Historic Preservationists Slow War on Blight

An aggressive program to rid the city of rundown properties got cheers from Savannah neighbors after it demolished or fixed up 100 blighted homes and lots in 2007. Now Historic Savannah Foundation is trying to slow that progress in order to preserve almost half the properties on the Worst 100 list identified for 2008.

Neighbors who have been pushing the city to clean up problem properties were initially wary of leader’s claim that staff would remove or restore 100 of the worst blighted houses or lots.
 
However, month after month WSAV showed the bulldozers rolling over vacant, rundown, in some cases falling down, houses that had been sores on otherwise healthy neighborhoods. Month after month more neighbors became convinced that the years of dilapidated properties being allowed to rot were over and that the war on blight was real.
 
Once the city completed their first list of 100 in 2007, they invited neighbors to nominate the next group of doomed domiciles. They had no trouble filling it up and, less than four months into 2008, have managed to get rid of 26 of the 100 nominated houses, 2 have been renovated and 8 are under active renovation according to city spokesman Bret Bell. That progress came to an abrupt halt after the Historic Savannah Foundation identified more than 40 properties on the list that they say contribute in some way to Savannah’s Historic nature.
 
With an initiative called the Mayor's Alliance to Save Historic Houses, City Leaders have agreed to give preservationists more time to fix up some of the worst properties, giving them at least a temporary reprieve from the bulldozer.

WSAV Community Reporter Paul Rea has been covering blight issues for more than 5 years with his Houses from Hell special reports. He's shown how even properties "Saved by Historic Savannah" often remain blighted for years, so he had some tough questions for Foundation President W. John Mitchell.
 
“If they come off the 100 list,” asks Rea, “aren’t we just delaying resolution to the blight problems there?”
 
“I don't agree with that.” Mitchell shakes his head. “We have the situation that we have. These things take time. On the one hand, you can take a bulldozer and doze everything down right now then what do you have you've really lost the fabric of what Savannah is.”
 
Being On Your Side, Rea put the same tough question to Mayor Otis Johnson. “Aren't we, by making this alliance (with Historic Savannah), delaying resolution on these forty houses?”
“We are delaying the demolition of those forty houses.” The Mayor responded with a smile, “This is the goal of this initiative is to save those houses.” He then turned more serious, “If this initiative doesn't work those houses will be demolished because they are blighting the neighborhood and we are determined to remove blight.”
 
WSAV will bring you updates on any progress made on the HSF plan, if there is no progress we will again be asking tough questions to find out why.