By Eric Curl
Dec. 15, 2022 update – After more than two hours of debate, the exception was approved in a tie-breaking vote, as reported by the Savannah Morning News.
Dec. 11, 2022 – A controversial plan to construct a 3-story home at 336 Barnard St. is returning to the Savannah Historic District Board of Review on Wednesday after raising concerns about the project’s potential impact to the integrity of Savannah’s downtown Historic District.
The home is proposed to replace a 1-story apartment building on a parcel at Barnard Street and Charlton Lane, which was subdivided from the lot of a downtown Savannah home fronting Charlton Street.
The project’s architect, Christian Sottile, is set to petition the board for an exemption to a design standard that requires that a building on a tithing block locate its primary entrance to front the east-west street, which in this case would be Charlton Lane.
Sottile’s petition comes after the review board approved the project’s height and mass on Dec. 9, 2020. Approval of the design details were continued on Aug. 10 after it was brought to the board and staff’s attention that the building, which was proposed to be four stories at the time, should have been reviewed under Large Scale Development standards during the height and mass review. Staff recommended at the time that the petitioner seek a special exception for the Barnard street entrance prior to the September meeting.
At the applicant’s request, the city’s zoning administrator issued a determination later in August that the Barnard Street entrance was allowed under the zoning ordinance, when an east-west entrance on the lane was not possible and it was consistent with other area contributing buildings.
The design details were then approved by the review board on Sept. 14.
However, Andrew Jones, one of the leading opponents of the project, appealed the zoning administrator’s determination to the Zoning Board of Appeals and on Oct. 27 the appeals board remanded the petition back to the review board to reconsider the zoning administrator’s determination.
When the height and mass was originally approved in 2020, the only concerns raised about the project concerned the location of the dumpster, which were addressed, according to the meeting minutes.
That was not the case at the meetings when the buildings design details were considered, when multiple residents raised concerns about the size of the building and the potential precedent set with the structure that would abut the lane.
Jones said that the review board’s past support for the height was a grave error, noting that accessory dwellings are limited to two stories by the city’s zoning ordinance. In addition, Jones and other critics have argued that the primary entrance of such buildings on so-called “tithing blocks” are supposed to front the east-west street, in this case Charlton Lane, per new construction standards.
Opponents are concerned a loophole to the zoning ordinance was being created by the subdivision of the property and subsequent approval of the building, which they say would be looked at as an invitation for other property owners to do the same. That in turn could lead to the erosion of Savannah’s Oglethorpe Plan and revocation of downtown’s historic designation, critics contend.
When Savannah Agenda inquired about the concerns back in August, Leah Michalak, the MPC’s director of preservation, said portions of the ordinance were being selectively chosen and that the zoning regulations cited by Jones do not apply in this case. The proposed home is a principal building on its own parcel and it is incorrect to characterize the structure as an accessory building, Michalak said. In addition, the parcel in question does not front an east-west street; therefore, it is not possible for the primary entrance to be on an east-west street, Michalak said.
Staff is recommending approval of the exemption ahead of Wednesday’s meeting after finding 130 buildings on tithing lots with buildings facing north-south streets in the historic district, including 113 that are listed as contributing and constructed within the district’s period of significance, according to the staff report. Due to the findings, such historic buildings are the appropriate historic context to reference for visual compatibility when designing new construction in a similar context, the staff report states. In addition, staff reported that a lack of an entrance on a building’s façade facing the street would create “dead zones” and negatively impact the appearance of the district.
Meanwhile, the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation has joined opponents in calling for the board to vote against the project. Mark McDonald, the nonprofit’s president and CEO, submitted a letter ahead of Wednesday’s meeting stating that due to the “real and present danger to the National Historic Landmark District listing now is not the time to grant special exceptions by approving more non-confirming buildings.”
The National Park Service also raised its own concerns in a Sept. 26 letter to the MPC, stating the project is “representative of the sort of incremental change that, collectively, can result in ill effects to the integrity of the National Historic Landmark District,” as reported in October by the Savannahian. The letter comes about four years after the NPS downgraded the character of Savannah’s downtown historic district from “satisfactory” to “threatened” due partly to the impact of new construction on the Oglethorpe plan.
The proposed home has also generated some support, including a letter from the Atlanta-based Millennium Gate Museum‘s executive director, Mac Schmitz. The condition of the urban parcel within this property along Barnard Street fits clearly within well-established traditions of Savannah’s lot subdivision patterns,” Schmitz said in the Oct. 26 letter.
“It follows models that have been observably successful from the 18th, 19th and 20th century city,” Schmitz said. “To ignore the actual history of the city and to overlay false interpretations of that history would be a grave mistake.”
The city is currently crafting language to modify the zoning ordinance to implement a process for reviewing subdivisions of lots that include a public hearing and notice, according to an email City Manager Jay Melder sent to a National Historic Landmark District stakeholder group in November.
The emailed correspondence was sent after a meeting was held with the group on Oct. 17 to discuss the impact of subdivisions and other issues associated with the historic district. Melder said he also agreed that several other items need much more analysis and engagement prior to moving forward with ordinance revisions pertaining to downtown historic district properties. The topics Melder cited included the subdivision of tithing lots, height of buildings within 20 feet of a lane and limiting the footprint of buildings on a lane.
About the Oglethorpe Plan
The Oglethorpe Plan Area is that portion of the Savannah National Historic Landmark District comprised of the city plan, established by James Oglethorpe in 1733 and continued until 1851, that is unique to Savannah for its system of wards containing a series of urban blocks divided by streets and lanes with a central public square. A square is a common public open space in the center of a ward, typically one acre in size. The Oglethorpe Plan Area is bounded by the centerline of Gaston Street on the south, Bay Street on the north, Martin Luther King, Jr., Boulevard on the west, and East Broad Street on the east.
Tithing Block: A component of Oglethorpe’s Plan for Savannah. Tithing blocks are located on the north and south sides of a square and usually consist of five 60-foot by 90-foot lots.
Source: City of Savannah zoning ordinance
For a deep dive into the Oglethorpe Plan, check out Jim Morekis’ column in the Savannahian.
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