MegaSite Revisited
By Clara Fishel
July 17, 2008
There’s lots in the paper today (really, I’m not joking -recycling, dead marsh grass on Wilmington, $200 million Effingham industrial site dead . . . and that’s just the front page!). My colleague, Tommy Linstroth, has an editorial that suggests a new vision for the Pooler mega site. The plan for the mega site (1,500 acres) has been to find a silver bullet type of job creating large manufacturer, such as a car company. Well, that hasn’t happened and Linstroth argues that maybe it’s time we rethink the plan and proposes a model “New American City.” Read the article HERE.
Highlights
600 Acres of dedicated green space for parks, bike trails, habitat restoration, etc.
500 Acres for sustainable industries and clean tech manufacturing
7,500 Homes
1.5 million square feet of retail/entertainment
9 million square feet of office space
Sounds great doesn’t it!? Certainly more imaginative than an big, ugly auto manufacturing plant, not to mention a better long term investment in the region.
I know Tommy and would guess that w/in those 7,500 homes would be a variety of types including apartments, condos, townhomes, single family -maybe even co-op housing. I vote for 20% of the total housing should be affordable for very-low, low and median income people and it should be mixed in with/look exactly like the market rate housing. The amount of retail and office space is a bit overwhelming. Maybe more light industrial acreage and of course plenty dedicated for public uses like government bldgs., community centers and gardens, schools, wellness centers, religious institutions, etc.
Definitely worth discussing.
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July 18th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Sounds wonderful! Don’t forget squares and lanes (service alleys for the ugly stuff), buried power lines.
July 18th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
P.S. Preserve Savannah Neighborhoods is a great partner for information. Check it out! http://www.psnsav.org
July 21st, 2008 at 7:53 am
7,500 Homes
1.5 million square feet of retail/entertainment
9 million square feet of office space
Any chance impact fees would be applied? In fact, if we had impact fees in place on new construction, projects like this could be rewarded (incentives) for their design and planning by lower or no impact fees while traditional projects paid the impact fees. Sure would help stimulate better design/best practices.
What do you think? Impact Fees are collected in Bryan, Effingham, Liberty and Jasper counties so it wouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary.
John McMasters
July 22nd, 2008 at 7:59 am
John,
Thanks for your comments.
Why Chatham county doesn’t collect development impact fees is beyond me. Incentivizing sustainable design practices, either through streamlined permitting or reduced/waived impact fees, has been proven to work elsewhere -no reason it wouldn’t work here.
July 22nd, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Clara
I want you to know that I have been doing an unscientific test. I have located multiple blogs that seem dedicated to improving our community from environmental based initiatives be they design or policy ideas (CEF) and I have posted the simple notion of using impact fees as a funding source to offset the shortfall in infrastructure caused by growth. In addition to keeping the tax burden down on those who already live and work in Chatham County, there is obviously an additional benefit and possibility of using those fees in best practice, sustainable design fashion.
You are the first person to even comment. Thank you.
John McMasters