The Chatham County – Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission (MPC) on Tuesday voted to allow rezoning of the property at 2180 E. Victory Drive, permitting the site to be used as a mini-warehouse storage facility. A 1.77 acre parcel on the north side of Victory Drive, the property currently has an uninhabited residential structure on it that was built in 1938. The motion passed by a vote of 6-4.

Owned by Inman Park Properties Inc. President Jeff Notrica, the property is adjacent to the former St. Mary’s Home for Girls, which is now the administrative offices for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah.

A multifamily residential development built in 1970 includes 150 dwelling units on 9.35 acres to the east side of the property. Notrica is a member of the MPC Board as well as the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) Board. He recused himself prior to the board’s discussion on the matter at Tuesday’s meeting.

He said the traffic associated with a proposed apartment complex for the property was the primary catalyst to looking for self storage facility options. He also said the City of Savannah City Council would vote on the matter in August, likely at the first of its two monthly meetings.

“I bought it when it was zoned as multifamily (property) to build 36 additional units on the property,” Notrica told Connect Savannah ahead of the June 11 MPC meeting. “I worked last year through the MPC to rezone it based on a plan to go from 36 units to 79 units. The MPC passed it, but then we had to go and get a signoff from the City of Savannah Parking Department. I engaged a traffic engineer to do a study, but the city parking and traffic (officials) were not comfortable with it, and would not approve it.”

Lynn Adams spoke on behalf of members of the Victory Heights Neighborhood Association (VHNA), saying “we are very against a storage facility going here.” She gave Connect Savannah a broader statement following the June 11 meeting.

“The Victory Heights neighborhood residents would really like to see this property go back to affordable single family homes, or multiple family duplexes like what is on the other side of Ascend Midtown Apartments. It would be nice to include the historical Toomer home that is currently on the lot.”

Notrica said he didn’t set out to bring a storage facility to the Victory Drive property. If traffic was the concern, Notrica says his buyer (Adevco Corporation) and the self storage units have addressed that concern.

“I do not necessarily agree with their decision, but they had some valid issues,” he said of the City’s original denial based on traffic concerns.

“Basically you cannot get another curb cut out, so residents would need to make a U-turn to enter the property. They had some concerns about that and general concerns about the traffic.”

“There’s a lot of things coming on Victory Drive, and so basically we went back to the drawing board to look for something that is much lower impact (for the property). And you can’t find anything that has (a) lower traffic impact than self-storage. A 36 unit apartment building will have about 10 times the traffic count of the self-storage.”

Records show Notrica owns an active LLC called “2180 E. Victory Drive LLC” after he formed the business in December 2019. The LLC’s principal office address is listed as P.O. Box 10027, Savannah, GA, 31412, and the registered agent for the LLC is local attorney Phillip McCorkle. Notrica has opened LLCs in the past with 2180 E. Victory Drive listed as a principal office address.
On Oct. 7, 2022, Notrica registered “Sweet Daddy LLC” with a principal address at 2180 E. Victory Drive. He used the P.O. Box 10027 address as one of his addresses while using 425 E. River St. on another section of the form. The River Street address is the location for River Street Liquor, a Notrica owned property.
Also on Oct. 7, 2022, Notrica registered a different LLC, this one under the name “Sweet Daddy Developers LLC.” He used the 425 River St. address for himself, while using 2180 E. Victory Drive as the principal office address. But on March 29, 2023, the LLC’s information was amended, documents show. The principal office address for Sweet Daddy Developers LLC was changed from 2180 E. Victory Drive to P.O. Box 10027, Savannah, Ga., 31412.

The Savannah City Council meets twice in August – on Aug. 8 and Aug. 22.

This article appears in Connect Savannah I June 2024.