Most buyers look at a master-planned community through the model home. The more useful document is the zoning article the city wrote for it, because that is what actually governs what gets built next to you, who decides, and what happens if the plan stalls. New Hampstead has one of its own: Article L of the City of Savannah zoning ordinance (City of Savannah).
Key Takeaways
– New Hampstead is a Planned Unit Development with its own article of the city’s zoning ordinance.
– At least 20 percent of the site, put at 809 acres, must stay community open space.
– The master developer controls the master plan until control transfers to a property owners association.
– Variances are prohibited unless the approved master plan specifically allows them.
What is a PUD, and why does it matter here?
It is a bespoke zoning district written for one development. The ordinance says the purpose is “to provide a process to evaluate a unique, individually planned unit development, which would otherwise not be allowed,” intended to “promote flexibility in design, allow planned diversification and integration of structures and uses, while at the same time providing the Mayor and Aldermen with the absolute authority to establish such limitations and regulations as it deems necessary.”
The phrase that matters to a buyer is “which would otherwise not be allowed.” Standard zoning did not permit this, so the city wrote a custom rulebook. That rulebook, not the general ordinance, is what you are buying into.
What can be built here?
Eight categories, and the mix is deliberate. The ordinance establishes districts for “R Residential R-1 through R-14,” “C Highway 204 Commercial C-1 through C-2,” “VIL New Hampstead Village VIL-1 through VIL-3,” “MF Multifamily MF-1 through MF-3,” “I Institutional I-1 through I-5,” “SC School,” “P Public Park” and “MS Municipal Service MS-1 through MS-3.”
Read that list as a map of your future neighbors. Fourteen residential tracts, three multifamily tracts, two commercial tracts on the highway frontage, a village core, five institutional tracts, a school site, a public park tract and three municipal-service tracts are all inside the same plan. If you are buying in a residential tract, find out which tract, and what the plan permits on the ones adjoining it. That is a question with a documented answer rather than a sales-office answer.
How much of it stays undeveloped?
At least a fifth, and the ordinance is specific: “The PUD shall not have less than 20 percent (20%) community open space (809 acres, based on gross acreage of the PUD).”
Note what counts toward it. Community open space “includes primary road buffers, perimeter buffers, parks, wetlands and wetland buffers, the utility corridor transecting the PUD, and upland wooded preserves.” Wetlands and buffers are real open space, but they are not parkland you can use. When a plan advertises its open space, ask how much of it is usable and how much is wetland, buffer or utility corridor.
Density is calculated on the same basis: “Density shall be measured in gross acres.”
Who is actually in charge?
The developer, until it hands over. The ordinance provides that “The Master Developer shall remain in control of the Master Plan until such time as control is transferred to a Master Property Owners Association (MPOA). Once transfer has been legally established, the MPOA shall provide to the MPC the necessary documents showing the transfer of control.”
This is the single most useful question to ask before buying in any phase of a master-planned community, and here it has a formal answer. Ask where control currently sits. If the developer still holds it, then decisions about the master plan are not being made by the homeowners yet, and the dues structure and reserves are still being shaped by someone whose interest is finishing the project.
The city also required proof of control at the outset. The master developer had to give the City Attorney “sufficient evidence that it is in complete, unified, and otherwise unencumbered control of the entire area of the proposed PUD,” and “No application shall be considered until compliance with this requirement has been achieved.”
What if the later phases never get built?
The ordinance anticipates exactly that. Each phase “shall be so planned and related to the previous development, surrounding property, and availability of public facilities and services so that a failure to proceed with subsequent phases of the development will have no adverse impact on the completed phase(s) or surrounding properties.”
That is a genuine protection and worth knowing about, because the usual risk in a large phased community is buying into phase one and discovering that the promised amenities lived in phase four. The rule does not guarantee later phases get built. It requires that the earlier ones be able to stand alone if they do not.
Can the rules be changed after you buy?
Not easily, which cuts both ways. The ordinance states that “modifications to the approved general development standards … shall be prohibited unless otherwise specifically provided for in the approved Master Plan,” because “the Master Plan normally takes into account those matters that might otherwise be the subject of variance review by the Zoning Board of Appeals.” The ordinance carves out what it calls non-substantial modifications, which follow a separate path, so ask which category your plans fall into.
For a buyer, that means the standards in the approved plan are more durable than ordinary zoning, which is reassuring about your neighbors. It also means your own future plans get the same treatment: if the master plan does not provide for what you want to do, the normal variance route may not be open to you. Read the standards for your tract before you buy, not before you renovate.
What about schools?
The plan zones a school site, listed as the “SC School” district. What that does not tell you is which school a given address is assigned to today, which is a district question rather than a developer one.
Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools publishes an address lookup on its families hub (SCCPSS), and its registration is “a two-step process, regardless if the student is new to the district or transferring within district” (SCCPSS). Run the lookup on the exact address rather than the community name.
How does it compare nearby?
New Hampstead sits on the west side, in the same growth corridor as the communities we cover separately. Our guide to living in Berwick and the Berwick community page cover the nearest established comparison, and the Pooler community page covers the larger west-side market. For the general trade-offs, see new construction versus resale in coastal Georgia.
Frequently asked questions
What is the New Hampstead PUD?
It is a Planned Unit Development with its own article of the City of Savannah zoning ordinance, Article L. The city wrote a custom rulebook because the development, in the ordinance’s words, “would otherwise not be allowed” under standard zoning. That article sets the districts, the open space minimum and the rules on changing the approved plan.
How much open space does New Hampstead have to keep?
At least 20 percent of its gross acreage, which the ordinance puts at 809 acres. That total counts road and perimeter buffers, parks, wetlands and wetland buffers, the utility corridor crossing the site, and upland wooded preserves, so ask how much of it is usable parkland rather than buffer or wetland.
Who controls the community, the developer or the homeowners?
The ordinance says the master developer keeps control of the master plan until control is transferred to a Master Property Owners Association, at which point the association must file documents showing the transfer. Ask where that stands before you buy, because it determines who is making decisions about the plan and the dues.
Can I get a variance in New Hampstead?
Usually not. The ordinance prohibits modifications to the approved general development standards unless the approved master plan specifically provides for them, on the basis that the master plan already covers matters a zoning board of appeals would normally handle. Read the standards for your tract before you buy.
Before you buy in a phase
Three documents answer most of what matters here: the article of the zoning ordinance, the approved master plan for your tract and the ones beside it, and the association documents showing whether control has transferred. All three exist, and none of them are in the brochure.
To go through those for a specific New Hampstead address and phase, get in touch.