Area residents and business owners will have to live with the three-story multi-family apartment complex being built on 61st and Abercorn streets.
The apartments, which are drawing scrutiny for their height and potential impact on parking availability, are permitted within the existing zoning laws, according to city officials.
That was the message given during a Lee-Olin Heights Neighborhood Association meeting Wednesday evening at the Whitefield United Methodist Church.
Still, the city will be monitoring the 32-unit development to make sure that noise and parking does not become a problem once the tenants move in, City Manager Stephanie Cutter said. In addition, zoning ordinances will be reviewed to prevent similar problems from occurring in the future, Cutter said.
Staff contends the structure is still within the 40-foot height limit, even after the stormwater department required the ground be built up five feet to mitigate drainage issues in the area.
Judd Bobilin, president of Chance Partners, told the 40 or so residents in attendance that he would work with the city to mitigate the impact of the development. Bobilin said that a vegetative buffer and fence will be installed along the northern edge of the property to address privacy concerns of residents living on 60th Street. In addition, two off-street parking spaces would be provided for each unit, which can accommodate up to six tenants.
Those accommodations did not satisfy the residents who were concerned with apartment tenants being able to peer into their homes from their third-floor balconies or those of business owners worried about parking being taken from their customers at Habersham Village.
Savannah Alderwoman Mary Ellen Sprague said the units should be limited to two vehicles.
“Come up with a better parking plan,” Sprague said.
Attorney Phillip McCorkle, representing the developer, disputed the concern, however, by passing around a study he said showed the development would provide more parking than three other apartment developments, including the nearby Abercorn Terrace apartments on 63rd Street.
The meeting came after Chance agreed to rescind room leases following the discovery that the units were being marketed more like a rooming house rather than family apartments by leasing each bedroom individually, which was not what the Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission had approved.
Despite Bobilin’s contention the leases were a result of an overzealous leasing company and the pledge to honor the original terms approved, some of those in the audience remained unconvinced. Mark Lebos said that the developer had always intended to rent out to students and it would end up being a “32-unit fraternity house.”
Susan Broker, director of Savannah’s Citizen Office, said that there will be some “unknowns” until the project is actually built and the tenants move in, but that the city intends to make sure Bobilin follows through with his commitment to work with the community.
“When this happens, we will monitor that day and night,” she said.