'General distrust': Port Wentworth residents react to Habitat for Humanity Development

Residents of downtown Port Wentworth seemed largely displeased with the city's lack of communication after a town hall meeting on Wednesday to discuss a Habitat for Humanity development.

In step one of a long process to revitalize downtown Port Wentworth, Habitat for Humanity and the city signed a letter of intent in August 2023 to sell and develop land for housing in front of the Norfolk-Southern Railway and behind the Port Wentworth Soccer Fields.

The proposed development will be the first in the downtown area in more than 50 years. Plans include building up to 95 houses, but an exact number has not yet been decided on and further engineering is required.

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Before City Manager Steve Davis could get through opening remarks at the town hall, there were already rumblings of discontent from the full house of residents.

One resident asked why they weren't informed of the development prior to the town hall, but Davis asked for all questions to wait until the end of the presentations. CEO of Habitat of Humanity Coastal Empire Zerik Samples presented, as well as Michael Hughes from Thomas and Hutton and Economic Director James Touchton.

When the time came to ask questions, some of those in attendance expressed their distrust of city officials after decades of being boxed in by industry and the lack of communication about development. Residents remarked that they had only known about the town hall because a friend or neighbor had told them, or they saw it on Facebook when it was posted there just a day before. Some said they received letters, but not early enough.

Others spoke about the lack of proper infrastructure to support the number of people that might move there. One mentioned that there are blighted houses downtown as well, and they should try rehabilitating those before developing more housing.

"Just looking at what we don't have here. We don't have any grocery stores. We don't have a laundromat. We don't have anything like that," said Linda Smith, a resident of Port Wentworth for 37 years and a previous member of city council. "Yet we're going to bring in some homes. I understand we're going to have a CAT that's maybe going to take us to the grocery store at the other end of the city, but how's this going to work?"

Touchton fielded that question and told the audience that the housing development would drive in other developers, like those that wanted to bring in more grocery stores.

"As we bring in housing it's going attract a new generation of folks," Touchton said. "There are so many examples I can give you. Look at Woodstock, Georgia. ... If I told you 20 years ago that the quiet town with a railroad track going through it would have $1 million townhomes, you wouldn't believe me. There's rooftop bars there, retail and entertainment and their median income was less than ours."

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Manda Faye, who grew up in Port Wentworth, said that she feels indifferent after the meeting.

"There's just general distrust and lack of communication between the city and its residents," Faye said. "If we had more proactive representation, and more transparent representation, we would probably all feel better."

She was the first to ask Davis to speak to the infrastructure and trust issues.

"Just because you don't know something has happened doesn't mean it's not right and we recognize that we have a communication issue," Davis said. "We've hired a PR firm to get press releases out. We sent out text messages for this event. We discussed it at our last city council meeting. We had a presentation for this at one of our meetings way back in April."

As for infrastructure, Davis said the city has spent almost $150,000 restoring a well and they have several projects in process involving water and sewer improvements.

"We had some learning to do and some listening to do, dealing with infrastructure and the things we're trying to address," Davis said. "This administration has been here for 23 months, and we're working very hard at a rapid pace on a lot of different fronts. We're not just sitting idly by and waiting for things to happen."

This is the first town hall of the year, but there's more soon to come as the administration starts feeling out how to revitalize downtown. The city has hired Kimley-Horn, a planning, surveying, engineering and design consulting firm to help them eke out their downtown strategy. The second phase, after assessing the area, will pull in residential feedback to further develop the vision.

Destini Ambus is the general assignment reporter for Chatham County municipalities for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach her at dambus@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Port Wentworth residents react to Habitat for Humanity Development