The final presentation of the AIA national design team from its community process in Savannah, Georgia. The team focused on the Canal District and neighborhoods of West Savannah by working in a community driven process led by the Ivory Bay Development Corporation, neighborhood organizations, and elected leaders.

1. We Speak For We
Design Assistance Team recommendations | Savannah, GA

2. Design Assistance Teams
• 50-year legacy for helping communities reach their collective aspirations.
• Create recommendations for communities, given the priorities we hear from community
members
• Each team is:
• Invited by the community
• Unique to the community needs and is multi-disciplinary
• Committed to serving the community wants and needs

4. Community Leadership

5. Educate and empower the
community
• Develop a Collective Vision
• Exercise Your Collective
Power to make demands
without asking permission.
• Develop CBA’s
• Establish Awareness
Campaigns
• Adopt equitable
engagement practices.

6. Strengthen the Alliance of
Community Organizations &
Stakeholders
• Organize all neighborhoods in District 1 and establish a Community Action Committee
• Establish key Points of Contact for the alliance to ensure:
• Clear lines of communication
• Clear roles and responsibilities
• Expanded capacity to address ongoing issues and developments

7. Create a dashboard
• Create a single and/or multiple public dashboards that display key data points to understand
negative impacts as well as progress.

8. Collaborate with SCAD
• Engage SCAD in conversations about the
role of the institution in equitable
community development

9. Tell your story
• The Great Pushforward
• We Speak for We
• Document your community’s history
through story maps, oral histories,
etc.

10. Policy Recommendations

11. Environmental concerns
• Excessive truck traffic
• High levels of truck noise
• Air pollution related to heavy truck traffic
and local industries
• Localized flooding
• Contaminated ground water
• Elevated levels of disease linked to
environmental conditions
District 1 residents suffer adverse exposure to numerous deleterious environmental impacts,
including but not limited to:

12. Policy recommendations
• Enact Community Benefits Ordinance
• Streamline Enforcement of existing Zoning and Land Use regulations
• Update Residential Building Code to require new houses to be elevated above flood level
• Cap property, school, and other tax assessment increases
• Revise City Zoning Ordinances to protect legacy residents
• Create an Environmental Protection Overlay District
District 1 residents should self-organize and collaborate to best advocate for their interests:

13. Policy recommendations (cont.)
• Enact an Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance
• Enact/Enforce MWBE Participation
• Develop a Truck Route Plan outside of
neighborhoods
• Enact an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) ordinance
• Enact “Rain/ Environmental Impact” Tax on
industrial uses
• Create a City Development Authority

14. Community and Economic
Development

15. Housing
• Create anti-displacement frameworks and
coalitions to ensure residents are not
experiencing forced displacement
• Support healthy home improvements for
existing residents, homes, and properties
• Establish partnership with organizations that
can support homeowners on specific issues

16. Workforce
• Improve retail façades and upgrade existing
properties by supporting business owners
• Develop resources to ensure local vendors
and businesses are connected to job
opportunities and professional development
resources
• Develop strategies for City-led incubator to
ensure the business plan and supports are
tailored to the unique needs of local
entrepreneurs and business investors.

17. Catalytic Projects
• Expand recreation and programming offerings
within the district to serve local residents
• Adjust the Arena and Waterworks designs and
business plans to reflect community priorities and
provide jobs and benefits to the District
• Convene community members to establish the
importance of the Weeping Time site and develop
a vision that can support your goals and honor that
hallowed ground and important history

18. Addressing Environmental Justice

19. Environmental Justice
Environmental Justice is the fair application of all laws, regulations,
rules, policies, funding, and decision making to reduce
disproportionate environmental and quality of life impacts on low-
wealth black, brown and indigenous communities through intentional
consideration and seeks to minimize historical disparities through
meaningful engagement.

20. Community context
• District one sits in a wetland environment, but
lacks essential habitats that buffer communities
from storms and sea level rise
• Adjacent industry creates pollution and hazards
that are dangerous to the residents located near
these noxious land uses
• District One neighborhoods are recognized not
only as Environmental Justice communities but
historically significant communities with profound
impacts for the region.

21. Alternative traffic circulation
• Collect information such as community-based health survey, truck traffic counts, etc
• Identify social determinants of health outcomes, in addition to definition of “quality of life” for
residents.
• The Georgia Port Authority can work with the community and local leaders on an initiative to
phase out fossil burning equipment
• Ensure trucking companies are following local ordinances.
• Explore the use of Transfer of Development Rights as an alternative to encroaching
industrial and port expansion into the community.
Develop alternative traffic circulation patterns that are more protective of residents’ health and
quality of life objectives.

22. Vulnerability Assessment
 Community-basedHealth ImpactAssessment
 CitizenScienceProjects
 Soil Testing
 Requestenvironmentalstudiesforthe areatoincludebutnot
limitedto brownfieldassessments,ToxicReleaseInventory
listings,EnvironmentalImpactStatements,UndergroundStorage
Tanklisting,etc.
The communitycan workwithIvory BayCDC andthenewly formedCommunityAdvisoryCommitteetodesign andimplement a
communitycomprehensiveassessmentof vulnerabilitiesofthearea.

23. Green Infrastructure
• Replicate New Orleans Community
Adaptation Project to assist with
stormwater management efforts on
individual private properties
• Rain Barrows
• Rain Gardens
Green Infrastructure strategies need to be incorporated into all neighborhood development and
improvement projects for this area.

24. Restoring Wetlands
The vulnerability assessment needs to consider frequent flooded areas to be reclaimed by
nature to support increasing green infrastructure strategies. The community should:
 Monitor Water Quality in the area
 Work with the City’s Public Water Department on
stormwater management best practices for their
neighborhood
 Understand the City’s flood mitigation plan to
include pre and post disaster hazard
 Advocate for an outreach effort to educate the
residents about their watershed

25. Improve Viewshed
Improving the viewshed within the community
not only improves the aesthetics of an but the
quality of life, physical and mental health of
residents improves.
 Conduct a visual assessment of their
neighborhood to identify areas for viewshed
improvement particularly for streets that
terminate abruptly
 Develop a viewshed adoption program for
volunteers, civic leaders, residents to work
together to maintain and improve over time.

26. Mobility
Building better mobility through complete streets
strategies ensures seamless continuum of safe,
reliable, and efficient mobility options for an area
that depends on public transit.
• Public transit access must be enhanced in this
area
• Residents need to advocate for different modes
of transportation options to include walking

27. Logic Model
• Develop a community-based logic model to track and evaluate progress and hold partners
accountable for action items
• Ensure that you have:
• A measurable goal
• Resources (or Inputs)
• Activities
• Outputs
• Target Audience
• Outcomes
• Evaluation

28. Questions?

29. Thank you.