By Eric Curl
Oct. 12, 2022 – The Savannah City Council has a big decision to make. Glad I just have to write about it.
The Savannah Economic Development Authority (SEDA) says it needs to rezone about 513 acres of a 630-acre industrial park to allow more intense manufacturing and attract the type of businesses that will create high-paying jobs and boost the local economy. The request is being made about six years after SEDA purchased the site about 15 miles west of downtown Savannah using $3 million in revenue derived from voter-approved sales-tax funds, along with more than $2 million of SEDA’s own funds. Thing is, many of the surrounding residents are opposed to the rezoning due to concerns about increased truck traffic, environmental impacts, health issues and decreased property values.
On Tuesday, a majority of the Metropolitan Planning Commission sided with the residents by voting 5-4 to deny the rezoning request. The MPC’s recommendation will next be considered by the city council, which has the ultimate say over whether the property will be rezoned.
Meanwhile, the first announced business has submitted a site plan to locate at the park, although the proposed electronic waste recovery complex is not dependent on the requested zoning change, according to SEDA officials.
SEDA’s rezoning petition would rezone about 513 acres from Light Industrial to Heavy Industrial at the site located about 2 miles from Interstate 16 and nine miles west of Interstate 95.
The rezoning would allow for four additional uses, but SEDA is excluding three of those uses, while seeking approval of Intensive Manufacturing.
The development site, known as the Savannah Chatham Manufacturing Center, abuts residential properties to the east and a 100-foot buffer and 8-foot fence is proposed along that portion of the site. The site adjacent to the residential properties is not included in the portion SEDA is seeking to rezone and would remain light industral, if the petion is approved.
No rubber stampers here. The MPC’s vote on Tuesday went against staff’s recommendation to approve of the rezoning.
The rezoning petition comes about a month after Igneo Technologies submitted a site plan for an electronic waste recovery complex on a portion of the site. The recovery complex was originally expected to be built at the SeaPoint Industrial Terminal Complex in Savannah, as announced by Gov. Brian Kemp announced last year. The Sea Point site was no longer available for the project; however, so SEDA and Igneo partnered together to relocate the complex to the manufacturing center, according to SEDA President and CEO Trip Tollison. Igneo’s proposed facility, which is the first announced business coming to the manufacturing center, is not dependent on the zoning change, Tollison said Monday.
Touted by city and Chatham officials as a tool for investment and job creation, funding for the industrial park was approved by voters as part of a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) referendum in 2013. Following SEDA’s purchase of the property in 2016, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held in 2020. The initial phases of the development have been completed, including construction of the primary spine road, Four Lakes Boulevard, stormwater detention and wetland mitigation.
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