Savannah's southside is set for a new community center. Residents are split on a location

Years of work to bring a multi-purpose community center to Windsor Forest culminated last December in a total $8.9 million allocated through a combination of general and local option sales tax funds by Savannah City Council.

City leaders ranging from the district's alderman Kurtis Purtee to Mayor Van Johnson have touted the commitment as historic, setting the stage to bring a first-of-its-kind facility to the southside.

But as the project has moved from landmark investment to meaty project planning, a range of discord, widespread opinions and pleas for perspective have converged over a central question: where to put the community center?

"I have seen this thing tear friendships apart, I have seen this thing tear the community apart," Purtee said at a recent town hall. "What we need to do is stick together and find a solution that's going to work for everybody."

Those divisions were present at a recent community town hall on the project, where City Manager Jay Melder laid out three city-owned properties being considered as the center's site: the former Woody's Skate Park, Joseph Tribble Park, and a city-owned lot next to LaVida Golf Club.

Now a secluded, 55-acre outdoor getaway, Tribble Park was a former wastewater treatment site and was renamed for the late Chatham County politician who served as Assistant Secretary of Energy during the Reagan administration when it was reimagined as an open greenspace to enjoy nature and wildlife.

The potential for the future center to be located in the park was the primary point of contention at the town hall at Windsor Forest Golden Age Center. The meeting drew more than 150 people, filling the cafeteria to standing room only while others were forced to file out into hallways.

The opposition to putting the center at Tribble Park centers on the greenspace's original intent and environmental concerns. The potentially imposing indoor facility would severely impact that use, opponents say.

"Residents in Windsor would prefer to see something done with the skate park and LaVida, where there is already concrete and backfill for five swimming pools between the two locations, before you break ground on existing green space," said Thomas Bishop, a lifelong Windsor Forest resident.

Residents coalesce to keep Tribble green, but site is "in the lead"

Before the town hall kicked off with its hours' worth of questions from attendees, Windsor Forest resident Michelle Kilbourne took to the microphone alongside another woman. It was Traci Tribble Spires, one of the late Joseph Tribble's three adult children.

With Tribble Spires standing to her left, Kilbourne read a statement from the family. In the statement the children tout their father's focuses as the assistant secretary: renewable energy and conservation.

"The idea of overbuilding and overcrowding that small area is in direct conflict with its intended purpose," the statement said.

What You Need to Know: Potential sites for future southside community center explained

Of those more than 100 attendees of the town hall, the vast majority raised a hand in opposition to Tribble Park as the site. Two of the residents leading the push, Barbara Pearson and Carol Williamson, went as far to take a survey to gauge which site is most popular.

The results, which featured just over 200 responses, showed 86% of those respondents did not support putting the center at Tribble.

The post has required top city officials such as Melder and Mayor Van Johnson to state the post was made in error.

"I apologize for that occurring," Johnson said at a recent press conference.

City officials emphasized that no site has been selected, and the three city-owned properties are all being considered and evaluated. However, a post on city social media earlier this year that dubbed Tribble the location has drawn criticism from residents such as Williamson and Pearson.

While the sites are still being evaluated, the existing assessments show that Tribble Park currently checks most of the city's boxes. Some of those criteria Tribble fulfills are ample acreage for the layout, existing recreation and existing vegetative buffers.

The only two boxes Tribble does not check off are street accessibility and existing utility tie-ins on-site.

"Tribble Park is in the lead if you're looking at that sheet of paper, but I am telling your right now that no decision has been made," Melder said when responding to a question from a resident at the town hall.

Site Selection Matrix by savannahnow.com on Scribd

Pleas for perspective

When Melder first took the city manager position in 2022, he asked each sitting alderman what their top priority was. For Purtee, the answer was clear: a community center.

The push to make the center a reality dates at least back to December 2021 when city council voted for the first $5 million for the center. Amid the contentiousness in the debate over the site's location are some who hope to see the process get back to basics: the southside needs this facility.

"I don't care where it is, I just don't want to lose the opportunity over the site," said Laurel Allmond, who lives in the Windsor Forest area.

Evan Lasseter is the city and county government reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at ELassetter@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah's southside is set for a new rec center. Conflict rises over where