahnow.com.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Rezoning for 13 acres of conservation land heads to Savannah council
