First City Progress: 200-acre development on Veteran’s Parkway moves forward after 15-year delay

The revised master plan was unanimously approved at an April 12 meeting of the Planning Commission.

Credit: Calvin Mattheis/News Sentinel

Credit: Calvin Mattheis/News Sentinel

Tribute Companies, a Wilmington, North Carolina-based company, reimagined the development as a mix of single-family homes, townhomes, duplexes and apartments, according to public documents.

"The existing master plan, which was approved in 2007, was a Calvary campus master plan that included a series of uses on the property," said Marcus Lotson, senior planner for the MPC. "It included various types of residential uses, it included Senior Care, memory care, it included a school, church and some commercial uses, as well."

Calvary Day School is a private school that first opened in 1961. It relocated its campus to Waters Avenue instead of the Buckhalter Road property.

Here's what the original plan included, according to the developers lawyer, Josh Yellin:

The new plan will reduce expected traffic by about half, Yellin said, with an estimated 7,250 daily car trips.

"This residential development is better in keeping with the area," Yellin told planning commission members. "We think it is less intrusive. We know that it will have less traffic impacts on the neighborhood and the surrounding areas."

Credit: Tribute Companies

Credit: Tribute Companies

Developers plan to build the complex out in phases, which six "pods" of residential uses slated for each one.

The west parcel will include about 112 acres of multi-family housing, according to plans, and will be anchored by a pond and 8-acre park. The eastern parcel will focus on single-family or townhome construction, and retain the existing pond on the property.

The approval of the amended master plan was contingent on the developer agreeing to a number of conditions made by MPC and city staff. One is a traffic study, since the property sits between Chatham Parkway and Buckhalter Road.

"The issue at hand — and staff's opinion — is whether this area can support the amount of proposed residential development in a way that would be in keeping with the neighborhood at-large and be a benefit to the community," Lotson said. "We believe there's a number of components that have to be addressed before any development takes place on the property."

Credit: Neil Starkey / For the Amarillo Globe-News

Credit: Neil Starkey / For the Amarillo Globe-News

Those conditions include a traffic study, flood study and yield study that would determine the appropriate density for the property. The current plan has a gross density of six units per acre.

Chatham County engineers will review the traffic study to determine where and how many curbs cuts should be made for access into the development, since it's feared that the addition of hundreds of cars onto Buckhalter Road would impact the community.

"Buckhalter Road is essentially a rural, residential road," Lotson explained to the planning commission at their April 12 meeting. "It will require improvement, more than likely, based on the number of units that could be developed within this master planned area."

The approval also hinges on the developer needing final approval on a general development plan, once all the required studies have been completed and evaluated.

Zoe covers growth and how it impacts communities in the Savannah area. Find her at znicholson@gannett.com, @zoenicholson_ on Twitter, and @zoenicholsonreporter on Instagram.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: First City Progress: 200-acre development on Veteran’s Parkway moves forward after 15-year delay