The Mayor & Aldermen approved this request at the February 28, 2019 City Council Regular Meeting.  The action being considered now is the approval of an ordinance for the rezoning of 317 and 323 East Broughton Street to the BC-1 Zoning District.

Rob Brannen for Davenport House Endowment Fund (D.H.E.F.), Lisa Van Dusen, William H. Morrison, and Nancy Macaluso, Petitioner (File No. 18-006862-ZA) is requesting approval of a rezoning map amendment for properties located at 317 and 323 East Broughton Street to rezone the properties from RIP-A (Residential Institutional Professional -  Residential – Medium Density) to B-C-1 (Central Business). The property located at 317 East Broughton Street is a paved parking lot and the property located at 323 East Broughton Street is occupied by a two-story masonry structure (formerly the Kennedy Pharmacy) which is now part of the Davenport House Museum complex.  The subject properties, which consist of two parcels have a combined acreage of 0.149 acres.

The purpose of the petitioner’s request to rezone the property located at 323 East Broughton Street to a B-C-1 classification is to accommodate an expansion of the existing structure.  The site is currently zoned RIP-A which limits the building coverage to a maximum of 75 percent of the site.  The proposed addition will increase the lot coverage to 90 percent.  The petitioner initially made application to the Savannah Zoning Board of Appeals to request approval of a variance to increase the lot coverage from a maximum of 75 percent to 90 percent.  Typically, this is the correct procedure to address a variance from the development standards.  However, staff advised the petitioner to withdraw his petition to the Savannah Zoning Board of Appeals and to request a zoning map amendment for the site located at 323 East Broughton Street from an RIP-A zoning classification to a B-C-1 zoning classification which has no maximum lot coverage.  The reasoning of staff’s recommendation is because the entire block of the subject site is currently zoned B-C-1 with the exception of the petitioned properties.  Also, the western half of the site located at 317 East Broughton Street is currently zoned B-C-1 which can be extended by right up to 50 feet which would mean the entire site could be developed in accordance with B-C-1 uses and development standards. Approval of the zoning map amendment will benefit the petitioner by accommodating the proposed expansion and will rezone the entire block to a unified zoning district.

The proposed BC-1 Zoning District is one of many districts that is consistent with the Downtown Future Land Use Map Category.  Downtown is defined as “the traditional Central Business District including retail, office, entertainment, institutional, civic, and residential uses that are integrated into the urban fabric.”

On January 29, 2019, the Planning Commission voted to recommend approval of the petition to rezone the subject properties from an RIP-A zoning classification to a B-C-1 zoning classification.

Approval.