Today we’d like to introduce you to Briana Paxton
Hi Briana, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I moved to Savannah in 2018, following my then-husband’s job that brought us down here. As a historic preservationist, I was thrilled to call Savannah home. I was immediately sucked into the historic preservation and ultimate frisbee communities and welcomed by my neighbors in Baldwin Park. Savannah is get in where you fit in type community. Since 2018, I have worked to revitalize Savannah’s neighborhoods and am continually inspired by the people, businesses, and built environment in our area. My work (both paid and volunteer) as a historic preservationist, grassroots advocate, and small-scale developer, has shown me that personal actions and collaborative community reform that can break the lingering effects of historically exclusionary policies in our built landscape. Savannah was an intentionally designed city, with our famous Oglethorpe grid, and along the way we let early 20th-century racist land use policies that prioritized upper-class white residents and single-family zoning change the way we built. We should no longer accept the notion that mixed-use, mixed-race, and mixed-income neighborhoods are to be avoided. This starts with naming the past injustices, discussing barriers to progress, and hosting community conversations that inform actions moving forward. Since becoming a mother in 2019, I’ve learned that people (and especially children) learn best by modeling, and I really took that to heart. In 2022, I partnered with a friend a bought a vacant building a few blocks away on Waters Avenue and Maupas Avenue. After a 2 year extensive renovation, we finally leased the space to 3 small women-owned business tenants. The project relied on 5 different local, state, and federal economic development incentives to pull off and won a Historic Savannah Foundation renovation award in 2024. During the renovation when we would check on the progress daily, my daughter used to say “Mommy your building is broken,” and I would state, “Yes, but we are fixing it” Now, she and I can walk down to grab a bagel and groceries from Good Fortune Market, buy a plant from Cast & Grey, and select a new book from The Stacks Bookstore. The community response has been tremendous, and all three of our tenants are incredibly inspiring female entrepreneurs. I’m proud to play a supporting role as the landlord. The experience taught me – if you don’t bring the amenities to your neighborhood that you want to see – then who will?
The motivation to continue revitalization and improving my neighborhood led me to do a TedX talk in early 2024. I spoke about the history of discrimination in property ownership and the link to city zoning policies. My talk, entitled “Converging Lines: Redlining and Zoning in Savannah, GA” took aim at educating others about these lingering systemic inequities, how Savannah’s story is both unique and similar to other cities, and ways we can take action to correct this. Here is the link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03owISjIP1Y. I didn’t realize at the time that doing all the research and going through the process of Tedx would lead me to personally author a zoning text amendment. After getting divorced in 2022, I moved into a one bedroom apartment with my toddler to settle while I found my next homeownership opportunity. And like so many other Savannahians, the options for affording housing and homeownership on a single income are slim. Because of my preservation and real estate background, I knew the zoning code was part of the problem. I made a pitch to the Land Bank to purchase a property from them to build a duplex, to live in one unit and rent out the other as affordable housing. The only problem – this was illegal per our current zoning code – despite the fact that there are 7 existing duplexes on that block. So I went about writing a zoning text amendment to fix this, that enables a density bonus (allow more units on a property) when affordable housing is involved. The City Planning Department endorsed this, and we partnered on the final proposal. A growing grassroots coalition, along with numerous neighborhoods and nonprofits have contributed and supported this along the way. The proposal is awaiting final approval by the Savannah City Council on March 27, 2025. This zoning amendment experience is another example of – if you don’t do it, then who will?
The final experience I’ll share is back to my neighborhood of Baldwin Park and our nearby commercial corridor Waters Avenue. In addition to the businesses in my building, a number of locals have made investments and opened new establishments along Waters Avenue in the last few years. One day, Clinton Edminster (who owns Waters Cafe) and I were discussing how the defunct Waters Avenue Business Association needed to be revived. He said, “Pick a date, Jan 25th, lets do it, I’ll host.” So we did. We invited everyone we knew who owned a building, or business, or were somehow associated with Waters Ave – and had so many people we barely fit in the cafe. Since Jan 2024, our group has been meeting bi-monthly. We have grown to about 30 attendees and over 100 people on the listserv. We want everyone who wishes to be involved to join us, and particularly anyone who lives nearby Waters Ave between Wheaton St to Victory Drive. Through our meetings and a visioning session in late 2024, we created a new vision, action steps, and a new name. Now the Historic Waters Community Association, we have four active committees and a dedicated leadership team to keep the train moving forward. Our next meeting is Thursday, March 20th at 6pm at 2005 Waters Avenue, our email is [email protected], and we started an Instagram @historicwatersca as well. I call myself a co-convener, I thrive in a community organizing environment, and love being in the background making sure everyone feels heard, and we keep forward progress. My daughter comes along with me for all of these adventures, and recently at a meeting insisted on signing her name on the sign-in sheet. She’s 5! Its so fulfilling to show her the beauty of community collaboration and taking action to intentionally improve our environment. I can’t wait to see what she does when she grows up.
I wear way too many hats right now, but I’m clearly one of those people who has trouble saying no to good opportunities that seem fun! For my day job, right now I’m working part-time remotely as a policy analyst for Preservation Maryland where I actively research, develop, and advocates for policy innovations and regulatory systems that promote equitable and sustainable development. I previously worked in the private sector as a consultant with Ethos Preservation and PlaceEconomics. This leaves me some time to pursue real estate development opportunities personally and take on small consulting jobs with my firm I founded in 2024, Hestia Community Partners. With Hestia, been serving as a project manager for other developers helping them execute their projects, assisting with entitlements (obtaining zoning board of appeals approval for projects), and doing some grant writing. Its a lot of things to juggle, but I love all the fun projects I get to be a part of.
I volunteer locally on Historic Savannah Foundation’s revolving fund, where we purchase distressed properties and find new owners who will rehabilitate them. I’m active in historic preservation on the national level, where I am the board chair for Preservation Action leading national efforts to secure sound federal preservation policy. I also used to serve on the board of the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions, and now volunteer on their board development committee helping recruit board members.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Finding myself (my new self) after entering motherhood was hard!
Realizing that housing, zoning, and affordable housing is a very emotional topic for people. Lots of people want affordable housing, but not next door to them. I want them to follow that thought, cause why? Because it means poor people? Black people? People you think are beneath you? People you think will drag your neighborhood down? This sort of thinking does not serve us, and its hard not to challenge people’s beliefs on this. Sometimes you can educate, but somethings you just have to let them be “wrong” and focus energy elsewhere.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Historic Waters Community Association. I’m a co-convener with Clinton Edminster. Its been beautiful to see positive interations happen between other folks who didn’t previously know each other. Like Savannah Legacy Academy and the Magical World of Toys collaborated on a fundraiser event because they met at one of our meetings and got to talking. I get such joy out of friends becoming friends.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
I workout three times at week at Transform Savannah and play ultimate frisbee competitively which means I often spend weekends running around in the sunshine where my only worries are “did I put on enough sunscreen and drink enough water.” If I don’t block off time for exercise, it won’t happen so I’m very dedicated to this.
Favorite podcasts are We Can Do Hard Things by Glennon Doyle and Abby Wamback, You Turn by Ashley Stahl, and Diary of a CEO by Steven Bartlett. I used to consume a lot of Unruffled podcast by Janet Lansbury early postpartum.
I also love my Big A## Calendar by Jesse Itzler, its a 3ftx4ft calendar I put on the wall that has every day of the year on it. Its super helpful for tracking my parenting schedule (which days my daughter is with me vs. her dad), and when I’m taking trips. It also recently has helped me realize when I’m over-scheduled and need to have a chill on the couch weekend.
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