This fall, Chatham County voters will vote on a new round of the Special Purpose Local Option Sales tax.
One of the biggest ticket items to be funded by the multi-year tax would be Savannah’s long-planned new arena. That project was supposed to have been funded largely via the current SPLOST collection, but the economic downturn decimated expected revenues.
In future columns, I’ll recap some of the compelling arguments for building a new arena at all, despite the $120 million price tag. And I’ll probably have a lot more to say about various possible locations.
But I’ll confess to being puzzled by the degree to which officials have backed away from the previously chosen location off West Gwinnett Street — an easily accessible spot just west of the Historic District.
Recent public comments have noted there were “no promises” that a new arena would be built off West Gwinnett. That might technically be true, but the westside location was the only site voters knew about when they overwhelmingly approved the current SPLOST in a special election in 2006.
The site selection process was not transparent, but there seemed to be broad acceptance and support for the arena location chosen by City Manager Michael Brown’s competent team.
In November 2004, the Savannah Morning News published a lengthy piece detailing the first of the land acquisitions: “City wants $80 million for westside arena.” (http://savannahnow.com/stories/112304/2607033.shtml)
The June 2005 article “City makes first moves to design new arena” (http://savannahnow.com/stories/060105/3071391.shtml) included a detailed map of the proposed site.
In November 2005, another article — “City making progress on arena” (http://savannahnow.com/stories/112505/3450795.shtml) — noted that officials were actively negotiating to acquire dozens of additional acres just west of Chatham Steel.
I haven’t seen the word “promise” in any of those articles, but it’s clear that the machinery of government was fixed on that westside site.
Officials quoted in those pieces obviously understood the importance of having a clear plan in place for voters to consider well in advance of the 2006 vote.
There were some excellent reasons for choosing that westside site. I think it is still by far the best of the locations under consideration, assuming of course that drainage can be handled and that the land can be acquired.
Given all the time and work that went into that location before the 2006 vote, it will surely alienate many voters to tell them now that “no promises” were made. People have memories.
And it’s worth noting the diligence with which city officials tried to make it clear that they had a clear plan before asking voters to get on board. We are likely to vote on the new round of SPLOST this fall with little clue where the arena might be built.
City Talk appears every Sunday and Tuesday. Bill Dawers can be reached via billdawers@comcast.net and http://www.billdawers.com. Send mail to 10 E. 32nd St., Savannah, GA 31401.
