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CITY GOVERNMENT
OFFICIAL PROCEEDINGS OF CITY COUNCIL
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA
PRESENT: Mayor Eddie W. DeLoach, Presiding
Aldermen Carol Bell, Julian Miller, Brian Foster, Bill Durrence ,Van Johnson, II, Tony Thomas, John Hall and Estella E. Shabazz
Rob Hernandez, City Manager
Bret Bell, Assistant to the City Manager
Jennifer Herman, Deputy City Attorney
William Shearouse, Assistant City Attorney
The regular meeting of Council was held this date at 2:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers of City Hall. The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison followed by the Invocation by Bishop Willie Ferrell, Royal Church of Christ, Inc.
A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND ALDERMEN OF THE CITY OF SAVANNAH AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AFFIDAVIT OF EXECUTIVE SESSION.
BE IT RESOLVED by the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Savannah as follows:
At the meeting held on the 20th day of December, 2018 the Council entered into a closed session for the purpose of discussing Real Estate, Litigation and Personnel. At the close of the discussions upon this subject, the Council reentered into open session and herewith takes the following action in open session:
- The actions of Council and the discussions of the same regarding the matter set forth for the closed session purposes are hereby ratified;
- Each member of this body does hereby confirms that to the best of his or her knowledge, the subject matter of the closed session was devoted to matters within the specific relevant exception(s) as set forth above;
- The presiding officer is hereby authorized and directed to execute an affidavit, with full support of the Council in order to comply with O.C.G.A. §50-14-4(b); 17
- The affidavit shall be included and filed with the official minutes of the meeting and shall be in a form as required by the statute.
ADOPTED AND APPROVED: DECEMBER 20, 2018 upon motion of Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderwoman Shabazz, and unanimously carried.
Upon motion of Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderwoman Shabazz, and unanimously carried the agenda was amended as follows:
- Item 64 was moved to 3a
- Item 23 was moved to 4a
- Item 24 was moved to 5a
- Item 21 was moved to 7a
- Item 22 was moved to 7b
Approved upon motion of Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderwoman Shabazz, and unanimously carried.
Approved upon motion of Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderwoman Shabazz, and unanimously carried.
Approved upon motion of Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderwoman Shabazz, and unanimously carried.
Paul Hinchey, President and CEO of St. Joseph’s/Candler, and representatives of St. Joseph’s/Candler presented a check for $15,000 for the Savannah Affordable Housing Solutions fund. Mr. Hinchey said this was celebratory in nature as homeownership is a very big deal and they have had 14 coworkers who have gone through this program due to the partnership. He introduced Ms. DeLorme, who spoke about her personal experience with the program. She said the program made it possible to achieve her dream of home ownership and she thanked the City and St. Joseph’s/Candler for helping to make her dreams become a reality. Alderwoman Bell thanked St. Joseph’s/Candler for being the corporate citizens that they are. Alderman Miller noted that their pride in this community shows through in their actions. Alderwoman Shabazz thanked them for bringing the human touch to their work and for changing lives. Alderman Johnson noted that illness and wellness are not all about the physical, and thanked them for being what they say they are about, rooted in God’s love.
Sheri Butler, District Manager with Wells Fargo, presented a check on behalf of Wells Fargo for the Savannah Affordable Housing Solutions Fund. Martin Fretty, Director of Housing and Neighborhood Services, noted that Wells Fargo recently donated $25,000 to the Community Housing Services Agency (CHSA). Alderman Johnson thanked Wells Fargo for being a great corporate partner.
Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth Dwyer and Command Sergeant Major LaVander Wilkerson presented a wreath to the City of Savannah in honor of the 468, soon to be 469, soldiers from Hunter Army Air Field and Fort Stewart who have sacrificed their lives since 9/11. Wreaths Across America’s motto is to “Remember, Honor, and Teach.” City Council recognized all military for their service, as well Colonel Dwyer and Sergeant Wilkerson, and Steve Hart for his work exposing young people to military service.
Patt Gunn discussed the 2018 Jubilee Freedom Day celebration events, including an exhibit called “Many Generations Gone” and artists presenting in the Cluskey Stores tomorrow. She stated the story of slavery is a very difficult one, but they want Savannah to be a model for reconciliation and healing. She introduced historians Eric Saul and Dr. Amy Fiske, co-curators of the exhibit. Dr. Fiske is the third generation grandniece of General Slocum who came into Savannah with the Union troops. Dr. Fiske talked about General Slocum who was an abolitionist. Paulita Bennett-Martin discussed a commemorative bell ringing across the community at 11:15 a.m. on Friday to recognize Jubilee Freedom Day. Mayor DeLoach read a proclamation recognizing Jubilee Freedom Day in Savannah on December 21, 2018.
Mayor DeLoach read the following Proclamation:
WHEREAS: On September 22, 1862 President Abraham Lincoln issued a Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation that ‘All persons held as slaves on the 1st of January, 1863 in any state or parts of states then in rebellion, should be then, thenceforward, and forever free.’; and
WHEREAS: The first abolitionist organization, The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, was established in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1775; and
WHEREAS: Abolitionists and anti-slavery activists was a group of highly educated Northern men and women from all walks of life, both ex-slaves and free men and women of color and Whites, that represented only a small fraction of the U.S. population, nonetheless, had a large influence on the political discussion of the day, calling for the end of what was called ‘the peculiar institution’ of slavery; and
WHEREAS: The contributions of the work of these individuals and organizations made it possible for President Abraham Lincoln to abolish slavery on January 1, 1863, when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation and subsequent signing of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ending slavery nationwide on January 31, 1865, freeing more than four million African Americans from slavery; and
WHEREAS: The Center for Jubilee, Reconciliation and Healing is the host of the second national exhibit, ‘Slaves in the City, on December 21, 2018 that pays homage to their contributions to American history; and
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Eddie W. DeLoach, Mayor of the City of Savannah, do hereby proclaim December 21, 2018 as:
‘JUBILEE FREEDOM DAY’
in the City of Savannah, in recognition 154 years of freedom, circa 1864 to 2018.
Withdrawn per the request of the petitioner
[James Reese, representing Christopher Clark came to the podium]
Alderman Thomas: Mr. Reese, I had some reservations about this license when it was originally issued and voted against the license. I understand since that date there was a citation for underage service at the location, and I understand that the license was voluntarily relinquished?
Mr. Reese: Yes.
Alderman Thomas: Does the current ownership have any relation to the past ownership of this?
Mr. Reese: No sir, it’s a completely new corporation.
Alderman Thomas: Completely new corporation, just using the existing name?
Mr. Reese: Yes.
Alderman Thomas: Okay, no more questions. Thank you sir.
Hearing closed upon motion of Alderman Thomas, seconded by Alderwoman Bell, and unanimously carried.
Approved upon motion of Alderman Thomas, seconded by Alderman Foster, and unanimously carried.
A public hearing was held. No persons came forward to speak either for or against the item.
Hearing closed upon motion of Alderman Johnson, seconded by Alderman Durrence, and unanimously carried.
Approved upon motion of Alderman Johnson, seconded by Alderman Durrence, and unanimously carried.
A public hearing was held. No persons came forward to speak either for or against the item.
Hearing closed upon motion of Alderman Thomas, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried.
Approved upon motion of Alderman Miller, seconded by Alderman Thomas, and unanimously carried.
A public hearing was held. No persons came forward to speak either for or against the item.
Hearing closed upon motion of Alderman Thomas, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried.
Approved upon motion of Alderman Miller, seconded by Alderman Thomas, and unanimously carried.
A public hearing was held. No persons came forward to speak either for or against the item.
Hearing closed upon motion of Alderman Thomas, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried.
Approved upon motion of Alderman Miller, seconded by Alderman Thomas, and unanimously carried.
A public hearing was held. No persons came forward to speak either for or against the item.
Hearing closed upon motion of Alderman Thomas, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried.
Approved upon motion of Alderman Miller, seconded by Alderman Thomas, and unanimously carried.
Mayor DeLoach: Now I've read that, but I do want to make a comment concerning that. I need for everybody who is dealing with New Hampstead to recognize that we will have an issue that is going to cause us a lot of problems in the future if we don't get in a position of having decent roads and decent exits and so forth in that area. It will be no different than it is in Pooler right now as far as people being able to get around and move forward. That being said, we're going to start looking at what we can do to help fund that area so that we will be able to put the decent roads and decent infrastructure in place. So, in the future when folks move up in there, which they have started already building and starting to move in there, that we have an easier or a better way of getting around than we do now. Right now we have substandard roads serving brand new properties and that it will not work long term. So, I just want everybody to be aware that sooner or later somebody's got to pay the piper and we got to figure out how we going to do that so that when we get there, folks are happy with what they have and they are able to live there in comfort long-term.
[Alderman Johnson suggested hearing items 15 and 16 together since they are related]
Marcus Lotson, Metropolitan Planning Commission: Mr. Mayor, members of Council, as the Mayor mentioned this item was continued from the last hearing so that the City could investigate the service delivery issues that were just outlined. The petitioner however, in terms of these petitions that are before you, is requesting an amendment to the New Hampstead Planned Unit Development and Master Plan. You all are very familiar with this, there was a workshop that was given recently that kind of outlined the proposed changes. The petitioner is proposing changes to the existing PUD that was adopted in 2005 when this property was brought into the City of Savannah. I'll just quickly outline the proposed changes and answer any questions, the petitioner is also here I believe to answer any questions. Relative to New Hampstead, which is an approximately 4,200 acre PUD in the northwest part of the county, as I mentioned was annexed into the City in 2004, and the PUD was approved by the Mayor and Aldermen in 2005. In terms of the changes that are proposed by the applicant, they really are sort of administrative in nature. There are a few more significant changes that I'm going to go through quickly. One of the big areas of discussion that you all have been having with the applicant regarding the 860 plus or minus acres that they are going to be designating as a park that will be turned over to the City potentially at some point. That property was previously identified as residential and institutional and that designation will change on the land use plan that is currently approved. There is a portion at Highway 204 for a multi-family site, which is being changed to single family. The multi-family existing site will be moved across Highgate Boulevard, which is one of the primary spine roads through the development. There will also be the conversion of a single family tract on Highgate to a commercial designation to provide services for the area, including neighborhood commercial and the petitioner is requesting also to convert institutional sites on Little Neck Road to commercial for the establishment of professional offices and retail opportunities for the area as well. The existing village, which is a combination of ground floor retail and upper story residential, shifted slightly on the existing land use map. They wanted to move it away from the park designations that are there that we discussed and as well there is a residential portion that is converting to multi-family and commercial on Little Neck Road. The overall impact of these changes essentially as a decrease in the approved density, which is approximately 11,200 residential units and under this approval the number of residential units will decrease to approximately 9,800. In conversations with the applicant they believe that even with that, the potential buildout is actually less than that. There is some single family construction that's underway as you mentioned and the petitioner believes that will continue. So, with that the Planning Commission did recommend approval of the amendments as outlined in the report of the plan unit development as well as the master plan and approval of the rezoning to the new PUD.
Alderman Durrence: Doesn't an amendment also change the presumption of a public park?
Mr. Lotson: That's correct, yes it does.
Hearing closed upon motion of Alderman Johnson, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried.
City Manager Hernandez: So, Mr. Mayor in line with the comments that you made acknowledging that all of this development will have future implications for the infrastructure in that area. I'd like to be able to work with the various stakeholders, whether it be the MPC, or the builders in that area to begin fashioning a potential solution to deal with the infrastructure situation that we will have 10, 20, 30 years down the line. That might include, and I'd like your authority to look into it, and that is possibly creating a Special Service District (SSD) to help fund the improvements in that area.
Alderman Johnson: I think the City Manager’s request is reasonable in terms of he’s just asking to be able to investigate the possibilities of doing that. I think the PUD makes it a little bit different than what we're talking about out in the Highlands area, but I mean obviously we'll be heading to that same type of situation. We have been working with Bret Bell, and we've been able to kind of bring some stakeholders together and we're hopefully going to try and find ways to manage the growth together. So, that seems to be appropriate. I’m for it.
Alderman Durrence: Well, I certainly support that idea too, but I've got a question. I guess maybe there's something I should have known before now, but your comments about the character or quality of the roadway system there. This is a relatively new project, did we accept something inferior from the developer when the City took possession?
Mayor DeLoach: It's not what the developer has put in, it’s what services those roads that the developer put in. In other words, Little Neck Road for instance, is a substandard road at best and it's the one that…
Alderman Durrence: You're not talking about roads within the PUD, you're talking about the…
Mayor DeLoach: Correct, not inside it’s the outside. 204, it's two lanes, two lanes, everything's two lanes and you got 10,000 people plus…
Alderman Thomas: 204 is a State route, correct?
Mayor DeLoach: It is.
City Manager Hernandez: As part of our effort, we would also sit down with the State. I think we need to get ahead of this now so we're not faced with the same situation that we have in the Highlands.
Alderman Durrence: Or the rest of the community where we can't pave more than 15 miles of road a year.
Alderman Thomas: We actually need to get ahead of it now too, to prevent businesses from a having a road at their front door before they start building up where Nine Line and all of that is.
Approved upon motion of Alderman Johnson, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried.
Hearing closed upon motion of Alderman Johnson, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried.
Approved upon motion of Alderman Johnson, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried.
Marcus Lotson, Metropolitan Planning Commission: Mr. Mayor, this item before you is a request to rezone 1150 Fort Argyle Road. This property is approximately 150 acre tract of land that's currently zoned RA-CO, which is a Residential Agriculture designation that was within Chatham County and now is within the City of Savannah. The property is located on the east side of Fort Argyle Road, north of Bush Road, and the petitioner is seeking to establish a borrow pit at this location. The subject site, as I mentioned, is approximately 150 acres, approximately 45 of those acres would be disturbed for the use of the borrow pit. The applicant did provide a general development plan to the Planning Commission, which was reviewed under the stipulations of the zoning ordinance, to make sure that the appropriate buffers, access, etc. are part of the plan. There are adjacent borrow pits in this area, it’s fairly common along this portion of Fort Argyle Road to see those types of developments. The Planning Commission did recommend approval of the rezoning.
Alderman Miller: Is there a long range plan for this after the dirt is borrowed?
Mr. Lotson: Yes, all borrow pits under the ordinance have to have what is called a reclamation plan. So, typically they'll either become a recreational lake or they'll get refilled and vegetated. So, the petitioner with the approval of this specific development plan, which is yet to come, will have to provide that plan as a part of their plan review.
Alderman Thomas: The current zoning is conservation agriculture?
Mr. Lotson: It’s residential agriculture, which was a County designation when the property was in the County. Once it's annexed to the City, it's not until the property is rezoned that it takes on a City designation.
Alderman Thomas: What is the City designation?
Mr. Lotson: PDR, which is Planned Development Reclamation, which is basically a district that allows borrow pits.
Alderman Thomas: What are some of the other uses allowed in that.
Mr. Lotson: That's the only use.
City Manager Hernandez: Mr. Mayor, if I may, for full disclosure. I am somewhat concerned about this particular rezoning from the standpoint of the impact that the borrow pit is going to have on the local road system surrounding the site. For example, we're estimating that the borrow pit is going to generate almost 59,000 truck trips. I'm very concerned as we mentioned on the last item that the infrastructure out there is taxed as it is and is substandard and I just want to put it on the record that this may create even more of an impact to traffic in that area.
Alderman Miller: Do you have a recommendation?
City Manager Hernandez: I don't at the moment because we're so limited in our ability to be able to extract payments from developers in order to fund infrastructure improvements.
Alderman Miller: I'm kind of confused, we're asked to approve something and the City Manager has warned us that it might not be a good idea. What are our alternatives here?
City Manager Hernandez: I'm going to turn to my friends over in the City Attorney's Office to help me out on this. But as I said before, Georgia law prohibits or significantly limits local government's ability to require developers to pay for off site infrastructure improvements. There is a mechanism through an impact fee, but that has to be related back to a specific capital plan. So, I really don't know what our options are here in a situation where we know, for example, these two last items as a result of us approving the development, the development is going to have impacts on local infrastructure and as a result of having 59,000 more dump trucks on the street, you know, that's going to impact traffic. Should the developer bear some costs and some responsibility for the impact that their project is having on either local roads or local services.
Alderman Miller: Then do we need to delay this and let you research it some?
City Manager Hernandez: To be honest with you, I don't know what I will be able to come up with in two weeks that's probably any different than what I just explained.
Alderman Johnson: What about four weeks?
City Manager Hernandez: Let me consult with our City Attorney.
Alderman Thomas: The concern that I have is the 59,000 trucks. Fort Argyle is…
City Manager Hernandez: I believe it's two lanes, narrow two lanes with no shoulders. If I'm not mistaken most of the intersections out there don’t have turn lanes. So, the infrastructure is limited in that area.
Alderman Thomas: That's my concern, the public safety with these trucks coming and going, entering that roadway. So, I really think, and law enforcement is going to be key to keeping those trucks from speeding through there. But I don't know if we have really a mechanism in place right now.
Alderman Johnson: I mean… someone said the City Manager's comments got me a little nervous. Would four weeks work? I just I want you to be comfortable with this.
City Manager Hernandez: Four weeks is sufficient time for me to consult with the City Attorney's Office.
Bill Shearouse, Assistant City Attorney: The situation that you have Mayor and Aldermen, is you have a recommendation from the Planning Commission that has weighed the rights of the property owner. These are the, our regulations and ordinances and there's no legal reason not to grant the petition. City Manager though is giving you the collateral issues that are involved in the development of this part of the City. So, it's really a judgment call for you. There's no legal reason to deny the petition here. You have to weigh the rights of the property owner to use his property, but you have to also weigh the considerations the City Manager has identified when making your decision.
Mayor DeLoach: Well, it's something to be concerned about, but I think we again… the issue I have is they have the legal right to do this, well that’s my understanding. This is something similar to going down the road with the alcohol license. If a person is zoned for something and has been approved for something and is just exercising his rights to go forward. We can all want to hurt you know, and feel for him, but we can't. We can't do anything about this particular one. But like I said earlier, whenever I made the comment we need to get on top of it and head it off in the future. But at the present time we can all say I hate 58,000 trucks going down the road and all that but in reality there's probably been 58,000 going down the road in the last week but the issue is, do we have a right to change that at this time? Yes or no, and I'll ask that to the attorney.
Attorney Shearouse: Again, the petitioner has met all the requirements. The Planning Commission, your professionals, is recommending approval. The City Manager has identified for you collateral issues that are going to be involved going forward that we have to be aware of and be faced with and prepared to deal with going forward. But I see no legal reason to deny the petition.
Alderman Durrence: Obviously I'm not an attorney so this is a question back for you, but this is asking us to rezone a piece of property. In my understanding is we have no legal obligation to rezone any property.
Attorney Shearouse: No, it's in your discretion.
Alderman Durrence: Right, so, you know, we have no requirement. This isn't like the alcohol licensing issue, this is very different. So, we have no requirement to do this. We could just refuse to rezone the property.
Attorney Shearouse: That's correct.
Mayor DeLoach: So we can refuse to rezoning?
Alderman Durrence: Right, we can just deny the rezoning.
Attorney Shearouse: That is not the City Manager's recommendation as I understand it.
City Manager Hernandez: I would prefer rather than you rejecting it, I would prefer you continue it to allow me to work with the City Attorney's Office to see if we can come up with some recommendations.
Alderman Durrence: And I wasn't suggesting that.
Alderman Johnson: Well I think that’s what my suggestion was, I don't think we were talking about denying it. We said delay it to allow the City Manager some time to be able to come up with some game plan because he’s going to be held accountable for whatever happens from that. So, I moved that we continue this until January 17th.
Alderman Hall: I’d just like to ask the staff and any Council members who were here in 2004 why this land was annexed?
Alderman Thomas: Well there was the land rush of 2004, everybody wanted to get as much land for their cities as they could. We annexed about 11,000 acres of land during that time period for future growth.
Alderman Hall: For future growth, and it’s upon us now.
Alderman Thomas: Well, at that time before the world economy collapsed, we were estimating 100,000 new heads in those areas from rooftops that would be relocating out there and that just didn't come to fruition.
Alderman Hall: So, that was the plan.
Alderman Thomas: Yes, the plan at the time.
Alderman Hall: And these people want to do something with their property now.
Attorney Shearouse: Mr. Alderman, this particular property was annexed because the developer wanted City services and that was the requirement of us providing the sewer and water services to that area.
Alderman Foster: I believe we have someone representing the petitioner here and I’d really liked to hear his comments on if this is postponed what impacts would that have and if you have any other comments on it?
Chad Zittrouer, Petitioner for Lewis Commercial Properties, LLC and Lanyard Development: In essence, with part of the development, there's a requirement for a borrow fill material, which is what this application represents. If Savannah wants to grow I mean we're going to have to have borrow pits in some location, it's just a part of development. We don't have any objection to the tabling of four weeks to kind of look into it as long as it's looked at. If there are other developments that are generating traffic that we're not the only one contributing to improvements. Lanyard Development operates six borrow pits in the State of Georgia all within the coastal area. There have been no major violations within ten years, four are located on State routes, including another one on 204, and produced about 1.5 million yards annually to the development in the Savannah area. So, we think there's some more to expand for additional borrow pits and that's the reason for the application.
Alderman Miller: Is there a plan to use this dirt in any particular location or is it just general use?
Mr. Zittrouer: The hottest supply and demand. If there's dirt available for a particular location, that's where it's going to be, but it's no different from you know, the closest house that someone is looking for. I mean this a supply and demand scenario.
Continued to the meeting of January 17, 2019 upon motion of Alderman Johnson, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried.
No Action Necessary
Ordinance read for the first time in Council December 20, 2018, then by unanimous consent of Council read a second time, placed upon its passage, adopted and approved upon a motion by Alderman Johnson, seconded by Alderman Foster, and unanimously carried.
AN ORDINANCE
To Be Entitled
AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND THE FUTURE LAND USE CATEGORIES FOR CERTAIN PROPERTY FROM RESIDENTIAL - SINGLE FAMILY TO RESIDENTIAL - GENERAL AND INDUSTRY - LIGHT; TO REPEAL ALL OTHER ORDINANCES IN CONFLICT HEREWITH; AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.
BE IT ORDAINED by the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Savannah, Georgia, in a regular meeting of Council assembled and pursuant to lawful authority thereof:
SECTION 1: The Future Land Use Category for the following described property, 401 Carolan Street and 0 Cleland Street, be changed from its present Residential - Single Family to Residential - General:
Multifamily Parcel A
All that tract or parcel of land, being a portion of The Clearview Townehomes property, located in Brantley Ward, City Of Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, and being more particularly described as follows:
Commence at a point located at the intersection of the westerly right of way line of Carolan Street and the northerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue, said point being depicted on that certain ALTA/ACSM Survey as it is recorded at Plat Record Book 48-P, Page 200 in the records of the Clerk of Superior Court of Chatham County;
Thence with the northerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue the following courses and distances:
N 72°50’24 W, a distance of 86.72 feet to a point;
Thence with a curve to the right, said curve having a radius of 247.92 feet, a chord length of 84.74 feet bearing N 58°55’23” W, thence 85.16 feet along the arc of said curve to a point; thence N 49°09’56” W a distance of 151.43 feet to a point, said point being the POINT OF BEGINNING;
Thence continue with the northerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue the following courses and distances:
Thence N 49°09'56" W a distance of 19.87 feet to a point;
Thence with a curve turning to the left, said curve having a radius of 680.18', a chord length of 171.32 feet bearing N 56°37'21" W, thence along the arc of said curve 171.78 feet to a point:
Thence N 63°54'35" W a distance of 182.73 feet to a point;
Thence N 63°52'31" W a distance of 241.63 feet to a point;
Thence N 63°52'16" W a distance of 89.92 feet to a point;
Thence N 63°53'54" W a distance of 330.39 feet to a point on the easterly right of way line of Cleland Street;
Thence with the easterly right of way line of Cleland Street N 28°58'57" E a distance of 78.47 feet to a point;
Thence N 28°58'57" E a distance of 237.53 feet to a point; thence N 28°58'57" E a distance of 25.26 feet to a point;
Thence leave the easterly right of way line of Cleland Street and run the following courses and distances:
Thence S 52°48'03" E a distance of 338.13 feet to a point;
Thence S 52°51'47" E a distance of 72.82 feet to a point;
Thence S 52°47'20" E a distance of 246.34 feet to a point;
Thence S 52°45’55” E a distance of 418.92 feet to a point;
Thence S 39°53'55" W a distance of 165.06 feet to the POINT OF BEGINNING; said tract or parcel of land having an area of 253,104 square feet, or 5.81 acres, more or less.
The property is further identified by the Property Identification Numbers (PINs) as follows:
PINs: 2-0021 -02-047 (portion).
Multifamily Parcel B
All that tract or parcel of land, being a portion of The Clearview Townehomes property, located in Brantley Ward, City Of Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, and being more particularly described as follows:
Commence at a point located at the intersection of the westerly right of way line of Carolan Street and the northerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue, said point being depicted on that certain ALTA/ACSM Survey as it is recorded at Plat Record Book 48-P, Page 200 in the records of the Clerk of Superior Court of Chatham County;
Thence along the westerly right of way line of Carolan Street S 17°04’00” W a distance of 60.00 feet to a point at the intersection of the westerly right of way line of Carolan Street and the southerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue;
Thence leave the westerly right of way line of Carolan Street and run with the southerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue the following courses and distances:
N 72°50’24” W a distance of 86.82 feet to a point, thence with a curve turning to the right, said curve having a radius of 307.92 feet, a chord length of 109.34 feet bearing N 59°23’28” W, thence 109.93 feet along the arc of said curve to a point;
Thence N 49°09’56” W a distance of 134.36 feet to the POINT OF BEGINNING;
Thence leave the southerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue and run the following courses and distances:
Thence S 39°53'55" W a distance of 130.85 feet to a point;
Thence S 16°58'59" W a distance of 100.34 feet to a point;
Thence N 72°54'22" W a distance of 58.23 feet to a point;
Thence N 16°58'59" E a distance of 44.68 feet to a point;
Thence N 17°10'53" E a distance of 60.00 feet to a point;
Thence N 72°55'54" W a distance of 287.54 feet to a point;
Thence N 72°57'31" W a distance of 244.67 feet to a point;
Thence N 72°55'59" W a distance of 72.37 feet to a point;
Thence N 72°58'03" W a distance of 372.33 feet to a point on the easterly right of way line of Cleland Avenue;
Thence with the easterly right of way line of Cleland Avenue N 28°58'57" E a distance of 254.03 feet to a point;
Thence N 28°58'57" E a distance of 61.20 feet to a point on the southerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue;
Thence with the southerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue the following courses and distances:
S 63°53'54" E a distance of 333.40 feet to a point;
Thence S 63°52'04" E a distance of 89.90 feet to a point;
Thence S 63°53'10" E a distance of 241.73 feet to a point;
Thence S 63°53'49" E a distance of 182.61 feet to a point;
Thence with a curve turning to the right, said curve having a radius of 620.15 feet, a chord length of 156.21 feet bearing S 56°37'21" E, thence 156.62 feet along the arc of said curve to a point;
Thence S 49°09'56" E a distance of 36.71 feet to the POINT OF BEGINNING; said tract or parcel of land having an area of 243,139 square feet, or 5.58 acres, more or less.
The property is further identified by the Property Identification Numbers (PINs) as follows:
PINs: 2-0021 -02-044 (whole) & 2-0021 -02-048 (portion).
SECTION 2: The Future Land Use Category for the following described property, 401 Carolan Street, be changed from its present Residential - Single Family to Industry - Light:
Commercial Parcel A
All that tract or parcel of land, being a portion of The Clearview Townehomes property, located in Brantley Ward, City Of Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, and being more particularly described as follows:
Commence at a point located at the intersection of the westerly right of way line of Carolan Street and the northerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue, said point being depicted on that certain ALTA/ACSM Survey as it is recorded at Plat Record Book 48-P, Page 200 in the records of the Clerk of Superior Court of Chatham County, said point being also the POINT OF BEGINNING;
Thence proceed along the northerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue thence N 72°50'24" W a distance of 86.72 feet to a point;
Thence with a curve turning to the right, said curve having a radius of 247.92 feet, a chord length of 84.74 feet bearing N 58°55'23" W, thence along the arc of said curve 85.16 feet to a point;
Thence N 49°09'56" W a distance of 151.43 feet to a point;
Thence leaving the northerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue and running the following courses and distances:
Thence N 39°53'55" E a distance of 165.06 feet to a point;
Thence S 52°45'55" E a distance of 259.39 feet to a point on the westerly right of way line of Carolan Street;
Thence with the westerly right of way line of Carolan Street S 17°04'00" W a distance of 144.39 feet to the POINT OF BEGINNING; said tract or parcel of land having an area of 48,401 square feet, or 1.11 acres, more or less.
The property is further identified by the Property Identification Numbers (PINs) as follows:
PINs: 2-0021 -02-047 (portion).
Commercial Parcel B
All that tract or parcel of land, being a portion of The Clearview Townehomes property, located in Brantley Ward, City Of Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, and being more particularly described as follows:
Commence at a point located at the intersection of the westerly right of way line of Carolan Street and the northerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue, said point being depicted on that certain ALTA/ACSM Survey as it is recorded at Plat Record Book 48-P, Page 200 in the records of the Clerk of Superior Court of Chatham County;
Thence proceed S 17°04’00” W a distance of 60.00 feet to a point at the intersection of the westerly right of way line of Carolan Street and the southerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue; said point being the POINT OF BEGINNING;
Thence proceed along the westerly right of way line of Carolan Street S 17°04'00" W a distance of 141.22 feet to a point;
Thence leave the westerly right of way line of Carolan Street and run the following courses and distances:
N 72°54'22" W a distance of 366.72 feet to a point;
Thence N 16°58'59" E a distance of 100.34 feet to a point;
Thence N 39°53'55" E a distance of 130.85 feet to a point on the southerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue;
Thence with the southerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue S 49°09'56" E a distance of 134.36 feet to a point;
Thence with a curve turning to the left, said curve having a radius of 307.92 feet, a chord length of 109.34 feet bearing S 59°23'28" E, thence along the arc of said curve 109.93 feet to a point;
Thence S 72°50'24" E a distance of 86.82 feet to the POINT OF BEGINNING; said tract or parcel of land having an area of 60,284 square feet, or 1.38 acres, more or less.
The property is further identified by the Property Identification Numbers (PINs) as follows:
PINs: 2-0021 -02-048 (portion).
SECTION 3: That the requirements of Section 8-3182(f)(2) of said Code and the law in such cases made and provided has been satisfied. An opportunity for a public hearing was afforded anyone having an interest or property right which may have been affected by this zoning amendment, said notice being published in the Savannah Morning News, on the 23rd day of November, 2018, a copy of said notice being attached hereto and made a part hereof.
SECTION 4: All ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.
EFFECTIVE DATE: This ordinance shall be effective as of the date hereof.
Ordinance read for the first time in Council December 20, 2018, then by unanimous consent of Council read a second time, placed upon its passage, adopted and approved upon a motion by Alderman Johnson, seconded by Alderman Hall, and unanimously carried.
AN ORDINANCE
To Be Entitled
AN ORDINANCE TO REZONE CERTAIN PROPERTY FROM A R-M-25 (MULTIFAMILY RESIDENTIAL 25 UNITS PER ACRE) ZONING DISTRICT TO THE P-R-M-40 (PLANNED RESIDENTIAL MULTI FAMILY UP TO 40 UNITS PER ACRE) AND I-L (LIGHT INDUSTRIAL) ZONING DISTRICTS IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE GENERAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN, APPLYING THE “EXTRAORDINARY AND UNUSUAL” PROVISION OF SECTION. 8-3031(D)(1)(A) AND APPROVAL OF HEIGHT AND PARKING VARIANCES WITH CONDITIONS; TO REPEAL ALL OTHER ORDINANCES IN CONFLICT HEREWITH; AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.
BE IT ORDAINED by the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Savannah, Georgia, in a regular meeting of Council assembled and pursuant to lawful authority thereof:
SECTION 1: The following described property, 401 Carolan Street and 0 Cleland Street, be rezoned from its present R-M-25 Zoning District to a P-R-M-40 Zoning District:
Multifamily Parcel A
All that tract or parcel of land, being a portion of The Clearview Townehomes property, located in Brantley Ward, City Of Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, and being more particularly described as follows:
Commence at a point located at the intersection of the westerly right of way line of Carolan Street and the northerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue, said point being depicted on that certain ALTA/ACSM Survey as it is recorded at Plat Record Book 48-P, Page 200 in the records of the Clerk of Superior Court of Chatham County;
Thence with the northerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue the following courses and distances:
N 72°50’24 W, a distance of 86.72 feet to a point;
Thence with a curve to the right, said curve having a radius of 247.92 feet, a chord length of 84.74 feet bearing N 58°55’23” W, thence 85.16 feet along the arc of said curve to a point; thence N 49°09’56” W a distance of 151.43 feet to a point, said point being the POINT OF BEGINNING;
Thence continue with the northerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue the following courses and distances:
Thence N 49°09'56" W a distance of 19.87 feet to a point;
Thence with a curve turning to the left, said curve having a radius of 680.18', a chord length of 171.32 feet bearing N 56°37'21" W, thence along the arc of said curve 171.78 feet to a point:
Thence N 63°54'35" W a distance of 182.73 feet to a point;
Thence N 63°52'31" W a distance of 241.63 feet to a point;
Thence N 63°52'16" W a distance of 89.92 feet to a point;
Thence N 63°53'54" W a distance of 330.39 feet to a point on the easterly right of way line of Cleland Street;
Thence with the easterly right of way line of Cleland Street N 28°58'57" E a distance of 78.47 feet to a point;
Thence N 28°58'57" E a distance of 237.53 feet to a point; thence N 28°58'57" E a distance of 25.26 feet to a point;
Thence leave the easterly right of way line of Cleland Street and run the following courses and distances:
Thence S 52°48'03" E a distance of 338.13 feet to a point;
Thence S 52°51'47" E a distance of 72.82 feet to a point;
Thence S 52°47'20" E a distance of 246.34 feet to a point;
Thence S 52°45’55” E a distance of 418.92 feet to a point;
Thence S 39°53'55" W a distance of 165.06 feet to the POINT OF BEGINNING; said tract or parcel of land having an area of 253,104 square feet, or 5.81 acres, more or less.
The property is further identified by the Property Identification Numbers (PINs) as follows:
PINs: 2-0021 -02-047 (portion).
Multifamily Parcel B
All that tract or parcel of land, being a portion of The Clearview Townehomes property, located in Brantley Ward, City Of Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, and being more particularly described as follows:
Commence at a point located at the intersection of the westerly right of way line of Carolan Street and the northerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue, said point being depicted on that certain ALTA/ACSM Survey as it is recorded at Plat Record Book 48-P, Page 200 in the records of the Clerk of Superior Court of Chatham County;
Thence along the westerly right of way line of Carolan Street S 17°04’00” W a distance of 60.00 feet to a point at the intersection of the westerly right of way line of Carolan Street and the southerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue;
Thence leave the westerly right of way line of Carolan Street and run with the southerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue the following courses and distances:
N 72°50’24” W a distance of 86.82 feet to a point, thence with a curve turning to the right, said curve having a radius of 307.92 feet, a chord length of 109.34 feet bearing N 59°23’28” W, thence 109.93 feet along the arc of said curve to a point;
Thence N 49°09’56” W a distance of 134.36 feet to the POINT OF BEGINNING;
Thence leave the southerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue and run the following courses and distances:
Thence S 39°53'55" W a distance of 130.85 feet to a point;
Thence S 16°58'59" W a distance of 100.34 feet to a point;
Thence N 72°54'22" W a distance of 58.23 feet to a point;
Thence N 16°58'59" E a distance of 44.68 feet to a point;
Thence N 17°10'53" E a distance of 60.00 feet to a point;
Thence N 72°55'54" W a distance of 287.54 feet to a point;
Thence N 72°57'31" W a distance of 244.67 feet to a point;
Thence N 72°55'59" W a distance of 72.37 feet to a point;
Thence N 72°58'03" W a distance of 372.33 feet to a point on the easterly right of way line of Cleland Avenue;
Thence with the easterly right of way line of Cleland Avenue N 28°58'57" E a distance of 254.03 feet to a point;
Thence N 28°58'57" E a distance of 61.20 feet to a point on the southerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue;
Thence with the southerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue the following courses and distances:
S 63°53'54" E a distance of 333.40 feet to a point;
Thence S 63°52'04" E a distance of 89.90 feet to a point;
Thence S 63°53'10" E a distance of 241.73 feet to a point;
Thence S 63°53'49" E a distance of 182.61 feet to a point;
Thence with a curve turning to the right, said curve having a radius of 620.15 feet, a chord length of 156.21 feet bearing S 56°37'21" E, thence 156.62 feet along the arc of said curve to a point;
Thence S 49°09'56" E a distance of 36.71 feet to the POINT OF BEGINNING; said tract or parcel of land having an area of 243,139 square feet, or 5.58 acres, more or less.
The property is further identified by the Property Identification Numbers (PINs) as follows:
PINs: 2-0021 -02-044 (whole) & 2-0021 -02-048 (portion).
SECTION 2: The following described property, 401 Carolan Street, be rezoned from its present R-M-25 Zoning District to an I-L Zoning District:
Commercial Parcel A
All that tract or parcel of land, being a portion of The Clearview Townehomes property, located in Brantley Ward, City Of Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, and being more particularly described as follows:
Commence at a point located at the intersection of the westerly right of way line of Carolan Street and the northerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue, said point being depicted on that certain ALTA/ACSM Survey as it is recorded at Plat Record Book 48-P, Page 200 in the records of the Clerk of Superior Court of Chatham County, said point being also the POINT OF BEGINNING;
Thence proceed along the northerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue thence N 72°50'24" W a distance of 86.72 feet to a point;
Thence with a curve turning to the right, said curve having a radius of 247.92 feet, a chord length of 84.74 feet bearing N 58°55'23" W, thence along the arc of said curve 85.16 feet to a point;
Thence N 49°09'56" W a distance of 151.43 feet to a point;
Thence leaving the northerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue and running the following courses and distances:
Thence N 39°53'55" E a distance of 165.06 feet to a point;
Thence S 52°45'55" E a distance of 259.39 feet to a point on the westerly right of way line of Carolan Street;
Thence with the westerly right of way line of Carolan Street S 17°04'00" W a distance of 144.39 feet to the POINT OF BEGINNING; said tract or parcel of land having an area of 48,401 square feet, or 1.11 acres, more or less.
The property is further identified by the Property Identification Numbers (PINs) as follows:
PINs: 2-0021 -02-047 (portion).
Commercial Parcel B
All that tract or parcel of land, being a portion of The Clearview Townehomes property, located in Brantley Ward, City Of Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, and being more particularly described as follows:
Commence at a point located at the intersection of the westerly right of way line of Carolan Street and the northerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue, said point being depicted on that certain ALTA/ACSM Survey as it is recorded at Plat Record Book 48-P, Page 200 in the records of the Clerk of Superior Court of Chatham County;
Thence proceed S 17°04’00” W a distance of 60.00 feet to a point at the intersection of the westerly right of way line of Carolan Street and the southerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue; said point being the POINT OF BEGINNING;
Thence proceed along the westerly right of way line of Carolan Street S 17°04'00" W a distance of 141.22 feet to a point;
Thence leave the westerly right of way line of Carolan Street and run the following courses and distances:
N 72°54'22" W a distance of 366.72 feet to a point;
Thence N 16°58'59" E a distance of 100.34 feet to a point;
Thence N 39°53'55" E a distance of 130.85 feet to a point on the southerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue;
Thence with the southerly right of way line of Clearview Avenue S 49°09'56" E a distance of 134.36 feet to a point;
Thence with a curve turning to the left, said curve having a radius of 307.92 feet, a chord length of 109.34 feet bearing S 59°23'28" E, thence along the arc of said curve 109.93 feet to a point;
Thence S 72°50'24" E a distance of 86.82 feet to the POINT OF BEGINNING; said tract or parcel of land having an area of 60,284 square feet, or 1.38 acres, more or less.
The property is further identified by the Property Identification Numbers (PINs) as follows:
PINs: 2-0021 -02-048 (portion).
SECTION 3: That the subject parcels be rezoned in conjunction with the general development plan entitled “Clearview Redevelopment” dated October 3, 2018, applying the “extraordinary and unusual” provision of Section 8-3031(D)(1)(a), a copy of which is attached hereto and made a part hereof by this reference. The general development plan, currently in review under Site Development Permit No. 18-08811-SITE and Plan No. 18-005979-PLAN, is hereby approved after a public hearing in accordance with Section 8-3031;
SECTION 4: That the following two variances be approved in conjunction with the rezoning of the subject parcels and the site plan dated October 3, 2018:
Variance 1: A 4-foot height variance from the 40-foot maximum in the R-M Zoning District. The proposed multifamily residential structures are 44 feet at the highest point;
Variance 2: A 59-space parking variance for the proposed residential component, including the allowance of 76 on-street parking spaces be counted toward required parking, with the condition that the parking variance applies only to the proposed residential uses and that the proposed nonresidential uses provide the required off-street parking spaces for each parking use classification.
SECTION 5: That the requirements of Section 8-3182(f)(2) of said Code and the law in such cases made and provided has been satisfied. An opportunity for a public hearing was afforded anyone having an interest or property right which may have been affected by this zoning amendment, said notice being published in the Savannah Morning News, on the 23rd day of November, 2018, a copy of said notice being attached hereto and made a part hereof.
SECTION 6: All ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.
EFFECTIVE DATE: This ordinance shall be effective as of the date hereof.
ADOPTED AND APPROVED: DECEMBER 20, 2018
RESOLUTION OF ADOPTION
BY THE CITY OF SAVANNAH COUNCIL
Whereas, The Georgia Police K9 Foundation, an all-volunteer 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to assist active and retired law enforcement K9s in the State of Georgia, donated $5000.00 towards the procurement and installation of specialized canine equipment for a Savannah Police vehicle; and
Whereas, Savannah Police Canine Unit provides an invaluable service to citizens of Savannah, and police department; and
Whereas, police canines require specialized vehicle equipment to aid in their safe transport and care; and
Whereas, Police canine vehicles also require an emergency heat notification system in the event of a vehicle malfunction jeopardizes the canine’s health, or life; and
Whereas, the City of Savannah seeks to promote the health, safety and effective use of Savannah Police canines.
BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED, that the City of Savannah Council does hereby accept the $5000 check which will be used to help pay for specialized vehicle canine equipment which will aid in the safety and welfare of the canine.
ADOPTED and APPROVED: DECEMBER 20, 2018 upon motion of Alderman Johnson, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried.
City Manager Hernandez: So, Mr. Fretty is going to give you an overview of our accomplishments so far this past year in terms of expanding the supply of affordable housing stock and options in the City of Savannah.
Martin Fretty, Housing & Neighborhood Services Director: I'm going to run you through some slides that sort of take a look at what's happened over the past ten years, but then quickly takes a look at what happened this year on several areas. These are indicative of not only our department but our partners. I mean you can't do this alone, so we have multiple partners as you've seen over the years. Generally, just the activities that we're involved with on a regular basis, our home repairs a lot of those are performed by volunteers where we buy the materials and the volunteers install them. That helps us reach many more people than we could. We build houses, we provide down payment GAP financing to people buying houses. We work on a variety of rental development projects. The one pictured here is Savannah Gardens, on Pennsylvania Avenue, and is representative of the tax credit and bond deals are very good for providing lots of money for affordable rental housing. We also use SPLOST money to augment that, the scene you see where the kids are playing in the fountain that's the park that runs through the middle of Savannah Gardens. So, that was infrastructure and park improvements that were supported by the City as well. We're looking to buy properties and either renovate them with our partners or if they're too far gone to tear them down and bring in some new infill housing. You might recall the picture in the upper right is from earlier in the year at Savannah Shines where we had the Mayor ride a bulldozer over that house. The other thing that we do that ties into all this is neighborhood planning and those types of activities. The next slide shows you what transpired with ourselves and our partners over a ten year period from 2008 through the end of 2017. The top part of the chart are the number of housing units that were impacted through our various partnerships in that ten year timeframe, 4,600 roughly homes were impacted and people living in those homes. The breakdown between home repairs for owner occupied home purchases, and new house construction kind of run together for home ownership, and then rental property development encompasses 39 percent of our activity. Perhaps one of the most amazing things for me to look at is if we just used our HUD money to try and do all this stuff by ourselves, we wouldn't get anywhere. So, by having these partnerships and by trying to leverage money by using the Savannah Affordable Housing Fund and continuing to grow it, you can see over ten years we used about $38,000,000 of money that we had control of at the City and that leveraged through our partners about $307,000,000. So, the total investment in that ten year period is about $345,000,000. Our money is about eleven percent of that and the money leverages about 89 percent. If we just take a look at what happened this year in 2018, we still have a few days to go so these numbers might change a bit, but we're anticipating that we and our partners will have impacted 705 dwelling units; 92 of those will be home buyers; 172 of those are home repairs mainly for elderly persons who can't go to the bank to borrow money to make those repairs, that's been a very beneficial program to our senior citizens; 19 single family infill houses have been built; and the rental housing 422 units. Some of that is coming from the Savannah Shines area, but the bulk of it is coming from bond and tax credit deals that were done by the Housing Authority and their development partners. If you recall earlier in the year you approved the sale of some land out at 204 and 95 that enabled the Housing Authority to develop 276 units out there. Then over by our building on Chatham Parkway, just to the right of it there's 144 units going in right there by another developer. So, this year it looks like we're going to be somewhere close to $75,000,000 in total investment that has been made, about $1.5 million is being made through the Savannah Affordable Housing Solutions Fund, that’s money that we loan out for construction generally and it comes back in. So, we're revolving that fund in and out, about $2.4 million of that is your HUD, CDBG, and Home Money, that's leveraged about $12.8 million from banks and other investors. The tax credit and bond financing is accounted for about $59 million of that total. The Savannah Affordable Housing Solutions Fund itself is new money this year the City put $150,000 into it which its done for each year since it's been around, except for one year it was $200,000 and then banks and hospitals and other donors that you've seen throughout the year, and you saw the two earlier today we've been able to go out and leverage $82,000 from them this year. Memorial Health joined the chorus this year and they brought in $30,000 earlier in the year. From what I understand from their board member Israel Small, a former City employee, Assistant City Manager, he’s arranged for them to make that contribution annually for ten years. So, that should be a good thing. The Savannah Affordable Housing Solutions Fund, again, which is your baby, you can see all the investors from the inception. This goes from a period of 2012 through 2018. You can see all the different groups that have contributed money to it from its inception, there's been about $13.9 million that has gone through the fund or been leveraged by the fund, you see the breakdown below that. The leveraging ratio for every bucket of the Savannah Affordable Housing Fund money that goes into the fund is leveraging about $8 of other money. It doesn't happen on every project, but some more, some less. Over that six year period, 256 projects have been done, 160 of those are houses that have been repaired, 36 houses have been built and 60 houses have been purchased. In terms of construction contracts associated with these funds, 161 contracts have gone to minority contractors, eight percent have gone to nonminority contractors and 10 percent to the nonprofits, the nonprofits hire contractors to build and it's going to be a mixture of both minority and nonminority. Taking a look at how the housing activity this year lines up with the strategic plan and goal 3.5 in particular, you can see the different categories to the left. Our goal was 350 total housing units this year, because of the major tax credits and bond deals that were done, that number has really soared past that goal, which is good. So, we were expecting 705 so that's essentially 200 percent of goal. That won't happen next year, I didn't want to show this slide because I was afraid when I come back next year you'll ask me why we didn't do that good. But we're going to try real hard to do that good.
Mayor DeLoach: Why can’t you do that again? I'm asking now so you’ll remember. I'm not going to ask you to double it… do 710 next year and we'll be okay.
Mr. Fretty: I appreciate that. We will try. So anyway, if you look at the Savannah Affordable Housing Fund investments, our goal in the strategic plan was to try to get the City's contribution from $150,000 to $200,000 this year, we weren't able to do that. We've hung out at $150,000, so we're at 75 percent of goal there. Our goal is to try and get $100,000 leveraged from the private sector and we've gotten $82,000 of that so we're at 82 percent. So, that's moving along in a good fashion. Now all that's really, I think, positive news, I did want to bring to your attention some of the challenges that we see and we face, we were asked recently by a group of housing coalition which Alderman Miller has been sitting in on some of those meetings. So, they asked us to give them some ideas of what are the problems in Savannah with housing? One of the biggest challenges for us is that the cost of quality housing in Savannah is outpacing incomes. This is Census data that we've got here and have a chart that might make a little bit more sense of it. But there are about 53,000 households in Savannah, about 45 percent of those households are cost burden. That means they're paying more than 30 percent of their income for their housing expense. If you take another look at the Census data, 41 percent of the households in Savannah that are cost burden actually make less than $50,000 a year, which translates to $24 an hour if you're looking at it from an hourly pay rate, now that isn't necessarily one person, but it's a household. Of that 21,500 folks that are making less than $50,000 a year that are cost burden about 15,600 are renters and 5,800 are homeowners. What does all that mean, we try to look at it from several different perspectives but the top part of this chart, if you have one bedroom, two bedroom and three bedroom apartments and you've got fair market rents that are published by HUD and other entities that collect this data, in Savannah, a one bedroom apartment that’s in good condition the fair market rent at this point in time is said to be $926 per month; a two bedroom apartment is $1,063; three bedrooms $1,453. So, if that could only equal 30 percent of someone’s income without being cost burden and you do the math that means that somebody living in a one bedroom has got to make $37,000 a year that’s $17 an hour; to afford a two bedroom in good condition it's $42,000 a year income or $20 an hour household wage; and then you can see the same kind of analysis for the three bedroom. When we met with the housing coalition that's looking at this, a very well-known local property manager had raised the issue about where do the rents come from? Are they realistic, do we really know that they are? I said, well, we get this out of HUD data. He said, well let me check with the local affiliates that I have and see if we can confirm or find out if that's what it is. That afternoon he sent me an email back and they're pretty much right on. So, that's looking at the whole range of housing. Now, the second little thing in blue, if somebody was making the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, and if they were lucky enough to have a job that was 40 hours a week and 52 weeks a year, they would have to work 98 hours a week to afford a one bedroom; they would need to work about 113 hours a week to afford a two bedroom; and 154 hours a week to afford a three bedroom. Now again, that's household members working. What we’re hearing from people that we talk with, a lot of the service industry workers and others that are in that arena are not getting 40 hours and 52 weeks a year. I’m not sure why but it might have something to do with perhaps not having to pay benefits if you're not having people work for you below a certain number of hours a week. A lot of those folks have two jobs to try and make ends meet. The last bit before I finish up the bottom part of this, we said, well okay, let's assume somebody who's making 10, 12, 14, 16, up to $20 an hour what would that translate to an annual income. If they could apply 30 percent of that towards their rent, that’s what the line is that you see the white line there. When you take out the expenses of the managing apartment community, and paying your insurance and taxes or what have you, it leaves you with what's available for what's called principle and interest, and that's significantly less than the $520, for instance, it drops down to $444. If you're looking at a 450 square foot efficiency apartment, a one bedroom or efficiency, the cost of that based upon info we've gotten from developers is about $72,000. The bank financing that somebody could get if they had $244 a rent to apply towards a mortgage to support the construction of that property would give them about $37,000. So, what you see in red is what the gap is between what people are able to afford with the incomes that they're making and what the developer is able to leverage from the bank and the shortfall. And that's kind of where the Savannah Affordable Housing Fund and other soft money sources can help out.
Alderman Miller: Thank you Martin. We've been studying this quite a bit as my role on the Homeless Authority, looking at the barriers to permanent housing, not even home ownership. We have under construction or existing now a pretty good number of market rate apartments and housing that we may have saturated the need at market rate. Then we go to affordable housing, which we have some under construction now, but what we don't have are what I call the sub-affordable housing. We all talk about the homeless situation here and it turns out that 60 percent of our homeless population could afford to pay up to $400 a month, but we don't have any $400 a month apartments or houses, or anything like that and there are other barriers as well. The City Manager is working on a lot of plans and a lot of moving wheels to this Mr. City Manager I understand that, and I think he's not getting much credit for it because he hasn't been able to report on anything now. But this is where we are and this is why this fund is so important. At some point, we're going to have to determine how do we augment this fund, how do we find more revenues to go into it? I think we were told yesterday that the City of Atlanta has put $50 million aside to augment this affordable and sub-affordable housing. We certainly don't have those kinds of funds, but we need to start looking at somehow to subsidize this fund even better than it's being subsidized now, It’s doing a great job but we have a long way to go.
RESOLUTION TO ADOPT THE 2019
SAVANNAH AFFORDABLE HOUSING SOLUTIONS FUND
POLICY GUIDELINES AND WORK PROGRAM
AND TO AUTHORIZE THE CITY MANAGER TO CONTRACT WITH THE
COMMUNITY HOUSING SERVICES AGENCY, INC
TO IMPLEMENT THE 2019 WORK PROGRAM.
WHEREAS, the City of Savannah established a local housing fund known as the Savannah Affordable Housing Fund (SAHF) on November 17, 2011 for the purpose of creating, repairing and retaining affordable and workforce housing in the city of Savannah; and
WHEREAS, the SAHF will now be known as the Savannah Affordable Housing Solutions Fund (SAHSF); and
WHEREAS, the SAHSF, with its ability to leverage private investment, is an integral part of the City of Savannah Strategic Plan, Neighborhood Revitalization Goal 3.5, Access to Quality Housing; and
WHEREAS, the SAHSF Advisory Committee was established to provide guidance in the establishment and growth of the SAHSF; and
WHEREAS, the City of Savannah Housing and Neighborhood Services Department provides support to the SAHSF Advisory Committee; and
WHEREAS, the SAHSF Advisory Committee developed Policy Guidelines and a model that has led to the successful implementation of the SAHSF; and
WHEREAS, the SAHSF Advisory Committee meets throughout the year to evaluate progress, to update SAHSF Policy Guidelines when necessary, and to establish an annual Work Program that provides parameters for SAHSF investments; and
WHEREAS, the SAHSF Advisory Committee recommends that an experienced non-profit housing organization, with Housing and Neighborhood Services Department support, be contracted with annually to implement SAHSF Work Program; and
WHEREAS, the SAHSF Advisory Committee has recommended that Community Housing Services Agency, Inc. (CHSA) be contracted with by the City of Savannah to implement the 2019 SAHSF Work Program; and
WHEREAS, CHSA has served in this role in previous years and has agreed to do so again in 2019; and
WHEREAS, the SAHSF is not used to pay for administrative or implementation services.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Savannah adopt the 2019 SAHSF Policy Guidelines and Work Program, and authorize the City Manager to enter into a contract with the Community Housing Services Agency, Inc. to implement the 2019 SAHSF Work Program. Said contract shall be approved by the City Attorney and will not be used to pay administrative costs associated with the implementation of the 2019 SAHSF Work Program.
ADOPTED and APPROVED: DECEMBER 20, 2018 upon motion of Alderman Miller, seconded by Alderman Durrence, and unanimously carried.
RESOLUTION OF ADOPTION
BY THE CITY OF SAVANNAH COUNCIL
WHEREAS, St. Joseph’s/Candler Health Systems’ (SJCHS) President/CEO, Paul Hinchey, along with fellow SJCHS Leadership Executives, presented a $15,000 donation to the Mayor and Aldermen for deposit into the Savannah Affordable Housing Solutions Fund (SAHSF); and
WHEREAS, this is the fifth consecutive year that SJCHS has made a $15,000 donation to the Mayor and Aldermen for deposit into the SAHSF; and
WHEREAS, SJCHS’ investment in the SAHSF helps offer modest wage SJCHS employees down payment and closing cost assistance necessary for them to become first time Savannah home owners; and
WHEREAS, the Mayor and Aldermen have determined that there is a need for local investment to address local workforce and affordable housing needs and opportunities; and
WHEREAS, the Mayor and Aldermen have encouraged banks, businesses, non-profits and other private entities to invest in the SAHSF along with the City of Savannah; and
WHEREAS, the SAHSF helps leverage private investment to address local workforce and affordable housing without using the SAHSF to pay administrative costs; and
WHEREAS, the City of Savannah Housing & Neighborhood Services Department and the Community Housing Services Agency, Inc. oversee administration of the SAHSF;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Savannah do hereby accept a donation of $15,000 from St. Joseph’s/Candler Health Systems for deposit in the Savannah Affordable Housing Solutions Fund.
ADOPTED and APPROVED: DECEMBER 20, 2018 upon motion of Alderman Hall, seconded by Alderwoman Bell, and unanimously carried.
RESOLUTION OF ADOPTION
BY THE CITY OF SAVANNAH CITY COUNCIL
WHEREAS, Wells Fargo Bank Regional Bank President, Robert Horn, and Coastal Savannah District Manager, Sheri Butler, presented a $5,000 donation to the Mayor and Aldermen for deposit into the Savannah Affordable Housing Solutions Fund (SAHSF); and
WHEREAS, this is the third year that Wells Fargo Bank has made a donation to the Mayor and Aldermen for deposit into the SAHSF; and
WHEAREAS, the Mayor and Aldermen have determined that there is a need for local investment to address local workforce and affordable housing needs and have encouraged banks, businesses, non-profits and other private entities to invest in the SAHSF along with the City of Savannah; and
WHEREAS, the SAHSF helps leverage private investment to address local workforce and affordable housing without using the SAHSF to pay administrative costs; and
WHEREAS, the City of Savannah Housing & Neighborhood Services Department and the Community Housing Services Agency, Inc. oversee administration of the SAHSF.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Savannah do hereby accept a donation of $5,000 from Wells Fargo Bank for deposit in the Savannah Affordable Housing Solutions Fund.
ADOPTED and APPROVED: DECEMBER 20, 2018 upon motion of Alderman Johnson, seconded by Alderman Durrence, and unanimously carried.
Approved upon motion of Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Johnson, and unanimously carried.
Cristy Lawrence, Director of the Office of Capital Project Management: I'm going to start the presentation by giving an overview in context of the Waters Avenue Streetscapes projects, and then I'm going to turn it over to Doug Patten, Project Manager, to go over the details of the Phase Two Streetscape Project. This exhibit shows Waters Avenue Streetscapes Phase One, which runs from East 37th Street to East Anderson Street, it's approximately 2,000 feet in length; and Waters Avenue Phase Two connects directly to that starting at East Anderson Street and running all the way to Wheaton Street for approximately 2,600 feet. The Phase One project was completed in September 2016, and the construction cost was $1.268 million. This is a photo from the Phase One Project. I'm going to turn it over to Doug Patten.
Doug Patten, Project Manager: I'm going to go over the details of the project essentially. So, Phase Two of the project is very similar to Phase One. You're going to have essentially new sidewalk, new landscaping, new handicap ramps, new crosswalks, and new street lights from Georgia Power. The project team is going to be the same, EMC Engineering did the design and Johnson Laux will be the contractor. Key aspects of the design, there will be stamp crosswalks, the same type of tree planters and the same type of trees. The biggest change in the project, you will have the brick bands in the sidewalks instead of all pavers, it will be a sidewalk with a single row of brick bands roughly every 20-25 feet. You have your ADA ramps and then there will be where the crosswalks will go on all four sides of the street, it will be at Henry, Park and Gwinnett. Basically the project, we're hoping to start in January and be completed by sometime around the end of October with the estimated cost of $1.5 million.
Alderman Thomas: Where is the funding coming from for this? Is this district SPLOST dollars?
City Manager Hernandez: No, this was the overall allocation of SPLOST, and I think there's also, if I'm not mistaken, there’s general fund dollars…
Alderman Durrence: There was money from the Wheaton Street SPLOST project that wasn’t used for the Wheaton Street project that was added to the revenue from SPLOST that was dedicated to Waters.
Alderman Thomas: So, we're just keeping the district and the projects in the districts where they're at.
Alderman Durrence: Well, the Wheaton Street Project was done.
Approved upon motion of Alderman Durrence, seconded by Alderwoman Bell, and unanimously carried.
Alderman Hall: This amendment is needed to cover the cost related to the sanitary sewer tie in that could not be constructed as originally planned.
Approved upon motion of Alderman Hall, seconded by Alderwoman Shabazz, and unanimously carried.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Alderman Thomas: On item 35, this is regarding construction services for Rousakis Plaza electrical improvements. Can you explain that Mr. City Manager?
City Manager Hernandez: Sure, I'm going to have Mr. Heath Lloyd come to the podium in case you have needed additional detail. But it's basically an upgrade to the electrical service along Rousakis Plaza and that includes new conduit, new electrical panels, new lighting fixtures and the associated work.
Alderman Thomas: Will this be like new ornate lighting or something like that or just the electrical work going in for it?
[Heath Lloyd, Chief Infrastructure and Development Officer, deferred to the Project Manager to respond to questioning]
Doug Patten, Project Manager: As far as new street lighting, no, it doesn't include that. It will include new stage lighting for this particular project.
Alderman Thomas: So, is it all the lighting or just the stage?
Mr. Patten: Just the stage.
Approved upon motion of Alderman Thomas, seconded by Alderwoman Bell, and unanimously carried per the City Manger’s recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Alderman Thomas: On item number 50, this is the notification of emergency procurement of bridge repair services from TIC, is this the Girl Scout Island Bridge Project?
City Manager Hernandez: It is.
Alderman Thomas: And this will get that bridge in compliance with GDOT?
City Manager Hernandez: It will.
Approved upon motion of Alderman Thomas, seconded by Alderwoman Bell, and unanimously carried per the City Manager’s recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Alderman Thomas: Number 55, this is a motion to approve a memorandum of agreement and cost share with Low Country Land Trust to procure a conservation easement on the Savannah River. Two questions on this. Who is Low Country Land Trust, and tell me why we're doing this.
City Manager Hernandez: Sure, I'm going to have Mr. Lloyd come to the podium to answer that specific question. What we're doing here is we are protecting an almost 300 acre parcel of land in Jasper County that is located on the Savannah River. We are protecting it from further development in order to protect the water supply, the watershed. So, there's a cost associated with placing that conservation easement, that cost is shared by a variety partners and our share is $50,000. But I'll ask Mr. Lloyd to give you specifics on who this organization is.
Heath Lloyd, Chief Infrastructure and Development Officer: It's a consortium of water providers up and down the Savannah River and it's absolutely what the City Manager said in simplest terms. It is protection of a watershed. It is a collaborative group. Those groups include Beaufort/Jasper Water and Sewer Authority, City of Augusta, North Augusta specifically, City of Savannah, and there's one more entity that I can't remember off the top of my head that's in that agreement, but it is a consortium of water providers.
Alderman Thomas: Is this the location of where Abercorn Creek is?
Mr. Lloyd: No sir, its further north than Abercorn Creek.
Alderman Johnson: What’s the total amount of the conservation for the easement?
City Manager Hernandez: $270,000.
Approved upon motion of Alderman Thomas, seconded by Alderwoman Bell, and unanimously carried per the City Manager’s recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Approved upon motion Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Settlement of Workers’ Compensation Claim of Walterella McNear (dec. Ellison McNear)
Jen Herman, Deputy City Attorney: Mr. Mayor, we have two workers' compensation settlements. The first is the widow of Ellison McNear. He was a City employee in 1997 who was injured and ultimately suffered crushing injuries that resulted in his death. His wife has been receiving dependency benefits since that time, and we have agreed subject to your approval to settle that claim for $40,000.
Alderwoman Bell: So, if we paid it out would equate to the value of the claim.
Attorney Herman: The value of the claim, if it would be paid out would be about $83,000.
Alderwoman Bell: So, we’re getting a deal?
Attorney Herman: Yes.
Approved upon motion of Alderman Johnson, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Attorney’s recommendation.
Settlement of Workers’ Compensation Claims of Jimmie Martin
Attorney Herman: The second is the settlement of the claim of Jimmie Martin, a City employee for 28 years. She was initially injured on November 16, 2015, while working on a storm water crew removing trees. She sustained injuries to her left shoulder and her neck, which resulted in three very major surgeries. She came back to work on light duty and was again reinjured on October 5, 2016, when she fell out of a chair. So, we've agreed subject to your approval to settle that for $80,000, and I believe the value of that claim would be over $200,000.
Approved upon motion of Alderman Johnson, seconded by Alderwoman Bell, and unanimously carried per the City Attorney’s recommendation.
Approved upon motion of Alderman Johnson, seconded by Alderman Thomas, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Approved upon motion of Alderman Johnson, seconded by Alderwoman Bell, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Withdrawn per the City Manager's recommendation
Approved upon motion of Alderwoman Bell, seconded by Alderman Miller, and unanimously carried per the City Manager's recommendation.
Mayor DeLoach announced that this was both a good and sad day for Savannah. Chief Middleton gets to go out in style, but sad because the City is losing a strong leader. He has known Chief Middleton for a long time, since they were in high school together, and stated that he is one of the finest men he has ever met. Mayor DeLoach said that it has truly been a blessing to have known him all these years. He then read the proclamation which discussed Chief Middleton’s experience prior to coming to the City of Savannah Fire Department, as well as his accomplishments while serving as Fire Chief. Chief Middleton retires on January 1, 2019, after twelve years of dedicated and meritorious service. Mayor DeLoach declared December 20, 2018 as Fire Chief Charles G. Middleton Day in Savannah. Chief Middleton thanked everyone who came out today, especially the Fire Department employees. He stated he had the opportunity to go away and then come back and hopefully he did his best work here. Throughout his tenure, they pushed the envelope and strived to be the best. As the City moves forward they still have difficult tasks ahead of them, and he hopes that City Council continues to be supportive of the Fire Department and all public safety, including police, fire, water and sewer, payroll, and everyone in the City that supports safety. He stated he has been very honored and privileged to have led the Fire Department and have been a part of the Savannah community. As he walks out the door, he feels like he helped make it better, and he thanks them for the opportunity. Mayor DeLoach invited everyone to join them for punch and cake in the Rotunda after the meeting.
Mayor DeLoach read the following Proclamation:
WHEREAS: Charles G. Middleton joined Savannah Fire & Emergency Services on August 7, 2006, as Fire Chief; and
WHEREAS: He brought with him 42 years of fire experience; including roles as an innovative leader at fire departments in Ft. Myer, Va., Arlington County, Va. and Orange County, Fla.; and
WHEREAS: Chief Middleton brought much needed reform, growth and professionalism to Savannah Fire; and
WHEREAS: His vision and leadership resulted in Savannah Fire becoming an ISO Class 1 agency with international accreditation; and
WHEREAS: During his service as Chief, firefighters of every rank earned national professional certification and the Arson Unit became a state certified agency; and
WHEREAS: Chief Middleton constructed a fire training academy and 5 fire stations to the FEMA standard for critical facilities; and
WHEREAS: Under his leadership Savannah Fire developed its first public safety driver program, its first emergency management program; its first strategic plan, its first career development plan, its first safety, health and wellness plans, and its first education standards for promotion; and
WHEREAS: He insisted on service excellence and introduced community risk reduction and fire suppression services, which saved precious lives and valuable property in the City of Savannah; and
WHEREAS: Chief Middleton officially retires January 1, 2019, after 12 years of outstanding dedication and meritorious service.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Eddie W. DeLoach, Mayor of the City of Savannah, do hereby proclaim December 20, 2018 as:
“Fire Chief Charles G. Middleton Day”
In Savannah, Georgia.
Alderman Miller announced that in the past year, the City of Savannah produced three teams that have gone to the state playoffs, the Hurricanes, the Pittbulls, and the Savannah Stars. The Hurricanes, 12 and under, were state runner ups with a 9-2 record and were recognized though the team was not present. Barry Baker, Parks and Recreation Director, reviewed the City’s Youth Football Program for ages 6-12. The program certifies coaches, provides sports medicine to care for the players, and police security. He noted that they could not have the number of teams that participates, about thirty, without the volunteer coaches. The Pittbulls, led by founder Kevin Richards, finished with a perfect 17-0 record and won the state 8 and under championship. The team came forward to be recognized by City Council and Coach Richards thanked Mayor DeLoach for the opportunity to recognize the children. He introduced the coaches and noted they sacrifice time with family and work. Alderman Miller stated these coaches pull these kids together, pick them up, drive them home, sometimes buy them meals, and do a lot of it out of their own pockets. Coach Richards introduced each athlete and stated these are the product and future of Savannah. They have to maintain a B+ average to be on the team and all 23 members that started with the team stayed with the team all season. Coach Herman Washington came forward with the 10 and under Savannah Stars football team. They have won the state championship three years in a row and this year had an undefeated 13-0 season. Coach Washington said Stars stands for Striving Towards Academic and Recreation Success and if their grades are not where they should be they don’t play. He thanked the City for helping them, and then their team mom introduced each student athlete and Coach Washington named all of the coaches. Alderman Thomas recognized Barry Baker for all of his efforts and hard work over the decades on behalf of Savannah’s children.
Alderman Johnson: This item came about and I raised this issue before, particularly when I cautioned Council about the Alcohol Ordinance in terms of just the different moving parts. I was made to understand at the time that the ordinance mirrored the State's Ordinance. We found out that it did not as it relates to alcohol by the package on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Staff has now provided us an opportunity to be able to do that.
AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND PART 6, LICENSING AND REGULATION, CHAPTER 1, BUSINESS AND OCCUPATIONS, ARTICLE H. ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES, OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF SAVANNAH, GEORGIA; TO REPEAL ALL ORDINANCES IN CONFLICT HEREWITH AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
BE IT ORDAINED by Mayor and Alderman of the City of Savannah, Georgia, in regular meeting of Council assembled and pursuant to lawful authority thereof:
SECTION 1: That Section 6-1211 (b) be deleted in its entirety and a new section 6-1211 (b) be inserted in lieu thereof as follows:
(b) Hours of sale for retail package stores and ancillary retail package stores. Class D licensees may not sell distilled spirits except between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 11:45 p.m. Monday through Saturday and between the hours of 12:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. on Sundays. Class D and E licensees may not sell malt beverages or wine between the hours of 11:45 p.m. Saturday and 12:30 p.m. Sunday or between the hours of 11:30 p.m. Sunday and 8:00 a.m. Monday.
SECTION 2: All ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.
SECTION 3: This ordinance shall become effective when signed by the Mayor.
ADOPTED AND APPROVED: DECEMBER 20, 2018 upon motion of Alderman Johnson, seconded by Alderwoman Shabazz, and carried with the following voting in favor: Aldermen Bell, Miller, Foster, Durrence, Johnson, Thomas, Hall, and Shabazz. Mayor DeLoach voted against the motion.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Mayor DeLoach announced that Police Chief Roy Minter’s swearing in ceremony will be next Friday, December 28th at 1:00 p.m. at the Forsyth Park Fountain. The alternate location in case of rain will be the Civic Center Ballroom.
Alderman Thomas invited everyone to the naming ceremony for the honorary Jackie Haberman Way tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. at the intersection of Windsor Road and White Bluff Road.
Alderman Thomas recognized Bonnie Walden and Jessica Walden, owners of Bay Street Blues, for their continued efforts to raise money for toys for children through the “Toys for Shots” program. For years they have raised thousands of dollars for toys, and this year over 125 children received toys through their efforts, including children at Urban Hope. Bonnie and her daughter do this program every year, and he wants to both congratulate them and thank them for what they have done for our children.
Alderman Hall thanked Savannah Bike Walk for their efforts last Sunday at Savannah Gardens where they distributed 50 to 75 bicycles to the children. He said you could feel the excitement in the air as the children got to stand by their new bikes and get their pictures taken. Alderman Hall wished everyone a Merry Christmas.
City Manager Hernandez reminded everyone that City Council would meet again tonight for a special meeting at 6:00 p.m.
There being no further business, Mayor DeLoach declared this meeting of Council adjourned.
The video recording of the Council meeting can be found by copying and pasting the below link in your url:
https://savannahgovtv.viebit.com/player.php?hash=7WAXA4kovWTf
