Why not consider a Savannah surburb the site of a water/theme park?

[Savboy08]

I'm new to the forum and I have always wondered why no one has ever considered a water/theme(decent size park in one of the Savannah suburbs. I know that we may have competition with Statesboro and Brunswick, but I think it may be more convenient for people, and it may also create new jobs in and around it.

Also, speaking of land development, what are the plans for the old Daimler Chrysler site?

[Lady Celeste]

Also, speaking of land development, what are the plans for the old Daimler Chrysler site?

From what I remember, the state controls the land and still has "big" plans for it. They are shopping the land around to other auto makers as well as Diamler-Chrysler.

[Spartan]

two words: jeckyll island

[Savboy08]

two words: jeckyll island

I know, I already said that, but I think it "may" be beneficial to the Savannah area to have one in the immediate Metropolitan area. Speaking of metro area, I don't see why Savannah's metro doesn't include more of the surrounding counties. I guess it has to do with how much the residents of a certain county rely on us(jobs etc.). However, I think it would be interesting to see those counties in SC incorporated into the metro, but I think it'll never happen b/c that region is very self-reliant now-a-days.

[Spartan]

It has to do with commuting patterns. To be a part of an MSA, a county must have at least 25% of its population commuting to a neighboring county. Savannah might pull in Jasper County, but that would be all. Beaufort is probably on its way to becoming its own metro.

[Savboy08]

It has to do with commuting patterns. To be a part of an MSA, a county must have at least 25% of its population commuting to a neighboring county. Savannah might pull in Jasper County, but that would be all. Beaufort is probably on its way to becoming its own metro.

It'll never happen, but adding Beaufort County would dramatically increase Savannah's MSA population. Funny, I just looked up stats, all Savannah needs is Jasper, Beaufort, and Liberty County to become Georgia's second largest MSA.(wishful thinking, I don't think there's any other way that Savannah MSA can/or ever will rank 2nd)

[where_am_I]

I wondered the same thing about the Savannah area and Jasper County when I was living there. I anticipated at some point that the Savannah metro may combine with the Jasper and possibly Beaufort county areas to create a metropolitian area if, and only if, many rural areas such as Hardeeville begin to develop and become a true suburb of Savannah on the SC state side. I know that there was a lot of growth proposed for the Hardeeville area, including a water park at some point in the past and that a lot of land was annexed into the city limits recently for various types of development, mostly large subdivision communities proposing several 10s of thousands of residents in the next decade or so. There was even a proposal for Hardeeville for a 10,000-13,000 seat arena and a 6,000 baseball stadium along with a Disney travel center and other various attractions to try to put the area on the map.

[monsoon]

It sounds as if you are advocating for great deals of automobile inspired sprawl just to get a bigger MSA. That really isn't something that Savannah should be seeking to accomplish. Instead, it ought to be looking to grow the density and size of its urbanized area.

[Pillsbury]

Savannah could handle a water park. Augusta had a water park for years and it was crowded every weekend (Yes, Augusta had a real water park with real slides and water and everything).

[Savboy08]

It sounds as if you are advocating for great deals of automobile inspired sprawl just to get a bigger MSA. That really isn't something that Savannah should be seeking to accomplish. Instead, it ought to be looking to grow the density and size of its urbanized area.

Savannah City limits seems as if it is already overbuilt. How can we increase the size of the urbanized area without annexing more land. I feel that more of Savannah's southside(particularly SandFly) could become more urbanized, but this is apparently not favored by its residents. If there are any other plans to build something major in that area, I bet the people responsible will have a more difficult time vs. the WalMart/Sams.

Speaking of annexation, does Savannah have any plans of annexing more land? It does need to win back some of the population that migrated to suburbs. I here that a city can lose state funding if it constantly has population losses.

As for urbanized areas, I think some of our suburbs are getting built up, but I thinks it's far from urban, it seems strictlly suburban to me.

[andremurra]

Did Augusta's water park close? Since you said "had" - I visited there once Krystal River Waterpark I think it was called and it was pretty fun. If it did close, I dont know why because it was a pretty decent sized water park.

And Savannah becoming the state's 2nd largest MSA is not quite wishful thinking in the least. Chatham County has the highest population of any county outside of Atlanta metro. Savannah is poised to become a major intersection in the coastal region-state that will eventually develop, consisting of Charleston, Beaufort/HHI, Savannah, Statesboro, Hinesville, Brunswick/GI's, Jacksonville, etc. While, the coastal region-state (as a whole) will most likely become the second largest population area in Georgia and perhaps rival Atlanta's influence on Georgia's economy and politics, it will be comprised of a family of cities similar to the city-clusters in North Carolina and Upstate SC. So due to urban clustering, Savannah's MSA may not become the second largest MSA in Ga, since Beaufort and Statesboro will eventually become MSA's. But it will be a major tenant in a very powerful political and economic urban cluster. Thats what I predict, and I think its going to be big for all of us coastal communities.

[Savboy08]

Did Augusta's water park close? Since you said "had" - I visited there once Krystal River Waterpark I think it was called and it was pretty fun. If it did close, I dont know why because it was a pretty decent sized water park.

And Savannah becoming the state's 2nd largest MSA is not quite wishful thinking in the least. Chatham County has the highest population of any county outside of Atlanta metro. Savannah is poised to become a major intersection in the coastal region-state that will eventually develop, consisting of Charleston, Beaufort/HHI, Savannah, Statesboro, Hinesville, Brunswick/GI's, Jacksonville, etc. While, the coastal region-state (as a whole) will most likely become the second largest population area in Georgia and perhaps rival Atlanta's influence on Georgia's economy and politics, it will be comprised of a family of cities similar to the city-clusters in North Carolina and Upstate SC. So due to urban clustering, Savannah's MSA may not become the second largest MSA in Ga, since Beaufort and Statesboro will eventually become MSA's. But it will be a major tenant in a very powerful political and economic urban cluster. Thats what I predict, and I think its going to be big for all of us coastal communities.

Yeah, I guess it is clever to look at overall "regional" influence instead of the influence of one metro.

The only thing I notice about Chatham County is the fact that it doesn't seem as if it's growing that fast, however it has almost 40,000 more people than Augusta-Richmond County.

Do you consider Chatham County denser than Augusta city-county limits (I've never been there) b/c it doesn't seem as if Chatham County is that dense considering it's high population for a county outside of Atlanta. There is still an "awful" lot of undeveloped(yet usable) land, which definitely means there is room for growth.

[andremurra]

Im pretty certain that Chatham County is smaller in land area than Richmond County. So obviously if Chatham is smaller and has more people than Richmond, then it is much more dense. Augusta's population was 44,639 before it consolidated its government with Richmond County in 1996.

Today Augusta-Richmond, has 199,775 but thats in a 354.1 square mile area. While Savnanah has a lower population of only 131,510, the population is drawn from only 78.11 square miles. So obviously Savannah is much more dense than Augusta.

Savannah = 1683.65 persons to the square mile.

Augusta-Richmond County = 564.18

Augusta before consolidation = 2265.94

It mainly depends on what Augustan's want to claim, be it their current government structure, or their previous structure. Current Structure places Savannah higher in density than Augusta.

[Pillsbury]

Andremurra, yes, sadly, Krystal River had its last little kid slide down the 80 foot drop sonic shute last summer. He was thereafter taken to the Medical College of Georgia with abrasions to his legs. Just kidding, but that kind of stuff happened a lot there and apparently the guy could not afford insurance on the place anymore so he sold it to some developers. I actually know a guy who went over there and "liberated" some slides....

As far as Chatham-Richmond comparisons, I really don't know. Savannah is a dense city. Augusta, however, does have intown neighborhoods which are very dense. Like you said, Augusta had around 44,000 before consolidation spread out over about 19 sqaure miles (which represented a huge drop from our high of around 72,000 people).

A good chunk, maybe as high as 1/3 of Richmond County is taken up by Fort Gordon. That land is for the most part uninhabited. To the southeast of the city is swampland, which, again, no one lives there. Columbia has the same problem with their city with Fort Jackson---it reduces the density of the place on paper, even though it is a very dense place. There are suburbs of Augusta, places like North Augusta, Graniteville and Martinez that are well over 2,000 per sqaure mile (in fact I think Martinez is around 3,700 per square mile). Anyway, sorry to be so longwinded. Hope Savannah get's a water park!!

[Savboy08]

Andremurra, yes, sadly, Krystal River had its last little kid slide down the 80 foot drop sonic shute last summer. He was thereafter taken to the Medical College of Georgia with abrasions to his legs. Just kidding, but that kind of stuff happened a lot there and apparently the guy could not afford insurance on the place anymore so he sold it to some developers. I actually know a guy who went over there and "liberated" some slides....

As far as Chatham-Richmond comparisons, I really don't know. Savannah is a dense city. Augusta, however, does have intown neighborhoods which are very dense. Like you said, Augusta had around 44,000 before consolidation spread out over about 19 sqaure miles (which represented a huge drop from our high of around 72,000 people).

A good chunk, maybe as high as 1/3 of Richmond County is taken up by Fort Gordon. That land is for the most part uninhabited. To the southeast of the city is swampland, which, again, no one lives there. Columbia has the same problem with their city with Fort Jackson---it reduces the density of the place on paper, even though it is a very dense place. There are suburbs of Augusta, places like North Augusta, Graniteville and Martinez that are well over 2,000 per sqaure mile (in fact I think Martinez is around 3,700 per square mile). Anyway, sorry to be so longwinded. Hope Savannah get's a water park!!

It's always good to hope, I'm pretty sure it won't happen. I just made a suggestion. My problem with Savannah(the immediate Savannah MSA) is the fact that there isn't much theme type entertainment for the younger population.(or period)

I know this being a 16 y/o. We have Five Star(which could definitely could be better, especially their arcade) and StarCastle, which is getting expensive.($10.00 to skate in their small sessions, they used to be cheaper, but probably increased rates b/c of the old skating rink shutting down)

Savannah could at least have a few "large" Arcades or fun centers. I'm wondering what hapened to Galaxy Laser tag on Victory Drive. That had to be our largest fun center/arcade ever.

Oh, and I'm not sure, so can a poster from the Savannah area confirm this. Is there some type of place like I described on the islands. I heard some girl(who lives on the islands) mention a space walk or something.

[Pillsbury]

^ Maybe it's because most tourists in Savannah are drawn more to the downtown area. Personally, with Hilton Head close by, I see no reason why Savannah couldn't open a theme park up across the river and pull in tourists from both places.

It mainly depends on what Augustan's want to claim, be it their current government structure, or their previous structure. Current Structure places Savannah higher in density than Augusta.

I don't think Augustans want to claim either government structure to be honest.

[andremurra]

Thats funny, Pillsbury that you say that... but why is that? I was recently doing a comprehensive study about Georgia's tier two and three city population densities, and i thought that Fort Gordon was just a tiny piece on the south west part of the county. Thats what the map looked like, perhaps it was an older map. Basically my study was to find an "average" city area and apply that area to city densities to see what an idea of the urbanized area population was. Statesboro is very dense too, since it is only 12.6 square miles. Its density was nearly 2000 in 2000census, now its nearing 3000, but many people overlook it because its only a 20-30,000 something city. I wonder how many other cities in Georgia are overlooked or exaggerated because of this - such as Valdosta, Rome, LaGrange and Gainesville which all are 30ish square miles.

[Savboy08]

^ Maybe it's because most tourists in Savannah are drawn more to the downtown area. Personally, with Hilton Head close by, I see no reason why Savannah couldn't open a theme park up across the river and pull in tourists from both places.

I don't think Augustans want to claim either government structure to be honest.

I know it is important to concentrate on tourist since it is a main part of Savannah's economy, but it can afford to find better things(other than clubs and bars) to entertain its residents.

[SimCity]

Did Augusta's water park close? Since you said "had" - I visited there once Krystal River Waterpark I think it was called and it was pretty fun. If it did close, I dont know why because it was a pretty decent sized water park.

And Savannah becoming the state's 2nd largest MSA is not quite wishful thinking in the least. Chatham County has the highest population of any county outside of Atlanta metro. Savannah is poised to become a major intersection in the coastal region-state that will eventually develop, consisting of Charleston, Beaufort/HHI, Savannah, Statesboro, Hinesville, Brunswick/GI's, Jacksonville, etc. While, the coastal region-state (as a whole) will most likely become the second largest population area in Georgia and perhaps rival Atlanta's influence on Georgia's economy and politics, it will be comprised of a family of cities similar to the city-clusters in North Carolina and Upstate SC. So due to urban clustering, Savannah's MSA may not become the second largest MSA in Ga, since Beaufort and Statesboro will eventually become MSA's. But it will be a major tenant in a very powerful political and economic urban cluster. Thats what I predict, and I think its going to be big for all of us coastal communities.

Hmmm, a coastal megalopolis capable of rivaling the Big A. Maybe a little farfetch perhaps but definitely an interesting idea even though it would mean many negative effects upon the highly praised southeast coast line. At any rate, with metropolitian Savannah's population and the huge tourism industry, there's no reason why Savannah shouldn't have a waterpark especially when Charleston has three.

[Savboy08]

Hmmm, a coastal megalopolis capable of rivaling the Big A. Maybe a little farfetch perhaps but definitely an interesting idea even though it would mean many negative effects upon the highly praised southeast coast line. At any rate, with metropolitian Savannah's population and the huge tourism industry, there's no reason why Savannah shouldn't have a waterpark especially when Charleston has three.

Savannah residents/officials always tend to use the "this area(or in some case, "tree") is "too historic" to build better things. I don't think city officials will allow a theme park. As for the suburbs, I don't think no one is interested in reserving/ or eyeing a piece of land for an amusement/water park, though I'm sure it'd be welcomed among residents.(In Chatham County at least)

I remember someone considering a site Richmond Hill for a theme park, but people, of course, didn't want to sell their homes. Seeing people like that in this area(though nothing is wrong with their reasoning) probably discourages companies from considering plans like that around here.

There seems as if there are many things holding Savannah back from growing/prospering even further, and making it a more desirable destination to reside in. Most people tell me, that "the Savannah area is a very nice place to visit, but I'd never want to live there". Gee, I wonder why?

[tablrock]

just my 2 cents but i think a water park would be a good idea. the tourists that freguent the historic district have smaller children so that would be an option for them.

[Savboy08]

Hope Savannah get's a water park!!

[Pillsbury]

Thats funny, Pillsbury that you say that... but why is that? I was recently doing a comprehensive study about Georgia's tier two and three city population densities, and i thought that Fort Gordon was just a tiny piece on the south west part of the county. Thats what the map looked like, perhaps it was an older map. Basically my study was to find an "average" city area and apply that area to city densities to see what an idea of the urbanized area population was. Statesboro is very dense too, since it is only 12.6 square miles. Its density was nearly 2000 in 2000census, now its nearing 3000, but many people overlook it because its only a 20-30,000 something city. I wonder how many other cities in Georgia are overlooked or exaggerated because of this - such as Valdosta, Rome, LaGrange and Gainesville which all are 30ish square miles.

That's a good point. Back in the 90s Augusta was on the brink of bankruptcy and so city and county were consolidated. Plus, like you said, everyone assumed Augusta was just a giant golf course because our population had shrunk so much, never mind the fact that we were knocking it out with our rockin' suburbs. To be honest (and I had to search on google for this) Fort Gordon is like 85 square miles, which after that leaves about 260 square miles of land or so and plus there are bunch of swamps and factories to the east and southeast of town. South Richmond is rural in nature and not a lot of people live south of Brown Road. People are crammed together like sardines in West Richmond because it's closer to the Promised Land (Columbia County). And then there are people on the Hill who are also crammed in together (because there is safety in numbers and we're afraid of the people from Harrisburg).

Plus, there is the always looming fact that Augusta's government basically sucks and no one (except for me of course ) really wants to live within the city limits.

[andremurra]

Are those 85 square miles all in Richmond? Bulloch County is similar. It passed the 60,000 mark ain 2004 because of suburban sprawl around Statesboro and Brooklet (which are merging). But Bulloch is also the #1 Row-Crop county in Georgia and one of the top for agriculture acreage with well over 100,000 acres. Statesboro reminds me of Indianapolis because there are fields everywhere and cow and no skyline, but then you blink you eyes and everything is right in front of you and you didnt see it coming. Almost all of Bulloch County is agriculture except around Statesboro and the bedroom communities. So while Statesboro claims the 20-30,000, its more like 65,000.

Why didnt anyone want to stay in the urban core of Augusta? Youd think a city of 70,000 would have a ton of people who loved the urban aspect rather than spill out into the outskirts.

[Pillsbury]

Are those 85 square miles all in Richmond? Bulloch County is similar. It passed the 60,000 mark ain 2004 because of suburban sprawl around Statesboro and Brooklet (which are merging). But Bulloch is also the #1 Row-Crop county in Georgia and one of the top for agriculture acreage with well over 100,000 acres. Statesboro reminds me of Indianapolis because there are fields everywhere and cow and no skyline, but then you blink you eyes and everything is right in front of you and you didnt see it coming. Almost all of Bulloch County is agriculture except around Statesboro and the bedroom communities. So while Statesboro claims the 20-30,000, its more like 65,000.

Why didnt anyone want to stay in the urban core of Augusta? Youd think a city of 70,000 would have a ton of people who loved the urban aspect rather than spill out into the outskirts.

To my knowledge all of the fort is in Richmond. Statesboro reminds me of Athens in many ways with the compact population. Augusta, which is for the most part safe now, was a dangerous place back in the 70s and 80s and I think a lot of people just fled to the suburbs (and of course you had all that white flight going on).