Sandfly resident Norman Luten Jr. moved back to Savannah around 17 years ago, taking up residence on land that’s been in his family for more than a century — some of it now being eyed for commercial development.
Just a few of Luten’s relatives remain in the handful of homes that make up the Luten Hill area of Sandfly, which sits off Skidaway between Montgomery Crossroad and Norwood Avenue. The area is named after Luten’s great-grandfather, Ben Luten, a streetcar conductor during the first half of the 20th century and the son of tenant farmers who worked on antebellum plantations nearby.
As with many older estates, the land has been divided and passed down to different heirs over the generations. Luten Jr.’s cousins sold 2.1 acres of their ancestral homestead, formerly three parcels, to local pharmacist Jason Conley between 2010 and 2013 for roughly $300,000.
On Tuesday, the Metropolitan Planning Commission took two hours to deliberate the proposed rezoning of those 2.1 acres from single-family residential, R1, to residential business conservation, RB-1, where Conley proposes building a second location for his Skidaway Island-based Village Walk Pharmacy and offices.
Attorney Phillip McCorkle, representing Conley, said this area has been eyed for commercial development for years.
“It should not come as a shock that commercial development has been congregating as it has been in these two hubs,” he said in reference to corridors along Ferguson, Skidaway and Norwood Avenue.
He said, beside a handful of homes, the property sits directly across from the Norwood Plaza Shopping Center, home to Bi-Lo, and just down the road from a service station and package store. Although the land is zoned residential, he said, no new homes have been built for decades.
“This is not an economically viable thing to do at this time is build residences on Skidaway Road,” said McCorkle. “There hasn’t been a single-family home built there in 42 years.”
Luten Jr., now acting president of the Sandfly Community Betterment Association, said McCorkle had been cooperative in holding neighborhoood meetings but said the noise, traffic and further commercial encroachment would adversely affect his property. He said the Southeast Chatham County Community Land Use Plan adopted in 2003, referenced several times throughout the meeting, was established to stop just this sort of intrusion.
That 2003 plan actually added a Town Center overlay to the R1 zoning to provide for what it described as “orderly commercial and residential development in centralized hubs” in the southeast part of the county.
“We have been there for years,” Luten said. “Norwood has a little bit of commercial development, Ferguson has a little bit, but we have had to bear the brunt of it.”
Luten also submitted a petition signed by about 60 Sandfly residents opposed to rezoning.
Sabrina Kent, president of the Nottingham Woods Association, was the only other member of the public to speak against the rezoning.
“You have CVS across the street, Wal-Mart around the corner; I don’t think we need another pharmacy on Skidaway,” said Kent.
Commissioner Joseph Welch said he was concerned that saying no to the local pharmacy may just mean residents will have to contend with an even larger one eventually.
“You have a local man here who knows the area really well, not a Walgreens, not a CVS ... be careful what could happen,” said Welch. “Walgreens could come in there and buy everyone out.”
Commissioner Timothy Mackey said the topic has been debated for years and it was time to figure out why the residents of Sandfly had not been able to mitigate some of this commercial encroachment.
“I agree, Sandfly has been intruded upon, but this board is left again with the vexing question of what has residential capabilities and what can be construed for commercial capabiilties,” he said.
After sometimes contentious debate over how to help the remaining residents achieve historic designation status for their neighborhood, the commission voted 4-7 against rezoning despite a recommendation from planning staff for approval.
In a separate 6-5 vote, the commission did approve changing the future land use map, keeping the door open to other commercial development in the future.
The rezoning petition will next go to the Chatham County Commission without a recommendation from the planning commmission.