Written by Evan Lasseter
Savannah Morning News
The text below is copied from SavannahNow.com
The city of Savannah's Tourism Advisory Committee is set vote on a pilot program regulating nighttime hours and locations for walking tours in largely residential areas of the downtown neighborhood.
TAC discussed a potential pilot at its meeting Tuesday morning and is expected to vote in January on particular boundaries limiting where walking tours can go after 10 p.m. The potential limits include no tours south of either Oglethorpe Avenue or Liberty Street, and east of either Lincoln Street or Abercorn Street after 10 p.m.
"Prior to reducing the number of customers in a tour, we would like to see the difference that is identified by reducing the hours of operation and geography of those walking tours," said Susan Broker, the city of Savannah's director for the Office of Special Events, Film and Tourism.
The committee's consideration of the pilot program comes as part of the Downtown Neighborhood Association's broader push to address tourism-related quality-of-life concerns within the neighborhood. Neighbors say walking tours often overcrowd city sidewalks and bring unwanted noise to residential areas during nighttime hours. City staff reported Tuesday that most complaints come after 10 p.m.
The pilot program is intended to test the effectiveness of time and geographic regulations before TAC considers broader ordinance changes to Savannah City Council. Potential ordinance changes could include the requirement of in-ear technology for tours with more than 10 guests and a reduction in allowed guests from its current cap of 30, measures that drew concerns from tour representatives on TAC over customer experience and costs.
"I think this is a really good intermediate step that is going to let us see with the geographic and time restrictions, the impacts that we can have, which I think are going to be substantial," said Charlie Brazil, a TAC tourism representative.
Before the committee votes on the pilot's particulars, it plans to hold at least two public meetings with more walking tour company representatives for discussion on the boundaries.
Susan Broker, the city's director for the Office of Special Events, Film and Tourism, said having those meetings would give greater fairness to the process. TAC has two representatives for walking tour operators, but there are currently 80 registered walking tour companies in the city.
The initial boundary presented by city staff for discussion was ending tours south of Liberty Street and east of Lincoln Street after 10 p.m. Those boundaries would stop late-hours tours in Taylor, Lafayette, and Madison Squares, of which Madison Square is home to popular walking tour stop at the Sorrel-Weed House.
DNA's TAC representative Melinda Allen proposed south of Oglethorpe Avenue and east of Abercorn Street as the boundary, which would prevent stops at Colonial Park Cemetary after 10 p.m. Brazil then proposed a potential carve out for Madison Square, allowing nighttime tours there due to limited residential impacts.