Criminal Defense Attorney in Bloomingdale, GA.

BLOOMINGDALE, Ga. (WTOC) - Some residents and drivers in Bloomingdale are concerned about a particular intersection right off of I-16 and say it could become a big safety hazard in a matter of weeks.

They’re concerned about a few things... the main one being a new Quick Trip opening here next month. They’re afraid it’s going to attract more traffic than the area can handle.

They’re asking the state to step in and make some changes.

“We are trying to get ahead of the opening of the Quick Trip,” said Amanda Wilson.

Amanda Wilson is the co-founder of the greater Bloomingdale neighborhood alliance and had led this army of red in charge to get some type of traffic relief.

“We are asking you to please fix the infrastructure before the QT opens and before new developments are approved.”

Bloomingdale is a small town that will soon reap the benefits of the growth felt by many of the surrounding counties in the upcoming years.

They fear the infrastructure in place right now can’t handle this new wave of traffic.

“We have a lot of new business coming in there and we are very excited about that we are very excited, we might be getting a new grocery store and all kinds of new things but we are concerned that the infrastructure is not in place.”

However, Chatham County Commission Chairman Chester Ellis entered the meeting is news the alliance was hoping for.

“Help is coming,” said Chairman Ellis.

But word on what help is, isn’t quite out yet.

The Georgia Department of Transportation has recently finished up a survey in the Coastal Empire to find places that could be affected by this upcoming growth and this road has come up.

“I can tell you that this road, that you are talking about has come to GDOTs attention,” said Chairman Ellis.

GDOT officials will be coming to Chatham County on September 6th to talk about some of these concerns.

And just like that, it feels like sunshine through the sunroof…

“I feel like we are finally being heard,” said Wilson.

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BLOOMINGDALE, Ga. —

It’s time once again for one of the favorite events for the town of Bloomingdale.

The Ottawa Farms Rodeo will bring its family entertainment to town this weekend, and there’s more to the event than just competition.

“Where else in America can you take your grandparents and your kids and everybody enjoy the show," Justin Thigpen, organizer of Ottawa Farms Rodeo, said. "They don’t like the same movie and same concert, but you can get them all under one stop at the rodeo.”

And perhaps that is why the Ottawa Farms Rodeo resonates so well with the folks in Bloomingdale. The event returning Friday and Saturday night with plenty of family activities.

“There’s going to be a mechanical bull," Thigpen said. "Everybody wants to be a bull rider, so they can try their luck. There’s going to be rodeo novelties, belts, boots, hats, bouncy houses for the kids, and a chance to meet and greet and rub elbows with the cowboys and cowgirls before it ever starts.”

And once the action does start, it will be the usual rodeo elements, all while competing for a championship.

“This is the Southeastern Regionals Tour finale, so you’re looking at the best of the best," Thigpen said. "They’re competing for championships as well as prize money and dollars to earn themselves a spot to the international professional rodeo association.”

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Not only will the Ottawa Farms Rodeo be providing plenty of fun and excitement for the entire family it will also be helping a charity as a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Pegasus Riding Academy, which provides therapeutic horseback riding for those with physical, emotional and developmental challenges.

“It’s for a great cause," Thigpen said. "They need the support to get to travel to their different events that they go to, and we’re just glad to be in partnership with them.”

The Ottawa Farms Rodeo will take place Friday night, Sept. 29, and Saturday night, Sept. 30, at Ottawa Farms in Bloomingdale.

Gates open at 5:30 p.m., with events starting at 7:30 p.m.

You can purchase tickets here.

At the end of the current school year, the Bloomingdale Elementary School building will be demolished to make way for a completely new school facility, according to the Savannah Chatham County Public School System (SCCPSS).

Students and staff will relocate to a “swing site” during demolition and construction, which is slated to begin in September 2023 and finish July 2025. An exact location for the swing site has yet to be determined, according to district officials, but students will remain together and not be split up into different schools.

The school district will host a District 7 Town Hall meeting Nov. 17 at the Bloomingdale Elementary School at 6:30 p.m., where officials will provide additional information.

More:Bloomingdale has a new growth plan. What does this mean for future development in the city?

Bloomingdale Elementary, which serves about 380 pre-k through fifth grade students, is located at 101 East Main Street, just south of U.S. 80. The new school facility will be built on the same site.

The current elementary school building is about 60 years old and is in need of upgrades, according to the district’s project executive, Slade Helmly.

Critical systems have exceeded their useful system life, said Helmly. That includes the HVAC, electrical, fire protection, plumbing, architecture and technological infrastructure.

“You can imagine a school from 60 years ago needs big upgrades,” said Helmly, “It makes more sense to build new than renovate existing.”

Bloomingdale Elementary school was originally slated for renovations as part of ESPLOST IV plans. ESPLOST is a penny sales tax on goods and services purchased within the county that is used to fund capital improvement projects for the county school district. Extended through a voter referendum every five years, ESPLOST has generated more than $1 billion for public schools since its inception in 2006.

Original plans to repair Bloomingdale Elementary shifted when total costs for renovations exceeded 50% of costs to build a replacement facility, said SCCPSS spokesperson Sheila Blanco. At that rate, it would be more cost-effective to build an entirely new facility, said Blanco.

The exact cost for the new school building isn’t finalized, but Helmly puts construction for new facilities generally around $25 to $30 million. White Bluff Elementary, which was completed July of 2020 and serves about 650 students, cost $22.6 million to construct.

At the Oct. 5 school board meeting, district officials approved transferring $28,705,000 from various ESPLOST IV accounts – specifically Pooler Elementary School and Bloomingdale Elementary School renovation accounts – to a new school replacement account. Construction for the replacement school will come entirely from ESPLOST funds.

As the project is still in its early stages, specific design plans have not been drawn up yet. According to the program schedule, the project is still in its programming phase, which will be followed by schematic development and design development in February 2023.

Once the baseline spaces have been established according to Georgia Department of Education standards, community meetings to solicit input from staff and community members and stakeholders will begin, said Helmly.

Nancy Guan is the general assignment reporter covering Chatham County municipalities. Reach her at nguan@gannett.com or on Twitter @nancyguann.

Bloomingdale City Council approved the first phase of a 4.5 million square foot warehouse project known as the Ottawa Farms Tracts during last Thursday’s council meeting. The large-scale, long-term project anticipates the building of nine warehouses on more than 400 acres of land over the course of the next decade.

McCraney Property Company, a Florida-based company that develops and manages commercial/industrial, office/flex, office and warehouse distribution properties, is the developer for the project. McCraney received approval for tract A, the first warehouse building comprising about 33 acres, located off of Bloomingdale Road and adjacent to the city’s main visitor attraction, the Ottawa Farms.

Story continues below.

The warehouse project stirred controversy in the small and quiet residential town when Ottawa Farms' owner, Pete Waller, requested that a significant portion of his agricultural land be rezoned to light industrial in 2019.

Previously:Industrial development proposed for Ottawa Farms site

The six-person council was evenly split on the rezoning decision, with then-mayor Ben Rozier breaking the tie with a yes vote. In a previous interview, Rozier told the Savannah Morning News that Waller had talked about possibly deannexing and incorporating his land into the neighboring city of Pooler if Bloomingdale did not approve the rezoning,

'It's in your blood': Ottawa Farms' Pete Waller reminisces on decades of farming in Chatham

Ottawa Farms encompasses nearly 800 acres of land south of residential neighborhoods near U.S. 80. About 150 acres will remain agricultural, according to previous interviews with Waller. The third-generation farmer recognizes residents’ desire to preserve the last-remaining farm in Chatham County, but he said the math is no longer there to maintain farmland in this region.

Skyrocketing property taxes have rendered the agricultural business unfeasible. To keep the land in his name, Waller is renting, not selling, the parcels to the warehouse business.

Before:Bloomingdale council: City 'not open for business' for warehouse, apartment development

Residents and city officials across western Chatham County are resisting the pressures of industrialization as the rapid growth of the Port of Savannah continues to bolster the logistics and manufacturing industries.

In January, Bloomingdale's council unanimously approved an eight-month moratorium on applications for industrial and multi-family developments while the city assesses its infrastructure capacity and ensures current land use falls in line with the city’s comprehensive plan.

Also:A second West Chatham city freezes industrial development. Why growth trends are troubling

More recently, Garden City followed suit by imposing its own moratorium on industrial rezoning applications, citing a need to increase residential builds in the industrial and commercial-heavy municipality.

Goals outlined in Bloomingdale’s 2021 comprehensive plan include preserving the small city charm by discouraging heavy industry and large, multifamily, high-density developments such as apartments, which would strain the city’s limited infrastructure capacity.

However, with the warehouse park in tow, city officials hope the project can be a financial windfall to the city of 2,800. Attracting light industrial and the jobs that come with it is also part of Bloomingdale’s long-term goals to sustaining the municipality's economy.

According to previous reporting from the Savannah Morning News, the $300 million investment would create upwards of 1,000 new jobs in a city with 300 to 500 jobs.

Nancy Guan is the general assignment reporter covering Chatham County municipalities. Reach her at nguan@gannett.com or on Twitter @nancyguann.

Two Savannah elected officials join in the fight, speaking out against the change.

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BLOOMINGDALE, Ga. —

Neighbors in Bloomingdale, and two elected officials from Savannah, are furious over possible rezoning and a lack of communication.

“The way that this has been handled, it is unacceptable. It's unacceptable,” said neighbor Garnasia Bogus.

The area ... between John Carter Road, Old River Road, Little Neck Road and I-16 is currently zoned for industrial-light use, which means it's built for warehouses.

Next week, Savannah's Economic Development Authority will request the land be rezoned to industrial-heavy use. That means almost anything could go there.

“We have stood up time and again about rezoning issues, poor public notification. You see this sign in the woods, that's one example,” said resident Carrie Bieber.

That legally-required public notice sign sits far away from the access road, barely in view. Its placement even has Chatham County Commissioner Aaron Whitely baffled.

“I was tremendously appalled to come and see where the sign placement for the public meeting for this development, that is behind us, where it was,” Whitely said.

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Neighbors are concerned, too, about the impacts this rezoning could bring. Noise, heavy traffic and bright lights at night, just to name a few.

“Our community has been under constant threat and this is our way of dealing with it,” neighbor Cheryl Sanderlin said.

The residents tell me they'll be out in full force at the May 24 meeting of the planning commission.

“We'll fight,” said Anne Horn. “We the people of this area will fight. We'll show up and show out.”

The area facing rezoning is currently neighbored by two other pieces of land zoned for industrial-heavy use.

WJCL reached out to the Metro Planning Commission to ask why the sign was placed where it was and the ultimate plan for the land. So far, we haven’t received a response.