The City of Savannah proposes to proceed with condemnation proceedings to remedy blight at blighted and abandoned property located at  514 West Victory Drive, Savannah, GA 31415 (PIN: 2-0073-42-013)

The City has found that this property 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 tits ongoing blighted condition.

City Council is 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 this property to remedy blight.  Such acquisition will be for independently appraised 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. 

City Council is also being asked to adopt a Resolution authorizing the transfer of this vacant, blighted, abandoned property, once acquired, to the Chatham County/City of Savannah Land Bank Authority (LBA) to remedy the blighted conditions and return the property to productive residential use. The LBA will make the property available to descendants, heirs, and/or next of kin of persons who formerly held an interest in the property as a priority, secondarily for affordable housing or as otherwise set out under the terms of a Memorandum of Agreement to be entered into between the LBA and City.

Approval