A new law school’s parking lot may encroach on the historic Candler Oak, a tree so old it was likely here when Gen. James Oglethorpe founded the city.
Plans drawn up for the Savannah Law School, an arm of Atlanta’s John Marshall School of Law to be housed in the old Candler Hospital across from Forsyth Park, show 14 parking spaces around the 300-year-old live oak. The rendering has the Savannah Tree Foundation nervous.
The oak’s branches extend beyond the dimensions of its easement drawn up in 1985 to protect the tree, said the foundation’s executive director Karen Jenkins. And they hang low.
“You physically cannot park in some of those spaces,” Jenkins said. “The minute an SUV with a roof rack and a surf board on top comes in it’s crunch.”
The school expects to open for its first 60 day and 35 evening students in August, with plans to increase enrollment to 400 to 450 in following years. Renovation at the site began last month and the tree is fenced off with chain link. Plans drawn by Lynch Associates Architects of Savannah show 10 parking spaces east of the trunk and four to the south. A note on the drawing
indicates “No work is to be done within the 100’ x 65’ Candler Oak easement.”
The Savannah Tree Foundation is looking into the legal question of whether the easement covers the entire tree or only the portion within the defined dimensions, Jenkins said.
Architect Andy Lynch said he and school officials are concerned about the tree but must also comply with city zoning requirements that dictate the number of off-street spaces the school must provide for students and faculty — 70 for this phase. Lynch initiated discussions with the Savannah Tree Foundation about the tree, he said.
Richard Lynn, dean of the Savannah Law School, noted the Candler Oak is already part of the school’s identity.
“We’re concerned about the health of the tree, too,” he said. “The tree is our logo. We want the tree to be happy and thrive.”
The proposed parking spots have been there a long time, he noted, and were used by previous tenants, the last of which left the Drayton Street side of the complex in 2000. Still he vowed not to use spaces that prove problematic.
“If tree branches are hanging down, then where there are branches we will not park there,” Lynn said.
“From our standpoint it’s not an issue. We’re not going to do anything inconsistent with the health of the tree.”
Jenkins estimates that where the plans call for 14 spaces around the oak, only five spaces would fit without disturbing the tree. A solution may arrive next week in the form of noted University of Georgia arborist Kim Coder, who was already scheduled to speak at a foundation event. He’s agreed to give his expert opinion about which, if any, branches can safely be pruned.
“We’re holding out for a professional arborist to make some kind of a judgement,” Jenkins said.
In the meantime, the foundation is looking at ways to reconfigure the parking lot to squeeze more spots out of the rest of the property and keep vehicles away from the oak, Jenkins said.
That's all we need to say: Protect that tree!
Savannah has a unique heritage in its trees, the people and the city care for and maintain them. This is not the case in the rest of Georgia and in particular in metro Atlanta. Where trees are seen as an obstacle, something to be removed for development. Savannah's streets are lined with them and they are not seen in a like fashion anywhere else either in this state. In fact the DOT forcibly removes them from roads elsewhere to keep a drunk recovery zone. Removing trees from at least 15 feet from a paved surface. So when the drunk passes out and goes off the road there is a chance he or she will wake up and recover. Savannah is a living picture for what it should be like. The rest of Georgia a poster child for what it should not be like.