Tom Weight looked wearily at the projection on the wall of a proposed site plan that would be called The District Pooler. The renderings of what the developers want to build are beautiful: a giant pond surrounded by trendy entertainment venues and hotels, apartment buildings, an amphitheater, rooftop bars, restaurants and more.
However, he’s concerned about the many problems the ambitious project poses, as occupied homes will conflict with the 117-acre project planned for the intersection of Pooler Parkway and Pine Barren Road. Mainly one concern for all Phule residents – transportation.
“I feel like it’s going to have an impact on the surrounding community,” said Witt, who moved to Pooler from New York in 2021. “Traffic in Pooler is already a big problem and I think it will get even worse because of this.”
Renderings of the new development in Pooler.
Most Pooler residents who attended a community meeting Monday night raised questions about the entire scope of the project and its impact on traffic, flooding and the environment. But Robert Forrest of Forrest Places LLC said the purpose of the community meeting was primarily to get feedback from residents on their needs at The District Pooler, which they hope will serve as a community gathering space.
“It’s about a sense of community right now, and with the advent of the internet and social media and everything else, everyone is too focused on their phones,” Forrest said. “You’ll see places like the Battery of Atlanta, they’re a lot different in size, but you’ll see they’re vibrant and you’ll encounter a community that you’re a part of.”
The entire development is currently in the JABOT Planned Unit Development (PUD) phase, with plans for approximately 1,060 multifamily units, 440 hotel rooms, 100,000 square feet of grocery store, an amphitheater, 1 or 2 gas stations, restaurant space, office space and 12 to 14 outfields for various uses.
District Pooler, 50 of the 117 acres, is a walkable, mixed-use area that includes entertainment space, various retail and commercial developments, an amphitheater and a hotel.
A traffic engineer tells a group of Pooler residents about new development The District Pooler.
“The community is done”
As soon as Forrest spoke his first words Monday night, Pooler residents were on the defensive. Meetings have been moved from the City Council chambers on the third floor to a smaller community meeting room on the second floor. There was no microphone, no speaker system, and it was difficult to hear the resident yelling. Next are questions about the environment and transportation.
When it comes to any major development project, transportation is a major concern for most Phule residents. Many of them feel like they spend most of their time stuck in traffic, especially along Pooler Avenue, where an average of about 40,000 vehicles pass through the corridor every day.
Pine Barren Road is a narrow, two-lane sidewalk that residents say was not built to carry the capacity it should, especially since that intersection is home to a popular Wawa convenience store and gas station.
“The community is already established. The people who have lived here long-term don’t want any more development,” said Amy Gillam, 30, a Hunter’s Ridge resident. “New people moving here are talking more and more.”
But Forrest said the land where they are proposing the development is the only place in Pooler where it could take place.
“There are very few packages that can do something like this,” Forrest said. “You know, there’s Costco, there’s outlet malls, but it’s not really a sense of place that we’re trying to break into.”
As a Fulton County native, Forrest said he’s used to living in areas with heavy traffic and having to get in his car and wait to go anywhere and do everything. He hopes to provide residents with an area where they can live, work and play. He added that any needed infrastructure or street improvements would be undertaken privately by his development team.
The traffic engineer accompanying him also said the Georgia Department of Engineering and the City of Pooler have several projects planned for I-16, Pooler Parkway and Pine Barren Rd to help with corridor operations. The developer will bear the cost of any mitigation measures, meaning any road improvements to bring traffic volumes back to levels before development began.
Residents also expressed concerns about the environment and flooding. As the city neared completion, many residents wanted to preserve what was left.
“This is unacceptable,” Gillum said. “There’s already flooding around Barrington Estate and this will make the flooding worse. That land needs to be kept separate. It looks nice, it looks good, but it’s cement. That’s it.”
Witt said he felt Puller was teetering on the edge of overdevelopment.
“Some of the stores have been in the works for a year and are still empty,” Witt said. “Apartments are still vacant. For me personally, one of the biggest things is what impact does this have on my property value? I’m retired. I’m on a fixed income. I’m in no rush to move, but if the impact is so great that it makes it uninhabitable, I will move.”
Ernie Mahgi, who has lived in Pooler for three years, said he thinks the project is “absolutely incredible” and something Pooler needs.
“Coming from other parts of the country, every good town has a center like this,” Magee said. “People who have lived here all their lives are only used to what they see here, which are warehouses.”
Robert Forrest, developer of The District Pooler, talks to a group of Pooler residents.
What to do next?
Forrest Places LLC has owned the property for nearly two years, and work on it had been underway for about three or four years before that.
Forrest said that in April 2024, the assembly property in the JABOT PUD was rezoned to C-2 Heavy Commercial, but the agenda for that day did not clearly state what the PUD amendment was, and a recording of the meeting is not available online.
Three residents commented on the project at the time, but meeting minutes also did not include whether they supported or opposed it.
While the group is continuing to gather community feedback on the proposed mixed-use development at the request of the Pooler City Council, technically all but the 50-acre Pooler site is being built under the PUD’s C-2 zoning district, according to its website.
However, for the multipurpose element, Forrest said they would need to remove the part from the PUD to achieve that, which is what they requested. If the request is denied, Forrest said The District Pooler could become a strip mall like the rest of the site.
An amendment to rezone it from the PUD’s C-2 zoning to the City of Pooler’s C-2 zoning appeared on the December agenda but was delayed at the request of the applicant. According to the minutes, the planning and zoning process must be completed again before returning to council.
Forrest hopes to develop the development in phases, aiming to open in 2028 or 2029. Before that happens, though, he said they’ll take all the feedback they got from the meeting, go back to the drawing board, and maybe hold another meeting.
Destini Ambus is a general reporter for the Savannah Morning News, covering cities, communities and cultural projects. You can contact her at DAmbus@gannett.com
This article originally appeared in the Savannah Morning News: The District Pooler: Residents concerned about new development
