The Mayor and Aldermen approved the text amendment request following a zoning hearing at the November 9, 2017 City Council Meeting. The action being considered now is the approval of the ordinance to amend the Zoning Ordinance regarding the public notification requirements.

The amendment is at the request of the City of Savannah, petitioner (File No. 17-005211-ZA).

The existing public notice requirements for map (rezoning) amendments initiated by or for the Mayor and Aldermen exceed the requirements established by Georgia state law (O.C.G.A §36-66-1, also known as The Zoning Procedures Law or “ZPL”).  To establish consistency, an amendment to the existing public notice requirements is proposed.

This change includes amendments to Article M (Public Notification), Sections 8-3337 (Applicability), 8-3338 (Types of Public Notice, Table 1), 8-3339 (Content of Mailed and Published Notices), and 8-3340 (Procedure for Mailed Notice).

This change would affect only map amendments proposed by or on behalf of the Mayor and Aldermen. Privately initiated amendments would still have to comply with the posting and mailing requirements.

On October 10, 2017, the Planning Commission voted to recommend approval of the proposed text amendment.

Approval