City Talk: Historic Savannah Foundation weighs in on Civic Center's future

This is the City Talk column by Bill Dawers, a longtime contributor to the Savannah Morning News.

As the public input process about the fate of the Savannah Civic Center was winding down, Historic Savannah Foundation released a statement supporting the restoration of the Oglethorpe Plan.

“The Board of Trustees of Historic Savannah Foundation unanimously agrees that the Oglethorpe Plan should be restored,” the nonprofit wrote on Instagram. “We believe the city should remove the Arena at The Civic Center —while finding some way to honor the history of this building. The Johnny Mercer Theatre should remain in place in order to give the community time to thoughtfully assess the future of the Theatre site.”

The statement did not deal with costs or timelines, but HSF said a possible location for a new Mercer-sized theater could be the site of Savannah’s Union Station.

A grand building on West Broad Street (now Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard), Union Station was demolished in 1963 to make room for the terminus of the interstate. That land would be available again if the exit ramp is removed.

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The potential ramp removal got a big boost earlier this year with the award of a key federal grant. Senator Raphael Warnock, who grew up in nearby Kayton Homes, is a strong supporter of the project. As I said in a previous column, a change in administrations could jeopardize the ramp removal project, but the bureaucratic momentum could prove difficult to stop.

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But even if the ramp removal moves ahead, we could be looking at a decade or so before the restoration of the former street network.

The city’s plan that was presented at recent open houses would require massive investment in the Mercer, which would then continue as a venue for many decades, maybe even another century.

The HSF statement suggests a different path. The Mercer could remain pretty much as it is for the foreseeable future. Basic maintenance and minor upgrades would keep it in use, but the theater would not get the expensive, time-consuming makeover envisioned by a consultant.

Major arts organizations would continue to use the Mercer infrequently, if at all, but they seem to be doing just fine as things stand now. The theater would continue to host a variety of events and create job opportunities for local members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and other skilled workers.

Of course, the site of the former Union Station would not be the only option for a new theater, so we would not necessarily have to wait for the ramp removal.

The HSF statement also emphasized that any new construction on the Civic Center site “should be in accordance with the Oglethorpe Plan and the original lot structure.”

The city’s planned office building immediately north of the Mercer would not be incompatible with the Oglethorpe Plan, but the new structure would have to be designed for a somewhat narrow lot without a lane.

The HSF position could also buy some time to gauge how residents feel about the costs and benefits of various policy options. Many people have expressed support for keeping the Mercer, but they have taken that position without a clear sense of the expense, the funding sources or the timeline.

Residents would also benefit from more time to consider the construction of a new theater, including the potential of a public-private partnership. City officials did not detail the possibilities for a new theater in the public input process.

Whatever city officials decide in the coming weeks, they should follow HSF’s lead and make plans for the restoration of the Oglethorpe Plan in the relatively near future rather than many decades from now.

Bill Dawers can be reached via @billdawers on Twitter and CityTalkSavannah@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: City Talk: HSF weighs in on future of the Civic Center