Civic Center public comment period kicks off with stakeholder meetings

The City of Savannah kicked off what it has termed the public input process to determine the future of the Savannah Civic Center Thursday by picking up where it left off two years ago.

The day-long series of meetings involved representatives from "stakeholder" groups and businesses. Each hour-long session kicked off with architect Christian Sottile, who presented a plan that was largely a mirror of one informally endorsed by Savannah City Council in a 2022 workshop. That plan proposes tearing down the Martin Luther King Jr. Arena, restoring the Johnny Mercer Theatre along with six blocks of the city’s original urban design (known as The Oglethorpe Plan), and constructing a city office building on the site’s north end.

The Urban Land Institute (ULI) study of the site, commissioned in 2019 by a previous city council, recommended demolition of the entire complex and was briefly mentioned in the presentation. It was adopted as official policy by a unanimous vote in 2019, but that policy shifted with the 2022 workshop where the Sottile plan was directed for further study by council.

After Sottile concluded his presentation, the floor was opened for comments where the various attendees asked questions and shared opinions. The conversations were moderated by Michael Hightower of Atlanta-based The Collaborative Firm, a community engagement and planning organization that also has a Savannah office.

Much of Thursday's discussions centered on the Mercer Theatre's future and the ultimate use of the land around it.

Many stakeholders, especially those from arts groups such as the Savannah Music Festival, showed support for renovating the Mercer. Other stakeholders, such as members from the Downtown Neighborhood Association, supported razing the entire complex to restore the entirety of the Oglethorpe Plan, a position consistent with the ULI study.

When it came to uses of potential developable land on site, stakeholder feedback featured a few common themes: attainable housing primarily for downtown workers, the need for increased parking in the area, and the need to continue honoring Martin Luther King Jr.’s name if the arena were to be torn down.

City Talk: Conflict over city’s plans, residents’ hopes as Civic Center fate is decided

Who participated in the stakeholder sessions?

The list of stakeholders was vast, and included business leaders from organizations such as the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce and Visit Savannah, neighborhood leaders from downtown and across the westside, and an array of arts groups, including the Savannah Philharmonic. The city’s invite list totaled almost 80 people.

"I really wanted to learn what the plan was as far as creating an inclusive as well as affordable environment for some of these residents to be able to come back to the city," said Deidre Grimm, the executive director of the Forsyth Farmers' Market who also has a doctorate in public policy.

Thursday’s series of meetings are the first of many scheduled by the city to discuss the Civic Center’s future, and feedback from the stakeholders will inform the city’s approach at larger community open houses to come, according to those leading the process.

“What we wanted to do was present information and get preliminary feedback as we prepare for the larger open houses that we have," said Bridget Lidy, Savannah's director of planning and urban design. The city will compile a summary of the feedback and make it available on its webpage devoted to Civic Center site redevelopment.

Thursday’s meetings were invite-only, but upcoming meetings will engage the broader public. The schedule for community-wide meetings are:

• 6 to 8 p.m., May 7, Community-wide Open House, Civic Center Ballroom

• 6 p.m., May 16, Virtual Open House, information on how to participate available May 4

• 6 to 7:30 p.m., May 20, Community-wide Open House #2, Armstrong Center, 13040 Abercorn St.

On the future of the Johnny Mercer Theatre

Stakeholders from the arts community included leaders from Savannah music pillars such as Gene Dobbs Bradford, executive director of the Savannah Music Festival, and Amy Williams of the Savannah Philharmonic. There were nearly 20 in their session alone, and others from the Cultural Affairs Commission came at a later session.

Support for renovating the Johnny Mercer Theatre was bolstered by a report from acoustical design expert Paul Scarborough. The report, which details an in-depth survey of the Johnny Mercer Theatre's acoustics, found that sound deficiencies in the theatre could be significantly improved.

Scarborough was present Thursday to present on the report's findings, which also included two potential, preliminary options for Mercer renovations. One would be a more modest approach of implementing an array of updates to the current space, and the other would effectively redo the entirety of the auditorium within the physical shell of the current Mercer Theatre.

"I want to keep showing up to as many of these as possible and advocating for this," Dobbs Bradford said. "I would think we all do, because it's such an important part of the cultural fabric of Savannah."

One thing not yet disclosed are detailed cost estimates that compare the expense involved with restoring the Johnny Mercer to the cost building a new theater. Sottile said Thursday those costs estimates are in the works and preliminary calculations show a new theatre would likely be more expensive than the needed renovations. Scarborough's presentation affirmed the same.

On the rest of the property

The lack of transparency on costs to-date―the city directed further study of a plan which restored the Mercer Theatre in 2022―was one point of contention for a few members of the Downtown Neighborhood Association. The DNA conducted a survey last year that found two-thirds of its members support tearing down the Mercer Theatre and restoring the entirety of Oglethorpe's Plan, including Elbert Square.

Paul Cobet, the DNA board's vice president, added the land is too valuable to not fully restore and return to private ownership for property tax revenues. Other members such as DNA President David McDonald expressed frustration with the city's approach to public input.

Members of the DNA have largely supported the 2019 ULI report. Several members voiced their concern on Thursday that the city's 2022 action to embrace the Sottile plan was taken without further input from the neighborhood group or public input.

"Now we're here without community, residential input," McDonald said. "And foremost, that's just checking a box, that's all this is."

Evan Lasseter is the city and county government reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at ELasseter@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Future of Savannah Civic Center site considered at stakeholder meetings