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Tom Weight looked at the projection on the wall of the proposed site plan for what will be known as The District Pooler wearily. The renderings of what the developers wanted to build were beautiful: a massive pond, surrounded by a sleek-looking entertainment venue and hotel, an apartment building, an amphitheater, rooftop bars, dining and more.

However, as someone whose house would butt up against the 117 acre project planned to be at the intersection of Pooler Parkway and Pine Barren Road, he was concerned about a number of things that came with the ambitious project. Primarily was a concern that all Pooler residents share — traffic.

“I feel like it’s going to be an impact to the surrounding communities,” said Weight, who moved to Pooler from New York in 2021. “Traffic is a big deal already in Pooler, and I think it’s going to be even more so because of this.”

Most Pooler residents at the community meeting Monday night had questions about the entire scope of the project and its impact on traffic, flooding and the environment. But Robert Forrest with Forrest Places LLC said the goal of the community meeting was mostly to solicit feedback about what residents wanted in The District Pooler, which they envision to be a community gathering space.

“It’s for a sense of community nowadays, with the internet and social media and everything else, everybody’s looking at their phone too much,” Forrest said. “You see places like The Battery Atlanta, which is on a massively different scale, but you see them come alive and you get to meet the community that you’re a part of.”

The whole development, which is currently in the JABOT planned unit development (PUD) is planned to have an approximately 1,060 multi-family dwelling unit, 440 hotel rooms, 100,000 square foot grocery store, an amphitheater, 1 or 2 gas stations, restaurant space, office spaces and 12 to 14 outparcels for various uses.

The District Pooler would be 50 of the total 117 acres and will just be the walkable, mixed-use element, which will include the entertainment space, various retail and commercial developments, an amphitheater and hotel.

'The community is done'

Nearly as soon as the first word left Forrest’s mouth Monday night, Pooler residents were on the defensive. The meeting had been relocated from the city council chambers on the third floor, to a smaller community room on the second floor. There was no microphone, no speaker system and residents yelled that it was hard to hear him. Then came the heckling about the environment and traffic.

Traffic is at the top of most Pooler residents minds when it comes to any major development. Many of them feel like much of their time is spent waiting in traffic, especially along Pooler Parkway, where on an average day about 40,000 vehicles travel through the corridor.

And Pine Barren Road is a skinny, two-lane stretch of pavement that residents say was not built to carry the capacity it does, especially with the popular Wawa convenience store and gas station located at that intersection.

“The community is done. The people who have lived here for a long time do not want any further development,” said 30-year Hunter’s Ridge resident Amy Gillam. “It is the new people moving here that are saying more, more more.”

But Forrest says the plot of land where they are proposing this development is the only place in Pooler where it can be done.

“It’s almost out of parcels to do anything like this with,” Forrest said. “You know, you’ve got Costco there, an outlet mall here, but not a sense of place which we’re really trying to break into.”

As a Fulton County native, Forrest said he is used to living in an area with a ton of traffic, having to get into a car and wait to go anywhere and do anything. He wants to give residents an area to live, work and play all in one place. He also added that any infrastructure or street improvements that needed to be made would be covered by his development group privately.

The traffic engineer that accompanied him also said that the Georgia Department of Engineering and the City of Pooler already has several projects planned for I-16, Pooler Parkway and Pine Barren Rd to help operations in the corridor. The developers would handle the cost of any mitigation efforts, which means making any road improvements to get traffic back to what it was before they started the development.

Residents also expressed concern about the environment and flooding. With the city nearly built out, many residents want what is left to be conserved.

“This is unacceptable,” Gillam said. “The neighborhood, Barrington Estates, is already flooding, this is going to make them flood worse. That land needs to be left alone. It looks pretty, it looks nice, but it’s cement. That’s what it is.”

Weight said he felt like Pooler was teetering on the brink of overdevelopment.

“There’s already stores that’s been built for a year, still empty,” Weight said. “Apartments, still empty. One of my biggest things personally, is what does this do to my property value? I’m retired. I’m on fixed income. I’m not anxious to move, but if the impact is such that it’s unlivable, I’m going to move.”

Ernie Mahgi, who’s been living in Pooler for three years, said he thought the project was “absolutely incredible” and what Pooler needed.

“Coming from other areas of the U.S., every good town has a center like this,” Mahgi said. “People who have lived here their whole lives are only used to what they see here, which is warehouse.”

What's next?

Forrest Places LLC has owned the property for almost two years now and had been working on the assemblage of it for about three or four years before that.

The assembled property was rezoned in the JABOT PUD in April 2024 to C-2 Heavy Commercial, Forrest said, but the agenda from that day does not explicitly state what the PUD amendment was, and the recording from that meeting is unavailable online.

Three residents commented on the project then, but the meeting minutes also do not include if they were for or against.

Though the group is moving forward gathering community feedback for the proposed multi-use development at the request of Pooler City Council, according to their website, technically everything aside from 50 acres of The District Pooler is build by right under the PUD’s C-2 zoning.

However, for the multi-use element, Forrest said they needed to have that part removed from the PUD for it to happen, which they are requesting. If the request is denied, Forrest said The District Pooler could just be strip malls like the rest of the site.

The amendment to rezone it from the PUD’s C-2 zoning to the City of Pooler’s C-2 zoning appeared in a December agenda but was postponed at the request of the petitioner. It will have to go back through the planning and zoning process before it goes back to council, according to the meeting minutes.

Forrest hopes to have the development built out in phases, with a goal of opening in 2028 or 2029. Before that, though, he said they were going to take all the feedback they'd gotten from the meeting, go back to the drawing board and maybe have another meeting.

Destini Ambus is the general assignment reporter for the Savannah Morning News, covering the municipalities, and community and cultural programs. You can reach her at DAmbus@gannett.com

Plans for the Pooler project include roughly 1,000 apartments, 400 hotel rooms, a grocery store, an amphitheater, gas stations, and additional restaurant and office space.

POOLER, Ga. —

A crowded open house in Pooler about a proposed mega-development grew tense Monday night as some residents criticized the plans.

The meeting focused on “The District,” a proposal from developer Forrest Places for more than 100 acres near Pooler Parkway and Pine Barren Road. Concept plans shown at the event included roughly 1,000 apartments, about 400 hotel rooms, a grocery store, an amphitheater, gas stations, and additional restaurant and office space.

Frustration surfaced quickly, including complaints about logistics at the event.

“You brought no portable PA? Did the city really throw you under the bus?” one attendee shouted.

Some residents said the scale of the project would worsen congestion on roads they believe are already overburdened.

“I don’t believe that there’s enough infrastructure, specifically the roadways, to support the additional cars driven by some 1,600 residents here,” Pooler resident Michael Rogers said.

Rogers said his commute has lengthened in recent years.

“It used to take about 25 minutes, 30 minutes to get home, now that is easily 45 minutes to an hour,” he said.

Developer Rob Forrest said the layout is intended to encourage more walking, less driving. He described the plan as "trying to get people out of the cars" by creating an environment for them to "live, work, play all in one place."

Others questioned how the development could affect stormwater runoff and remaining open land, urging the developer to preserve more green space.

“I’ve lived in here almost 30 years. I care very much about the community. I care very much about the wildlife,” Pooler resident Amy Gilliam said. “We’d like to retain green space this time, and 117 acres would be perfect.”

Gilliam called the proposal unacceptable.

“This is a bad thing,” she said.

Forrest said the plans presented were preliminary and that the open house was intended to gather feedback, describing the project as an effort to create a walkable area with a mix of housing, shopping and entertainment.

“You’ve got a Costco and you got an outlet mall here, but not a sense of place, which is what we’re really trying to bring,” Forrest said.

Forrest said the project remains in a listening phase and that plans could change based on community input.

“Really, what we’re here for is to put the cards out and then hear what everybody has to say," he said.

The developer said if the project moves forward, it would likely open in 2028 or 2029.

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