The petitioner, Robert McCorkle for DSCD Holdings LLC, is requesting to rezone four (4) parcels from the existing RSF-6 (Residential Single-Family) and B-N (Neighborhood Business) Zoning Districts to the O-I (Office – Institutional) Zoning District (File No. 19-006044-ZA), in conjunction with a request to designate 1110 E 69th St as Commercial-Neighborhood (File No. 19-006127-CPA).

If approved and with unanimous consent of Council, this item is also on First and Second Readings.

The subject property contains 0.83 acres on East 68th Street and East 69th Street between Waters Avenue and Sanders Street on 1119 and 1123 East 68th Street + 0 and 1110 East 69th Street.  Three of the properties were in the PUD-IS-B Zoning District before September 1, 2019 when the New Zoning Ordinance and Map became effective.  1110 East 69th Street was in the R-6 Zoning District.

On November 19, 2019, the Planning Commission voted to recommend approval of both the request to amend the Future Land Use Map for 1110 E 69th Street and the requested rezoning because the block face on which the subject parcel is located on is bookended by office, retail and institutional uses.  Therefore, the interior of the block face may be better suited for office-type uses than detached single-family residential uses.

Section 5.15.2 of the Zoning Ordinance of the City of Savannah allows the O-I Zoning District in the following Future Land Use Categories: Office/Institutional, Office-Transition, and Commercial-Suburban.  However, the Office/Institutional and Office-Transition Future Land Use Categories currently do not exist in the Chatham County-Savannah Comprehensive Plan.  Additionally, staff and the Planning Commission do not believe that the Commercial-Suburban Future Land Use Category is appropriate for the subject property.  The adjacent properties to the north and west are in the Commercial-Neighborhood Future Land Use Category and the property to the east is a church.

Therefore, staff and the Planning Commission recommends allowing the O-I Zoning District in the Commercial-Neighborhood Future Land Use Category.

Approval.