NEWS - Commercial Real Estate

SBJ Staff

Concern over commercial encroachment into a residential neighborhood led Savannah City Council Thursday to reject a proposed rezoning that would allow an Enmark station at the corner of White Bluff Road and Hampstead Avenue.

Enmark had sought rezoning for a two-thirds section of a split-zoned parcel at 9 Hampstead Ave. A third of the property is already zoned Community Business. The service station company asked to rezone the remaining portion from a multi-family residential designation to Community Commercial.

Had the rezoning been granted, the city was willing to sell Enmark a 16-foot-wide right of way that extends 170 feet west of White Bluff.

Enmark can build on the commercial zoned portion of the corner parcel, but its attorney, Harold Yeillin, said the piece of land is “extremely” small and Enmark would have difficulty meeting city drainage requirements. “An enormous number of variances” would be needed, he said.

Would Enmark build on it, anyway?

“Probably no,” Yellin said.

Had Enmark received the rezoning it wanted, the company planned to demolish the old Army-Navy surplus store near the corner and include that land as a buffer to the service station-convenience store complex.

The rezoning proposal went to the City Council with the backing of the Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Planning Commission and city planning staff. But the aldermen and Mayor Otis Johnson were unanimous in voting against it.
“We can protect the neighborhood by denying this application,” Johnson said just before the vote.

He said his denial vote follows an anti-commercial-encroachment doctrine the city established in rejecting commercial expansion in the Thomas Square area in the middle of this decade.

Alderman Cliffton Jones voiced similar sentiment. Approval would “open the door” for similar requests to intrude onto residential neighborhoods, he said.

Pat Harris, a resident of the Popular neighborhood, said residents do not oppose Enmark building on the corner parcel zoned for business. But “we do have a problem with them encroaching on our neighborhood,” said Harris, secretary to the Popular Neighborhood Association.

In recommending approval, the Metropolitan Planning Commission said the rezoning would be consistent with Savannah’s Future Land Use Plan and “will consolidate a split zoning pattern that currently exists.”

Further, the Business Commercial zoning “would allow for greater flexibility in the design and establishment of a commercial use along this portion of the White Bluff corridor. Potential site,” the MPC said.

The planning agency noted that neighborhood safeguards could be addressed through the development review process.

< Prev		Next >