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Council denies rezoning request for 115 Park Avenue after neighborhood opposition
Summary
Statesboro City Council voted to deny a request to rezone 115 Park Avenue from R-15 to R-3 after residents raised historic-district and quality-of-life concerns; the applicant argued the area already contains multifamily uses and cited housing goals in the city plan.
Statesboro City Council on an April 2026 evening denied a request to rezone 115 Park Avenue from single-family R-15 to multifamily R-3, after an extended public hearing in which neighbors urged the council to preserve the character of the Savannah Avenue historic district.
Homeowner Missy Bennett told the council she and more than 100 neighbors signed a petition opposing the rezoning and described the house’s history: “For 102 years, this was a single family home,” she said, adding that the property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Bennett said the current owner, identified in the record as Philip B. Carr doing business as PMM Properties LLC, has rented rooms and begun interior conversions without permits and that the neighborhood should not be subject to “absentee landlords with at best questionable practices.”
Attorney Chris Gohagen, representing PMM Properties, said the developer would follow multifamily standards if council approved the rezone and argued the neighborhood already contains numerous multifamily or nonconforming multifamily buildings. “The fact of the matter is the zoning in this area doesn't reflect the actual use of many of the properties in the area,” Gohagen said, and cited language from the city's recently adopted comprehensive plan calling for a diversity of housing types.
Neighbors described specific quality-of-life concerns. Lee Ames said tenants have created noise and trash problems and recounted a recent police standoff involving the property; Steve Brownlee argued the rezoning would amount to spot zoning that benefits a single owner to the detriment of neighbors. Planning staff had recommended denial and listed conditions that would attach if council nonetheless approved the rezoning, including a required parking plan and an accessory-dwelling-unit cap tied to a code provision limiting ADUs to 749 square feet.
After discussion, council voted to deny the rezoning request. The motion and final roll-call counts were not read into the record in full during the transcript; staff recorded the outcome as denied. Council members who spoke said they were sympathetic to neighbors’ concerns and noted that many multifamily uses in the area are nonconforming and predate current zoning rather than the result of new rezonings.
What’s next: The denial leaves the property zoned R-15. The applicant and neighbors may pursue administrative or private options available under city code; no further action or appeal was recorded during the meeting.
