Tree Removal For Walmart Development Criticized By Savannah Alderman

Anyone commuting through the southside along Abercorn Street is likely to notice the cleared landscape where homes and trees recently stood at Wilshire Boulevard. The removal this month of 50 trees, including six live oaks, to make way for a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market has drawn the ire of at least one Savannah City Council member and some residents. However, city staffers say the developer’s tree plan was in compliance with the city’s review process and almost five times as many trees will be planted as were cut down. Still, Savannah Alderman Tony Thomas criticized the removal at the end of the council meeting on Thursday and called for a review of the city’s revised tree ordinance, which was approved in April with increased incentives for preservation and penalties for violations. “We just passed an ordinance where we thought none of this could happen, and it did,” Thomas said. The market site consists of nearly seven acres north of Wilshire at Abercorn, one acre of green space south of Wilshire at Abercorn and about 2.4 acres of future development property south of Wilshire next to White Bluff Road.