July 8, 2024
From the President:
We hope that each of you had a happy July 4th holiday. Just a few updates on items of interest this week:
Tourism
As part of the DNA's efforts to improve residential quality of life and rebalance residents and tour companies’ activities, we believe the total number of tours must be evaluated and altered. As noted earlier we have shown that there are more than 45,000 trolleys and 50,000 other scheduled tours on our streets annually. Out of a 24-hour day, residents have relief from tour activity from midnight to 8 a.m. The other 16 hours a day belong to the tour companies. We believe this needs to change.
As you may remember, in May the City Council passed an ordinance limiting the noise that emanates from trolleys driving through our community. This is the first of several changes we are strongly encouraging the city to implement. There also is a task force, created by the Tourism Advisory Council (TAC), that is looking into the number and size of walking tours. In addition, last month the TAC approved a motion that would prohibit the creation of any new tour companies until the completion of a review on the total number of tours within the historic district. This review of all tours has been assigned to the current task force and is to be completed by the end of this year.
As the review moves forward, we will provide you with updates.
As a reminder, please do not confront any tour guides that you see violating any ordinance or being disruptive. We ask that you only note the date and time of the tour as well as the tour type and file a complaint with the City as well as with the DNA here.
Short Term Rentals
Recently, the Savannah Morning News published an article on the city's deployment of software to better track and manage short term vacation rentals. You can find the article here. This is just the initial deployment as the map and other features will be released at a later date. We have invited the Director of Code Compliance, Ms. Cynthia Knight, to meet with members at our October monthly membership meeting to talk about this software and the number of unlicensed rentals that have been cited and shut down.
The Board hopes that each of you stays safe and avoids the hot temperatures in the coming days.
David McDonald
President
Downtown Neighborhood Association Savannah, GA Inc.