By Eric Curl
Nov. 26, 2024 – The city of Savannah is getting set to continue expanding its presence in west Chatham County.
On Tuesday, the Savannah City Council unanimously approved an agreement with Chatham County to facilitate the annexation and development of about 668 acres located off little Neck Road west of Interstate 95.
The annexation was requested by the property owner, Speir Property LLC, which wants to develop a large-scale residential development and needs access to the city’s utilities to do so, according to city officials.
The agreement describes the construction and maintenance responsibilities between the county and the city. Under the terms, the city expected to pay half of the anticipated $20 million cost of widening Little Neck Road from two lanes to four up to Interstate 95. Once those improvements are completed, the city will maintain the roadway and right of ways along that corridor.
The agreement also states that none of the property will be used for industrial use.
The city council previously denied a similar annexation request in April 2023 due to concerns about the developer’s plans to rezone the site near Pooler for light industrial use. Chatham also submitted a letter of opposition to the annexation at the time, as previously reported by the Savannah Morning News. That county opposition will be withdrawn upon execution of the agreement, according to the listed terms.
The developer is to submit a general master plan for the property as a large scale, residential or mixed-use development with no more than 1,5000 residential units with 180 days of the annexation, the agreement states. That plan will have to go through the review process and also be approved by the city council.
Find the full agenda and other upcoming meetings at https://savannahagenda.com/category/meeting-agendas/
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Eric:
Here is my assessment of this IGA which the city approved and is now on the county Commission’s agenda today Dec. 6th.
It appears that the IGA specifically sets out terms for cost sharing of road widening, etc., for that portion of LNR from Ogeechee to I95 ONLY. For anything between I 95 and I 16, the IGA says they expect to have the same sort of agreement. HOWEVER THE PETITION ATTACHED TO THIS IGA is for properties on that portion of LNR where there is merely an EXPECTATION OF FUTURE COOPERATION. So the developers want to piggyback their annexation petition onto an IGA which DOES NOT APPLY TO their road footage of LNR.
Chatham County specifically objected to this developer’s petition to annex the borrow pit property and the parcel across the street. If the County approves this IGA it is agreeing to withdraw its opposition to the annexation of these two parcels EVEN THOUGH these two parcels ARE NOT LOCATED on the portion of LNR this IGA specifically addresses.
Additionally, the parcel across the street from the borrow pit is not bounded on any side by the city of Savannah. I believe in order to be eligible for annexation a parcel must be contiguous to city property on at least 2 sides. While the borrow pit parcel is contiguous to City of Savannah on two of its boundaries, THE OTHER PARCEL IS NOT. It is completely surrounded by unincorporated Chatham County.
Lastly, there is a law, regulation, and/or ordinance prohibiting cities creating islands of unincorporated parcels by annexing everything around them. If Savannah is allowed to annex this property then our development (Cypress Creek) becomes an island of unincorporated Chatham county parcels.
Leslie Pickett Sheehan
Thanks Ms. Sheehan. I have been trying to get a response since last week from the county regarding the “Island” that would be created with the annexation. So far I have been unable to get a response.