From the President: I thought I would provide an update on a few items the Board has been working on recently. Specifically, as it relates to quality-of-life issues and the civic center redevelopment. Quality of Life As you may recall, the March membership meeting focused on tourism and quality-of-life issues affecting our daily lives. For those of you who missed this meeting, you can view the excellent presentation from member Nancy Radke and her team here. Since the March meeting, we have had two meetings with the city and one with a member of the tour industry to discuss our concerns. Follow-up meetings are planned, and we will continue to push for changes and reductions in the large number of tours.
While I haven't found the city to be overly interested in helping us resolve these issues, we have had some success. We have encouraged the city to enforce the ordinance concerning early morning tours in Washington Square, and they have been dramatically reduced to the point of only 2-3 a week instead of 5-10 daily. Residents are grateful for this success. Hopefully, we will continue to gather incremental change and improve our quality of life. A second quality-of-life issue that the Board has been monitoring with the city is the continual train horns sounding throughout the day and late into the night and the city's effort to implement a quiet zone throughout the city to eliminate the usage of these horns. You can learn more about this issue from our June 1, 2020 newsletter found here. The project had multiple phases and the last portion had funding contingent on the passage of the Transportation Special Purpose Local Ordinance Tax (TSPLOT) which failed to pass in the November election. You can read more about this portion of the project from our November 14, 2022 newsletter here. Since November, the city has been able to obtain funding and is in the process of completing the quiet zones. (The city received some grant funding from Dulany Industries to assist in this project.) This final piece of this effort will be completed in phases: Phase One should be completed this year and will cover the area from Habersham St east to Presidents St; Phase two will hopefully be in 2024 and cover the area from Habersham West to Victory; and Phase three will go west from Victory and Bull. The area concerning Victory and Bull will be the most difficult as Victory is a state road and has many different intersections and issues related to it. With the funding secured, the city will begin the final preparations and safety measures needed and will hopefully have the full city approved as a quiet zone and eliminate the need of the train horns in the next 18-24 months. The Board will continue to monitor and keep you updated. Civic Center Development I would like to thank those of you who have completed the survey and encourage all others to please do so before the end of this week. I appreciate those of you who have entered comments as part of the survey. The Board will be reading each entry and sharing them with the city. Square Renaming The city will be holding a meeting this Wednesday, June 14 at 6 pm to provide an update, and answer any questions, on the square renaming process. The meeting will be held at the Georgia Coastal Center, 305 Fahm St. You can see the list of proposed names by clicking on this link.
David McDonald President Downtown Neighborhood Association Savannah, GA Inc.