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The Oglethorpe Plan is an urban planning idea that was most notably used in Savannah, Georgia, one of the Thirteen Colonies, in the 18th century. The plan uses a distinctive street network with repeating squares of residential City block, commercial blocks, and small green parks to create integrated, walkable neighborhoods.
James Oglethorpe founded the Georgia Colony, and the town of Savannah, in 1733. The new Georgia colony was authorized under a grant from George II to a group constituted by Oglethorpe as the Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America, or simply the Georgia Trustees.
Oglethorpe's plan for settlement of the new colony had been in the works since 1730, three years before the founding of Savannah. The multifaceted plan sought to achieve several goals through interrelated policy and design elements, including the spacing of towns, the layout of towns and eventually their surrounding counties, equitable allocation of land, and limits to growth to preserve a sustainable agrarian economy.Wilson, The Oglethorpe Plan, 37-44.
At the heart of Oglethorpe's comprehensive and multi-faceted plan there was a vision of social equity and civic virtue. The mechanisms supporting that vision, including yeoman governance, equitable land allocation, stable land tenure, prohibition of slavery, and secular administration, were among the ideas debated during the British Enlightenment. Many of those ideals have been carried forward, and are found today in Savannah's Tricentennial Plan and other policy documents.Wilson, The Oglethorpe Plan, 134-35, 189-192.Fries, The Urban Idea in Colonial America, 138-46.
"The famous Oglethorpe plan for Savannah … made a unique use of the square in the design, nothing like it having appeared in a town plan before or since. Here, in Savannah, the square by frequent repetition becomes an integral part of the street pattern and creates a series of rhythmically placed openings which give a wonderful sense of space in a solidly built townscape." – Paul ZuckerZucker, Paul. Town and Square: From the Agora to the Village Green. New York: Columbia University Press, 1959. 242.
"… a plan so exalted that it remains as one of the finest diagrams for city organization and growth in existence." – Edmund BaconBacon, Edmund N. Design of Cities. New York: Penguin Books, 1974. 219.
"The grid pattern of Savannah . . . is like no other we know in its fineness and its distinguishable squares. . . . Once seen it is unforgettable, and it carries over into real life experience." – Allan JacobsJacobs, Allan B. Great Streets. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1993. 255-56.
"Savannah occupies a unique position in the history of city planning. No complete precedents exist for its pattern of multiple open spaces…." – John W. RepsReps, John W. "C2 + L2 S2? Another Look at the Origins of Savannah’s Town Plan." In Forty Years of Diversity: Essays on Colonial Georgia, edited by Harvey H. Jackson and Phinizy Spalding, 101-51. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1984. 101.
Such comments nearly always apply to the ward layout found in the Savannah Historic District, where the city preserved and elaborated on the original town plan laid out by Oglethorpe. Though seldom mentioned, notable vestiges of the Oglethorpe Plan can be found in the land use pattern surrounding Savannah; in the cities of Darien, Georgia; Brunswick, Georgia; and at Fort Frederica National Monument on St. Simons Island, Georgia.Wilson, The Oglethorpe Plan, 153-57.
Oglethorpe's town plan was initially developed for Savannah, which grew largely in accordance with the original design. The same basic plan was intended for replication in towns throughout the colony; however, the original design survives in few towns. Brunswick, Georgia, adopted a version of the design modeled after the Trustee Georgia.Wilson, The Oglethorpe Plan, 153-54.
The City of Savannah has preserved the ward design within its National Historic Landmark District. Oglethorpe originally laid out six wards in Savannah. The design proved remarkably adaptable as the city grew, and city officials perpetuated the same basic model for more than a century. Ultimately, twenty-four wards were laid out in general accordance with the original design, filling most of the original square-mile town common.Wilson, The Oglethorpe Plan, 134-50.
The city's modern street grid outside of the historic district follows much of the original system of rights-of-way established under the Oglethorpe Plan for the gardens, farms, and villages that made up the Savannah region.
The plan is fundamentally different from modern town or community plans by allowing for growth in small, interlocking units, or wards, of approximately 10 acres (4 hectares). The exact size of a ward will vary depending on the width of streets that bound it. In Savannah, streets between wards vary from 45 feet to 120 feet, including sidewalks and landscaped medians. While the size of a ward may vary, it is important to keep it within about 15 percent of Oglethorpe's original layout. In following this standard automobile traffic is naturally limited to speeds of about 20 mph (30 km/h), the threshold for pedestrian comfort in a mixed-modal, shared space environment.
Another way in which the plan is fundamentally different from most designs today is in maximizing lot coverage on buildable lots while minimizing the open space requirement on those lots. Minimizing or eliminating these standards can be done because open space is provided in the public realm. A ward contains approximately 50% developable area and 50% public area (depending on the width of bounding streets), and because the public area is shared space streets contribute to open space both aesthetically and functionally.Wilson, Thomas and Patrick Shay. "Oglethorpe and Savannah: A Historic Plan has Modern Applications." Planning. March, 2014, 30-35.
Its recognized and praised advantages have recently been incorporated in a planning model, which is also cellular, that shows the influence of the Oglethorpe plan – the Fused Grid. Diagrammatic and approved plans, based on this model reflect the Savannah plan principle of organizing buildable space around open space. In this reformulated expression of it, which accommodates contemporary planning, technological and cultural priorities, Oglethorpe's Town Plan could find a renewed appreciation and wider replication.
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