Port Wentworth city planning woes: must redo ordinance, revisit comprehensive plan

Port Wentworth, a city embattled with urban planning woes, is gearing up for a major overhaul of its zoning ordinance. The zoning ordinance, which is a blueprint for land use and development within the city, needs to be entirely rewritten, according to City Manager Steve Davis.

Third-party auditors, Horizon Community Planning, pointed out major issues with the local zoning laws during an Aug. 28 council meeting, calling it “very difficult to interpret” and “inconsistent”.

“Forgive me for being blunt, but there’s so much wrong with the ordinance that we really need to start over,” said Paul Le Blanc of PLB Planning Group, a partner on the project. “I've been doing this for a long time. I've written dozens of ordinances ... and we really struggled maneuvering through the ordinance. So, I can only imagine what a citizen would experience and even developers."

Horizon Community Planning works with local governments and boards across the country in developing effective zoning laws, comprehensive plans and code enforcement so that cities can run safely and smoothly. They’ve offered their services to neighboring cities such as Richmond Hill and Bluffton, South Carolina.

Port Wentworth’s city council regularly amends its zoning ordinance to accommodate new developments, which is common for a city to do. But years of changing administrations and stopgap amendments have introduced inconsistencies. The ordinance hasn’t been looked at in its entirety for nearly three decades, said Davis, so this revamp is long overdue.

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Local zoning laws provide standards for four main types of development: residential, agricultural, commercial and industrial (other categories for places like historic districts and major business districts also exist and vary from city to city). Zoning laws are important because they protect the health, safety and welfare of a city; protect property values; balance community goals with private property rights; and support a city’s comprehensive plan.

However, auditors found that Port Wentworth’s ordinance is vague and doesn’t outline regulations that it should within each zoning category. For example, guidelines on landscaping and parking designs are missing. Subjective wording such as “be of high quality” and “proper scale” are found throughout the ordinance, too.

For the law to be effective, it should clearly outline specific height and size requirements, said Le Blanc. That way, developments that fall under the same categories are consistent and predictable.

As a result, the city council has to take a very “hands-on approach with all development applications because the zoning code is not clear on what should happen in each district,” said David Jirousek of Horizon Community Planning. It’s created a “know-it-when-we-see-it” approach.

That, in turn, has led to a cumbersome process for developers trying to get a development approved.

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In addition, the ordinance doesn’t clearly outline the role of the planning and zoning commission versus the role of the city council, according to the audit. Planning and zoning generally checks that a development aligns with the zoning ordinance. Meanwhile, the council looks at the project in a broader scope, such as traffic patterns, neighborhood character, and utilities.

However, because those responsibilities are not clearly delineated, the developer's site plan, oftentimes, bounces back and forth between the planning and zoning commission and city council, which can be costly and time consuming.

“I agree we have too many steps,” said at-large council member Jo Smith, “I’ve heard this from almost every developer.”

There were also numerous issues with the ordinance’s organization and format, Horizon found. It is rife with formatting errors, legalese, random insertions and lacked visualizations and graphics. All of this makes it difficult for developers to understand building regulations within the city, said Jirouzek.

Horizon’s audit also pointed out that the city overuses a zoning type called the “planned unit development” or PUD. That designation is reserved for developments that stray away from the existing zoning requirements. But because Port Wentworth’s existing zoning requirements are so vague, they’ve had to default to PUDs often, said Davis.

PUDs are especially prevalent in the northern part of Port Wentworth, said Davis. North Port Wentworth was annexed into the city in 1989 and saw the rapid development of several housing subdivisions in order to salvage the diminishing population from industrial encroachment.

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Save for undeveloped agricultural lands and the Pine Forest subdivision, most of the northern portion of the city is made up of PUDs. PUDs aren’t necessarily a bad thing, Davis said, but having too many creates the lack of consistency Horizon cautioned against.

“If all of the developments have standards that aren’t standard, then you really don’t have any standard,” said Davis. “We desperately need this rewrite and to start doing this regular zoning.”

At the August council meeting, the city approved a $130,000 contract with Horizon Community Planning. For the next eight months, Horizon and the city of Port Wentworth will work together to rewrite the ordinance, said Davis. After that’s complete, the auditor will also take a look at the city’s comprehensive plan, which maps out the city’s future land uses.

“Zoning is the law and the comprehensive plan is policy,” explains Jirouzek, “The two should work together and there seems to be a real disconnect between the two.”

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The city will most likely have to extend the current industrial rezoning moratorium, which ends in December, said Davis.

“This is just one step in a major city initiative," said Jirousek, "Outside of zoning, the city is going to be assessing road and utility infrastructure, property maintenance codes and overall stormwater management planning to really ensure it's on solid ground to be able to be prepared for the incredible port-related growth pressures. This is just part of a comprehensive approach to address those pressures."

Nancy Guan is the general assignment reporter covering Chatham County municipalities. Reach her at nguan@gannett.com or on Twitter @nancyguann.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Port Wentworth to redo zoning ordinance, braces for industrial pressure