Pick what to watch. The count updates from the real record as you choose.
We check the MPC’s postings once a day and send a single email when there’s something new — everything you’re watching in one message, never one per alert.
For example, the case number from a notice sign, “Abercorn St”, or “demolition”. Case numbers match loosely (25-5674 finds 25-005674-COA), and words also match the board’s motion.
The recommendations shown are the MPC preservation staff's advice, read from each petition's staff report. They are not decisions — the board votes at the hearing, and this year it has gone a different way than staff on some contested petitions. We don’t publish a decision until the minutes are published.
Outcomes and staff recommendations are read from the motion and the staff report in each petition's record. Vote counts reflect the vote on the motion (a denial is often a passed motion to deny), so we show them as the motion result, not raw approvals. Map pins and ward assignments are derived from the SAGIS address database; a few petitions without a single street address are approximate.
An independent viewer for Savannah's Metropolitan Planning Commission (MPC) review boards. It reads the agendas and minutes the MPC publishes and presents the same information a different way — an engaging, analytical view you can search and map — so residents can dig into what's coming up and what each board has decided.
Seven of Chatham County-Savannah's MPC review boards so far — switch between them with the buttons at the top. They cover different areas and types of review (historic preservation, zoning appeals, planning and rezoning), but most run a similar agenda: routine items on a consent block, petitions held over on a continued list, and everything else heard one by one on the regular agenda. More boards are added as they come online.
The Upcoming meeting tab shows what's filed for the next meeting and what the staff is advising, before the board meets. The record shows what the board actually decided at meetings whose minutes have been published.
The petition was held over to a later meeting — often at the petitioner's request, sometimes because the board wants changes or more information. It's not a final decision, so it's counted separately from approvals and denials.
Consent-agenda petitions are routine items approved together as a block, unless a board member pulls one for individual discussion. The regular agenda is where petitions are heard and voted on one by one.
Everything is read automatically from the agendas, minutes and staff reports the MPC publishes on thempc.org. Outcomes come from the motion recorded in the minutes; staff recommendations come from each petition's staff report. We tested our system against more than a thousand values checked by hand from those documents, and when it can't read something with confidence (a vote still marked “Voting,” a motion left blank in the minutes, a scanned page), it leaves the field blank and links you to the source document instead of guessing.
The board has met on them, but the MPC hasn't published the minutes for that meeting yet. We don't publish a decision until the minutes are published — once they are, the outcome appears here.
The minutes for that meeting are published, but we couldn't read the decision from them with confidence — the wording was unusual, or the vote wasn't recorded in the usual way. Rather than guess, we leave the outcome blank and link you to the minutes. We review these by hand and fill them in once confirmed.
They're rulings on appeals. When someone appeals an earlier decision (for example, an HDBR or MPC ruling appealed to the Zoning Board of Appeals), the board either overturns that decision or upholds it. When we compare the board with staff, overturning counts as approving the appeal and upholding counts as denying it. Adding or changing conditions never counts as going against staff.
Map pins and ward assignments are derived from the Savannah Area GIS (SAGIS) address database. A few petitions without a single street address are approximate.
Yes — open the Alerts tab. You can watch a street, a ward, a type of work, or a specific petition, and get a single email when a match lands on a new agenda or is decided in the minutes. We check the MPC's postings about once a day, so alerts arrive within a day — they're not instant. Community access is free: one alert on every board we cover, so you can always watch your own block. Professional access, with up to 25 alerts across all boards for anyone tracking many streets, petitions, or keywords, is coming soon. Alerts are a convenience, not official notice — always confirm anything that matters with the MPC.
No. Before the Board is an independent service of The Ladnar Group. It is not an official record or legal notice, and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the MPC, the City of Savannah, Chatham County, or any government agency.
No. We never contact petitioners and never request payment. The MPC has warned about scam emails asking petitioners to pay for approvals. If you get one, don’t reply or pay — contact the MPC directly at thempc.org.
Please tell us — report a data issue and we'll check it out. We do our best to read and parse the information in the MPC's source documents, but they're dense and errors can slip through. The MPC's documents are the official record; when something matters, confirm it there.