City Talk: Planning commission, City Council should listen to residents on hotel development

This is the City Talk column by Bill Dawers, a longtime contributor to the Savannah Morning News.

Savannahians’ frustrations with tourism entered a new phase at a recent meeting of the Metropolitan Planning Commission.

A grassroots effort by residents of the Thomas Square, Victorian and Cuyler-Brownville neighborhoods would essentially prohibit hotel development from Gwinnett Street to Victory Drive between East Broad Street and Ogeechee Road.

Neighborhood activists want to extend the existing hotel overlay district, which designates where hotels are allowed in the northern portions of downtown. In the proposed extension, there would be no locations where hotels could be built unless the map were amended.

More City Talk: Ongoing increases in home values exacerbates affordability crisis

Thomas Square president Jason Combs emphasized that the neighborhoods support more housing and mixed-use development. Ryan Madson, former president of the Victorian Neighborhood Association, said that the city has reached “a tipping point of over-tourism alongside a housing affordability crisis.”

Cuyler-Brownville joined the effort recently, but residents of the Thomas Square and Victorian neighborhoods have been working on the proposal for more than two years. I first wrote about it in June 2022, so it has hardly been a secret.

In a joint letter arguing for continuance or denial, the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce, Savannah Downtown Business Association, Savannah Economic Development Authority and Tourism Leadership Council

claim that the existing overlay was created through a “proven process” that should be followed again.

In a similar vein, MPC planner Edward Morrow told the commission that the neighborhoods had not followed a true planning process and that the original overlay was intended in part as a tool for downtown preservation.

Are we all looking at the same map?

The existing overlay allows development of both small hotels (16-74 rooms) and large hotels (75+ rooms) immediately adjacent to nine squares in the Landmark Historic District, as well as on the entire Civic Center site. It also allows hotels on two sites now occupied by public housing – Yamacraw Village and Kayton Homes.

Earline Davis, executive director of the Housing Authority of Savannah, appeared before the commission to debunk the idea that public housing would be demolished and replaced with hotels, but she didn’t acknowledge that the map itself gives obvious reasons for suspicion.

Again, there’s nothing new here. I raised questions about the overlay boundaries in a column in 2018, before there was a clear plan for demolition of either the Civic Center or Yamacraw.

Two representatives from the Historic Savannah Foundation spoke in favor of a continuance, but neither seized the opportunity to share concerns about the current map or the impacts of additional hotels on the city’s character.

Meanwhile, the general public expressed strong support for the overlay extension. Ellie Isaacs, who is chair of the Historic District Board of Review but who attended the meeting as a private citizen, spoke in favor of the request and said that the entire map should be reviewed.

Opinion: An identity crisis of historic proportions? Historic Savannah Foundation loses focus

Savannah City Manager Jay Melder did not clearly indicate whether he would support the request when it comes back to MPC but did say that he would eventually be bringing recommendations for revisions to the overlay to City Council. It sounded like he would support reasonable changes to the map, but the city is not exactly moving quickly on major planning initiatives.

At the end of the MPC meeting, I was most struck by the deepening disconnect on issues related to tourism and development between residents and various entities that have traditionally wielded considerable power, including the business community, MPC staff, HAS and HSF.

The path ahead seems clear. The MPC and Savannah City Council should approve the overlay extension and then launch an overhaul of the entire map.

Contact Dawers via @billdawers on Twitter and CityTalkSavannah@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah downtown hotel overlay district extend nearby neighborhoods