I wanted to share a few take-aways from last night’s public meeting about our potential archaeology ordinance. First, most importantly, if you want to comment on this subject, please take their survey and/or send general comments to planning@savannahga.gov. The survey will close on October 15, so that’s not a lot of time to get feedback. I’d be happy to answer any technical questions, such as what is this Phase 1, 2, 3, thing? Post them to the Facebook page and I’ll answer them so everyone can learn. It is also important to make your support known directly to your alderman and the mayor. Click here for their contact information. Except, use chbell210@aol.com for Carol Bell, because she admitted to us at a neighborhood association meeting that she rarely checks her city email address. Any one in opposition to the ordinance will absolutely be contacting their city officials and likely meeting behind the scenes, rather than attending these public meetings. I suggest anyone that can, do the same.
The meeting had a good turnout, around 55 people. Acting Zoning Administrator Bridget Lidy and Municipal Archives Director Luciana Spracher spent most of the discussing the city’s history with doing archaeology and were very honest about the many missed opportunities. It seemed like most (all?) present were in favor of an archaeology ordinance, and several people spoke out with excellent ideas. For example, someone commented that in St. Augustine, every development project has an associated fee that go towards funding their archaeology program.
The next public meeting will be October 24, 6pm, again at the Coastal Georgia Center. The city staff will report what they have learned from our feedback, but probably not have a draft ordinance yet. Their goal is to have an archaeology ordinance to present to City Council for a vote by January 1, 2020.
Some general observations and strictly my opinion: Any ordinance that does not include a city archaeologist will not be worth much. Any ordinance that only applies to public, but not private, projects will not be worth much. There are serious considerations on how to fund an archaeology program. There are lots of models out there, Alexandria Archaeology being the gold standard. Boston has another great program. Archaeology sites are generally stable until they are disturbed by digging through them. Personally, I believe the person or company who wants to disturb the archaeology site should be the one to pay for the professional excavation.
The devil is in the details. It sounds likely that an archaeology ordinance in some form will be presented to City Council early next year. The question is what form it will take and whether it will be actually effective in preserving the data and history from archaeology sites.
Finally, as a former teacher, I feel the need to remind people about citations. Pro Tip: When you steal internet images for your powerpoints, it’s polite to acknowledge the source. Especially when your audience is full of the people whose images you stole.
Savannah Archaeological Alliance 
“Except, use chbell210@aol.com for Carol Bell, because she admitted to us at a neighborhood association meeting that she rarely checks her city email address.” She doesn’t check her city email but she has an AOL email address. Ironic.
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