The National Park Service recently released an Integrity and Condition Assessment of the Savannah National Historic Landmark District, conducted at the request of Historic Savannah Foundation. The report recommends Savannah’s district be placed on the “Threatened (Priority 1 List),” meaning the city’s National Historic Landmark District has suffered, or is in imminent danger of, a severe loss of integrity. … A district is moved to Priority 1 status before becoming in danger of losing its National Historic Landmark listing.According to Ellen Harris, Director of Urban Planning and Historic Preservation for the Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission,
“The take-away of this assessment is that every decision we make regarding the Savannah National Historic Landmark District — no matter how small — has a cumulative effect. The most important question we, as a community, must now ask ourselves is, what do we do with this information going forward?”[The preceding excerpt and quote from the Savannah Morning News are from the original version of the article. The article was later modified extensively.]
Georgia Public Broadcasting has picked up the story. Their lede is
Savannah could lose its National Historic Landmark District status. That loss could threaten grants, tax incentives and professional help with historic buildings.They also quote Ellen Harris:
Ellen Harris with Savannah’s Metropolitan Planning Commission said it’s important the community stay vigilant about every project or development in the historic district. “Quite often it’s not that one particular project,” Harris said. “It’s the cumulative effect on the district, and we really need to be thinking about it in the long term and not the short-term solutions.”Given the multiple down-zoning density-increasing actions recently taken by the city council, Madison’s Historic District could well be next on the threatened list if our city leadership continues to side with developers at every opportunity, no matter the cost to the district.
