The City of Savannah proposes to proceed with condemnation proceedings to remedy blight at a blighted and abandoned property located at 236 Cumming Street in the West Savannah neighborhood. 

Cumming Street is a one-block residential street located between Augusta Avenue and Love Street that includes 37 properties, of which 21 (57%) are vacant and/or abandoned. The City has determined that the property to be acquired is 1) uninhabitable, unsafe and abandoned, 2) a location of repeated illegal activity, 3) maintained below locally adopted property maintenance codes for at least one year, 4) conducive to crime in the area and 5) conducive to ill health and the transmission of disease. Additionally, the property has cloudy title which contributes to its ongoing blighted condition. 

The Mayor and Aldermen are being asked to adopt a Resolution that will permit the City of Savannah to proceed with condemnation proceedings to remedy blight by use of a method of condemnation, as authorized by O.C.G.A. §§ 22-1-1 et seq., and to use such method of condemnation to acquire the property to remedy blight.  Such acquisition will be for fair market value using, if necessary, eminent domain, which will require legal proceedings to be filed in the State of Georgia Superior Court to determine that such acquisition is warranted and consistent with State eminent domain laws codified in O.C.G.A. § 22-1-1 et seq.  Once acquired, the City plans to remedy the blighted conditions and return the property to productive residential use that benefits a future occupant, Cumming Street, West Savannah and the City as a whole.

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