The Savannah-Chatham County Historic Site and Monument Commission (HSMC) consists of five members, appointed by the Mayor and Aldermen, who serve five-year terms. The purpose of the Commission is to ensure that existing markers, monuments, and works of art are maintained, and that new appropriate markers, monuments, and works of art are erected in the City of Savannah. The Commission is charged with establishing procedures for receiving and processing applications and with creating guidelines by which to evaluate applications. The Commission makes recommendations to the Mayor and Aldermen regarding these matters. The Commission meets on the first Thursday of every month at the Metropolitan Planning Commission (110 East State Street) at 4:00 PM. These meetings are open to the public.

This petition request changes to the guidelines that help govern the HSMC's recommendations. The requested language and format change includes the third paragraph of Chapter 1 (page 5), Purpose and History, to present more clarity about the review process for historic markers, monuments, murals, and public art; and to add language in Chapter 6 (page 18), Murals, further clarifying the application guidelines for rotating murals.

The third paragraph of Chapter 1 (page 5) is confusing for applicants to fully realize what types of proposed projects must be reviewed by HSMC. Changing the language and formatting from a single paragraph to three bullet points will clear up any confusion. For Chapter 6 (page 18), Murals, the way the section about rotating murals is written leaves an opening for artists to continually change a mural that was not approved as a rotating mural. The addition of an explanatory sentence will allow this to be clearly understood.

Language revisions are further outlined in the supplementary attachments. 

The Historic Sites and Monuments Commission recommends approval to City Council to amend the language and formatting of the third paragraph of Chapter 1 (page 5), Purpose and History to clarify the application and review process, and amend Chapter 6 (page 18), Murals, Rotating Murals to include verbiage stating that rotating murals must be declared as such at the time of application.

Approval