Editor’s Note: The final paragraph is a correction from the original version stating that there was no vote.

The much-publicized mixed-use redevelopment plan for Broughton Street has hit a major snag. The $72 million+ project of Atlanta-based Ben Carter Enterprises exposed an arcane city ordinance that limits the project’s mixed-use capacity.

Mixed-use refers to Carter’s plan to buy up, refurbish and repurpose about 150,000 square feet of retail and restaurant spaces along Broughton Street, between Jefferson and Drayton Streets. The plan calls for renovation of the upper floors of the historic retail sites for about 100 smaller apartments intended to attract students, military personnel and young professionals. The loft apartments are intended to be a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom units. 

Here’s the rub. An arcane city ordinance in Savannah’s downtown historic district restricts the number of units to one for every 600 square feet of lot, that is to say, the building’s overall footprint, according to Hunter Maclean partner Harold B. Yellin, who represents Carter and his developers. What this means is, regardless of how many square feet the building encompasses in total capacity, only one residential unit per every 600 square feet of the building’s lot may be developed. A building with a footprint of 2,400 square feet can only have four residential units. These can be developed on any or all floors above the street-level retail space, but the building can only have four residential units. According to Yellin, there’s nothing in the ordinance that restricts the size of the units, as long as they do not exceed one for every 600 square feet. This totally defeats the plan to build smaller units that are attractive to the younger age and income demographic that would be most interested in, most likely to use alternate transportation and most likely to spend more freely in the downtown retail/restaurant haven.

Yellin, representing Carter Enterprises, petitioned the Chatham County Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission to exempt the project from the unreasonably restrictive statute so that Carter Enterprises and its partners can move forward with what most business experts say will be an enormously beneficial and lucrative upgrade to Savannah’s historic downtown shopping district. Yellin’s first petition was to the MPC planning staff, who agreed and recommended the commission grant the exemption.

But in Tuesday’s meeting of the commissioners of the MPC, Commissioner James Blackburn became particularly vocal in his opposition to Yellin’s request. Blackburn expressed his concern that the MPC staff had not done their jobs properly in not bringing to the commission examples of other spatial restrictions from high-rise apartment complexes from parts of town other than the historic district. Blackburn said he was not comfortable with just waiving the regulations altogether without some other comparison.

After Yellin left the meeting, a vote of the commissioners was taken, according to Gary Plumbly, director of development services at MPC. Yellin’s request, which had the full support of the MPC staff, passed. However, the matter must go before the Savannah City Council before any official zoning or code changes can be made.