Residential communities in District 2 of Effingham County are spreading like wildfire.

Our schools, especially elementary schools cannot support this growth. The number of students per classroom is expanding placing hardships on teachers and placing students at a disadvantage. Effingham county residents that purchased a home in a specific location for its school district are now being redistricted. Belmont Glen for example, a community of 494 homes was recently redistricted from South Effingham to Blandford. 

Our infrastructure is stressed in its current state, not including the hundreds of homes that have already been approved to be built.  Speaking specifically for Hodgeville Road, the four major intersections (Blue Jay, Goshen, Kolic Helmley, and Hwy 30) are severely congested. There is no lighting along Hodgeville Road, and at the intersection of Hodgeville and Blue Jay making it dangerous to travel at night. Traffic studies have been done for roundabouts at several of these intersections but until they are in place, their is no evidence they will solve the current problems. This same scenario occurred in Port Wentworth when the new roundabout was put in place, rather than solve a problem, it simply relocated the traffic congestion. Even with the Effingham Parkway in development, it is unclear what actual improvements it will make and what new problems it will cause. Land on Hodgeville, was recently rezoned for industrial use so there is potential for even more traffic on our roads. The pump stations on Hodgeville are regularly struggling to keep up with the current number of residents as it is. 

The New Haven subdivision, an extension of Belmont Glen, has already been approved for 100 lots on Hodgeville Road and that is only Phase 1 of 2.

Jerome S. Konter as Agent for JGH Commercial, LLC is currently seeking Board of Commissioners approval to rezone 18.67 acres located on Hodgeville Road from PD(commercial) to PD (residential) to allow for 206-unit multi-family residential
development. The current plans for this development call for 375 parking spaces, that is potentially another 350+ cars on Hodgeville Rd. This matter is slated to be reviewed at the April 5th Board of Commissioners meeting.

With the addition of all these new residential communities, where will all the children of these new families attend school? How will we retain teachers when they are forced to teach classrooms of 30+ children? How long will it take residents to travel from point A to point B? How many of our hard earned dollars are actually going back into Effingham county vs going into Pooler to go out for dinner or to go shopping?

At the March 1st Board of Commissioners meeting, the Commissioner for District 2, Mr. Roger Burdette spoke at length about his proposal to grant a 3-year moratorium on high density building in district 2 until some of the current infrastructure projects could be completed. Clearly Mr. Burdette understands our issues. We need to show up to Board of Commissioner meetings to show our support for Mr. Burdette and ensure the eyes of the other Commissioners are opened to our issues and they side with Mr. Burdette!

All of the Board of Commissioners contact information can be found here
Board of Commissioner meeting agendas and minutes here