By Eric Curl
Aug. 8, 2023 – Because I’m a nerd, I even check city council agendas of other cities I travel to. What I find is that whether it is abandoned shopping carts, overgrown cemeteries, short-term vacation rentals, affordable housing or rising sea levels, the communities are often dealing with similar issues as Savannah and Chatham County.
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Columbia, SC, for instance, also has an affordable housing tax force to help develop more affordable housing for residents. And in In Ocean City, MD, the council is developing changes to the zoning code to incentivize developers to build more housing and expand living options for seasonal workers. Savannah, as I’m sure you know, has its own such task force and is attempting to come up with ways to address our housing crisis, including the development of an inclusionary zoning ordinance as it becomes harder for downtown service workers to live near their jobs.
In Richmond. Va, city officials are actually preparing to acquire a cemetery called Evergreen Cemetery due to the owner’s inability to maintain the property. The cemetery shares the same name of the cemetery the city of Savannah recently acquired for similar reasons.
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In Annapolis, the city is working to comply with FEMA requirements and address City Dock flooding by installing flood barriers and devices to protect the Historic District. Here in Savannah, city officials will likely have to address expected increases in flooding from sea level rise, as recently reported by Savannah Morning News’ reporter Marisa Mecke. While criticized by some for not lowering the tax rate, the city council recently took action to make improvements to city drainage with a stormwater fund from increased property tax revenue, as reported by WTOC’s Lindsey Stenger.
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