IN a virtually unprecedented move from a local regulatory body, the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) made a last-ditch attempt – bordering on a revolt – to wrest back some oversight of a massive and controversial development that the City of Savannah says will be exempt from normal requirements.
“The fact that we're being silenced – that the City didn't even have the courage to come here today and explain some of this process to us, so we can better understand how this loop-around happened – is egregious,” said HPC Commissioner Pam Miller, echoing a majority of the board at the Oct. 22 meeting.
The project in question is a “public/private” partnership to build a 400-space underground garage and a 4-story office complex directly adjacent to Forsyth Park.
The vast swath land for it on the southwest corner at Whitaker Street and Park Avenue has already been cleared, as you can see driving or walking anywhere near the Park.
As The Savannahian detailed in previous reporting, the Forsyth Commons project – initiated and for the benefit of some of Savannah’s wealthiest business elite – does not currently have legal zoning; is embroiled in legal proceedings; has misreported flood safety data; and didn’t report campaign contributions to City Council members, among other issues.
The focal point of last week’s HPC meeting was City Manager Jay Melder’s announcement that the project would be exempt from needing the usual required Certificate Of Appropriateness (COA), since the City will for a short time take ownership of it.
“The developers… will be exempt from obtaining a COA,” local resident Corey Highland told the HPC. “Why must I and others in the downtown historic district who want to make even minor changes be forced to submit to the COA process, while a developer who wants to erect three large buildings in the Victorian Historic District is exempt. Why should they be exempt?”
HPC Commissioner Scott Crotzer summed up the situation succinctly:
“The Commission’s review of this project has been rendered largely symbolic, as the ownership transfer between the City and the developer effectively removes a requirement for a COA,” Crotzer began.
“This procedural maneuver – deeding the property to the City for the garage, and then quit-claiming it back to the developer for construction – circumvents the historic preservation ordinance and undermines the Commission’s purpose,” Crotzer continued.
“This issue extends beyond local procedure. Savannah’s Historic District is a designated National Historic Landmark and those preservation requirements exist under national oversight – not simply community preference,” he said.
“When the City sidesteps its own regulations it not only erodes public confidence but also risks our reputation for national preservation integrity,” Crotzer concluded.
As members of the HPC and the public pointed out repeatedly at the meeting, the City of Savannah is making sure the developers can have their cake and eat it too.
“The City is not the owner of the property at this time,” said local attorney and preservation advocate Andrew Jones, referring to the odd situation that the City is exempting the project from the COA while it is still legally in private hands – and the general contractor building it is also owned by one of the development’s principal investors.
“That’s a future event that has not occurred…. They’re not the owner of this property and they should not be filing this notice,” he said.
Another local preservation advocate, Rebecca Fenwick, had a similarly biting take.
“I find the City's purchase of this property very inappropriate, and I wonder what precedent this sets,” she began.
“What harm would it do to the City to opt into the design process? We don’t exclude projects from happening simply because a design process is involved. Savannah is Savannah because of design review,” Fenwick said.
“This is very secretive, unclear, irregular… Is this how we do business?” she concluded.
Over 130 citizen comments against the development were registered with the HPC. Public citizen comments at the meeting were numerous and scathing.
“The zoning change was approved and then taken off the table,” said resident Peter Galloway, referring to the fact that the project’s rezoning is now in limbo after it was found that political donations to local City officials were not disclosed, as the law requires.
“Now it seems like the City is trying to go behind the public to do this without anyone’s approval, including the HPC, in terms of size mass, height,” he said.
“[The new buildings] would be 30 feet above the maximum allowed building height. There are all these things they are trying to cram through,” said Galloway.
Local resident Ardis Wood is a frequent speaker at local meetings involving preservation.
“City Council has called this garage a new ‘Gateway into the City.’ But how many of you who live in a quiet residential neighborhood would like it transformed by such an oversized development?” Wood said.
William Dallas had a short but pointed take:
“I don’t know how the City with a straight face can put forward this proposition,” he told the HPC.
While not the most crucial issue with the Forsyth Commons project, many Commissioners and members of the public pointed out a possible violation of the terms of an agreement to salvage as much as possible of the historic Campbell & Sons Funeral Home, which has already been demolished.
“It is cowardly of the city to not be here to defend what I feel is a shameful action in demolishing not only historically Black-owned buildings but also one of the few examples of mid-century modern buildings we have in the City of Savannah,” said HPC Commissioner Katrina Hornung.
Also, Hornung said she has “concerns about the process of creating the parking structure, and what it will do to the historic buildings in the area surrounding this development.”
Several people pointed out that Catch 22 of the developers saying they don’t have to honor the City’s archaeology ordinance, which only applies to public property…. on property they own, which is privately held.
“The property owners claim they are exempt from conducting archaeology because they’re the owners. You can’t have it both ways,” Jones said.
Fenwick said the local archaeology ordinance is “only written to apply to City-owned properties – well, it applies here.”
HPC Commissioner Courtney Bonney said of the Forsyth Commons debacle that “this has been a complete breakdown in collaborative engagement.”
HPC Commissioner Kathy Ledvina – who would eventually put forth the winning motion on further HPC action –focused on the actual plans put forth by the developer:
“The plans don’t depict a COA submittal for development. Design standards can’t be determined, and we can’t comment on the design, for these three over 10,000 square foot office buildings being proposed, and the current plans submitted are essentially unreadable,” Ledvina said.
“The plans don’t conform to the City’s large-scale development, height, and mass application. The zoning we have no idea about – the zoning has been abandoned,” she continued.
“We don’t know what we’re looking for in these plans. Not even a scale is included on the drawings. There’s not even a north arrow,” she said.
Ledvina pointed out that the proposed underground parking garage apparently extends underneath a parcel of land not included in the total Forsyth Commons deal with the City.
“The underground parking garage continues under this parcel, therefore will this parcel also be deeded to the City of Savannah?... If it’s not deeded, then it’s private development and we should be looking at that parcel and what’s intended to be above,” she said.
In a nearly unprecedented action, Ledvina then proposed a motion for the Historic Preservation Commission to petition that the Mayor and Council at its Nov. 13 meeting to publicly review and follow COA guidelines “in accordance with the Victorian Historic District ordinance.”
The motion passed with 5 yes votes and 3 abstentions. Commissioners abstaining were Courtney Bonney, Patricia Richardson, and Chairman Jeff Notrica.