Category Archives: Preservation

Historic preservation is often called the “ultimate recycling”

Green Bridge gets green light

452987795_9a2b7fc719_m2.jpg From Effingham County one morning this week, Michael Maddox wrote in his blog, “After many long months, or more correctly years, I finally have approval from the Effingham County Commission to proceed with my project.”

The project, Green Bridge Farm, is one I have mentioned here before, and it’s been covered in local news.

Initial resistance from the county stemmed from Maddox’s request for a variance to have the community road paved with recycled concrete rather than asphalt. The variance was hard won and took many months to secure as an act of conservation. But it was worth, it, Maddox says: “This will pave the way for the future … for subdivisions [that are environmentally concerned].”

As a resident of a Wilmington Island neighborhood that was, 10 years ago, a big beautiful chunk of woods, I appreciate Maddox’s commitment to respect his property by limiting tree clearance and creating other eco-friendly covenants for home builders. The other new homes are nice, but they are haunted by the trees.

Another highlight of the project is that Maddox’s own organic garden and orchard will anchor the community of nine residential lots. Residents will be encouraged to participate in a community garden maintained by the association, offering a unique opportunity for people to grow their own food.

This is a little green gem worth checking out. Located not far from the rapidly developing areas of Pooler, Bloomingdale and Guyton, it seems a safe haven. Hopefully, it will get noticed and become a good example for communities to come.

Photo courtesy Conlawprof via flickr.com

For what are streets made?

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Two comments in the Savannah Morning News’ Vox Populi section caught my eye this morning. The emphasis in each is mine.

“Close off the streets for the kids to play basketball? My neighborhood looks like a dump after these kids play. Their language from the youngest to the oldest comes from the dump as well. Streets were made for automobiles.”

And…

Streets are for driving not playing basketball. If you want to play ball go to a playground or gym. It would be different if the kids would act like people did a few years ago and move out of the middle of the street, but they don’t, and mama and daddy won’t tell them to.”

Does this mean Gen. James Oglethorpe was thinking about cars when he designed a distinctive pattern of streets for Savannah in 1730? The man was a regular Nostradamus!

Having grown up in a football town, I have very little interest in basketball (Nor foul-mouthed kids, for that matter). However, I spent plenty of time in the street tossing Nerfs and Frisbees, riding bikes, constructing ramps to make said bikes airborne, launching model rockets and staging horrific accidents involving toy Jeeps filled with G.I. Joes. I suspect that plenty of Savannahians of a certain age have fond memories of using their city’s streets to play a unique game that many argue was invented here.

The fact is kids have been playing in the street since long before the first car was invented. As a result, many of Savannah’s streets were not “made for cars,” but for a full range of activities that enriched the community.

There are Savannah streets that have been given over entirely to cars and they have become, in almost every case, places that are embarrassments to the community. For a tour of one, click here.

Photo source: Street Play

Learn neighborhood recycling on Dec. 1

mco.jpgLike the bumper sticker says, “Historic Preservation is the Ultimate Recycling,” or as the National Trust for Historic Preservation puts it, “recycling on a grand scale.” It’s easy to see the green advantages to be derived from rehabilitating a historic structure. To quote the National Trust again, “reusing existing buildings is itself a green building practice. Preservation conserves building materials and embodied energy.”

But even new construction in historic neighborhoods can yield dramatic sustainability benefits. First, existing neighborhoods do not require the deployment of new utilities, streets, parks and other civic amenities. Second, neighborhoods created prior to the WWII often feature the kind of density that provides traction to sustainable transportation solutions like bicycle commuting and transit oriented development. In a very real sense, Infill is the opposite of sprawl. Maybe even antidote to it. The trick, of course, is to make all this happen without gentrifying neighborhoods.

On Dec. 1, from 8:30 a.m. until noon, the Metropolitan Community Organization is sponsoring a seminar on investment opportunities in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard/Montgomery Street corridor, south of Gwinnett Street. Participants are invited to:

“Come and learn from experts how to invest, develop and identify commercial and/or residential properties on this historic corridor. Hear successful developers talk about how they did it! Learn about the three historic neighborhoods in the corridor, the unique characteristics of the neighborhoods and crime prevention strategies.”

Representatives from the Savannah Development and Renewal Authority, Historic Savannah Foundation, Community Housing Association, Small Business Assistance Corporation, the Entrepreneurial Center, realtors and lenders will be on hand. The $25 fee is tax deductible.For more information, call (912) 447-5590. Seating is limited.

Civic by Design: Learning Lessons from Pioneering Planner John Nolen

In his talk, Tom Low, director of Town Planning for nationally recognized urban planners Duany Plater- Zyberk & Company, will suggest principles of human -scale planning and highlight Savannah’s highly successful living example of Nolen’s work, Daffin Park. The event is presented by the Daffin Park Centennial Committee, the Historic Savannah Foundation and Live Oak Public Libraries and will be held at the Bull Street Library, 2002 Bull St. For more information, visit the Historic Savannah Foundation Web site.

Too late for the calendar: Town hall meeting tonight

A meeting at 7 p.m. tonight in the Savannah the Civic Center Ballroom will include discussion of historic preservation. The Historic Savannah Foundation is encouraging its members to “attend and advocate for our historic downtown and the outlying residential historic neighborhoods.”

In particular, the HSF is concerned about:

1. Incompatible large scale development in downtown Savannah
2. Better enforcement of historic board of review decisions
3. Converting East Broad and Price street to two-way streets (this would increase livability along Price and East Broad by slowing traffic and encouraging a more pedestrian friendly environment)

More information on the meeting can be found on the City of Savannah Web site. If you can’t make the meeting, you could try making your views known via the “Talk Back Savannah” feature.