At this moment, two years ago, 60-foot-tall pines loomed between Interstate 95 and the residents of Rice Hope. There in Port Wentworth they had been growing for at least twenty years, providing wildlife habitat, fresh air, shade and, most importantly for some, a sound barrier and protection from the busy highway.
By mid-June 2022, every tree was cut down, according to Tara Johnson, a five-year resident of Rice Hope, to cram one-story houses into the neighborhood where hundreds of homes already stood. It has transformed the once safe and quiet neighborhood into “living next to a busy highway with a parade of semi-trucks day and night.” Although they knew more houses would be added, no one expected the decimation of the tree line.
Now, 28 homeowners have banded together and hired a law firm, which is preparing to file a lawsuit against the city of Port Wentworth and the developers of Rice Hope. They are looking for help with expenses through a GoFundMe.
Although the lawsuit has not yet been filed, the homeowners claim the city failed to conduct a comprehensive review of the developer’s submitted plans.
Furthermore, residents believe that even the city’s solution, a wooden fence parallel to I-95, lacked a comprehensive overview of GDOT’s necessary and “easily accessible” information on highway noise mitigation before it was implemented.
This has caused a number of problems, Johnson said: full view of I-95 from the second floor of their home, 24-hour highway noise, loss of use of outdoor spaces, depreciation of the home’s value despite the lake view , and general effects on the health and well-being of the neighborhood.
Port Wentworth City Council is discussing the amphitheater and warehouse repurposing
The Garden City panel is pumping the brakes on a project backed by the Federal Highway Administration
Failure to conduct comprehensive assessments
The site plan that initiated the removal of the entire tree line was approved by both the sitting members of the Port Wentworth 2021 Planning Commission and the City Council.
Two of those planning commission members — Rufus Bright and Gabrielle Nelson — are now both current city council members, having been elected to a council that unseated three incumbents in November. that year.
Just months after the site plans were approved, major upheavals changed the composition of Port Wentworth’s city government, starting with the resignation of then-city manager Edwin Booth and mass strikes. The city was also directed to re-implement Comprehensive Plan 2021-41, the document that governs future land use and development within a city, in 2022.
This comprehensive plan was adopted in August before site plans for Rice Hope’s new homes were approved. In the character area description for suburban residential areas, the comprehensive plans indicate that developments require the preservation of trees during the development process and after development. The developer also violated city ordinances by failing to obtain a city permit prior to the land disturbance and by failing to install environmental protection measures before construction.
“So it was basically a group of people not doing their jobs,” Johnson said. “I contacted the city to see what was going on, and they put a work order on the entire site because they were even upset about it. They didn’t realize what was going to happen, they let it happen and in the middle of it they destroyed an entire corner of the neighborhood.”
Johnson, who spearheaded the attack, contacted a number of people after the landscaping was flattened, including the developer, newly hired City Manager Steve Davis and newly elected City Councilman Nelson. Davis placed the stop work order on the site after seeing the location.
Nelson said she did not realize at the time of approval that they would be cutting down the trees and asked for a fine for the developers, which they received, after discovering it had already been done.
“There’s also a difference between someone asking for rezoning and site plan approval,” Nelson said. “If they had checked all their boxes with a site plan, gotten all their permits and everything, it seemed personal to just say, ‘No, I don’t want this,’ and they could file charges.”
In an email to Johnson in July 2022, Davis stated that the city council had met with the developer, asking them to increase the size of the earth berm from 4 feet to 10 feet. In addition, they would have to install a 1.8 meter high wall. privacy fence on top of the berm, and install a mixture of pine and cypress on the highway side of the berm and plans on the homeowners side of the fence.
“The most important thing for this lawsuit was everything the city promised they would try to do to help us, but they didn’t implement most of it,” Johnson said. “Their solution didn’t work, their solution wasn’t even what they promised us – the average height of most of the berm/fence is 12 to 12 feet.”
The Federal Highway Administration has guidelines for controlling highway traffic noise, which state that noise barriers do very little good for homes on a hill overlooking a road that rise above the barrier. To avoid unwanted effects, the general rule is that the barrier should be extended four times. times as far in each direction as the distance from the receiver to the barrier.
Moreover, it states that noise barriers and earthen berms are only beneficial for homes in the ‘shadow zone’, the space right next to the screen. Non-shielded homes receive no protection from the noise barrier, plus a view of the highway. Gaps in the barrier also reduce its effectiveness, which the Rice Hope fence has.
Fears and worries
Melanie Munton, the daughter who just turned 6, and Celina Hall, whose grandchildren visit regularly, said safety is at the top of their list of concerns because of the proximity to the Georgia Welcome Center.
“Within five minutes, someone can get on the highway, get your child back in the car and cross the state line before you even knew they were missing,” Hall said. “We have too much human trafficking and kidnappings across the country.”
Lisa Barrow, who moved to Port Wentworth from Kentucky in 2021, agrees with the sentiment.
“That’s nothing more than a picket fence,” Barrow said. “There’s no protection, if one of those semis loses control they’ll just come through that fence. We used to be heavily wooded and you couldn’t really see our neighborhood from the highway, and now we’re heavily exposed.”
Many residents moved to Rice Hope to the lake properties, paying thousands extra for the peace, quiet and privacy of the area. Barrow said they looked at several properties in the area and absolutely loved the lake and the character of the neighborhood.
“We moved here in the hope that this would become our retirement home,” Barrow said. “We laughed and said: this is it, we’re not moving anymore. Now we are no longer sure.”
One resident moved in with her sister because of highway noise, which Johnson said can reach up to 70 dB after testing with a noise meter. Another resident plans to put her house up for sale this month to get away from the noise. Dan O’Connor and his wife Melissa had their home appraised and were told the value had dropped by $100,000 due to the noise from I-95.
Another major concern is the loss of sleep due to near-constant highway noise, something raised by several residents who have jobs that require them to get up early.
“My husband and son, physically you can tell they’re tired,” Johnson said. “My son’s dark circles are only getting darker. When trucks drive too fast, they use their engines to brake and slow down, and for some reason they do it all in the middle of the night. It only lasts about 10 seconds, but it will wake you up from a dead sleep.”
Johnson stated categorically that the wall has done nothing to stop the noise, but rather penetrates directly into the second floor of their home, and going outside to simply have a conversation, in person or on the phone, is a tall order.
“It used to be beautiful,” Johnson said. “We could sit outside and every now and then a super loud truck would come by, but you never really thought about it because you couldn’t even see them.”
Moving forward
Ultimately, the optimal solution is the same for all homeowners: this time a concrete barrier.
“A true GDOT-approved concrete barrier,” Johnson said. “We need someone, we don’t care who it is, to put up this wall to stop the noise from coming in and to stop the view.”
The GoFundMe goal for the lawsuit is set at $10,000, and so far they’ve raised $850.
Destini Ambus is the general assignment reporter covering Chatham County municipalities for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach her at dambus@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Rice Hope residents to sue Port Wentworth over view and noise pollution
