Memorial Park Master Plan

The future of Memorial Park is vital to our residents and visitors alike. The Memorial Park Master Plan (MPMP) will provide the guiding document for what will be and should be Memorial Park. The MPMP Advisory Committee (MPMPAC) will be the citizen-led team that provides insight and guidance to our consulting team and city staff.

Memorial Park is a public park with 4.5 acres set aside by the city in 1947 to be “a memorial in appreciation and gratitude for those who served their country in the two World Wars”. In 1988, with the closure of the old Tybee Public School by the Savannah-Chatham public school system, the land and school buildings reverted to the City of Tybee Island, increasing what is now called Memorial Park to nine acres.

The geographic boundary of the project is bounded by Butler Avenue (US Highway 80) to the east, 4th Street to the north, Jones Avenue to the west, and 5th Street to the south. A residential building, a duplex, located at the corner of 5th Street and Butler Avenue is not included and is not under the City’s control.

Tybee Island is experiencing buildout, more complex redevelopment projects, and a consistent visitor stream. With our aging population, the design needs to be multi-generational. The city needs to ensure any plans for Memorial Park are consistent with the Comprehensive Plan, the Land Development Code (LDC), and anticipate the community’s current and future needs.

In Spring of 2025, the City hosted an Urban Land Institute Technical Assistance Panel (ULI-TAP) to create a vision for Memorial Park.

Over the past 80 years, the City has used Memorial Park in a variety of ways, with a unique selection of structures, with a plethora of uses that transitioned over the years including:

1. City Hall, original to the park.
2. The original Tybee Public School, then a Chatham County school (now called the “Old School”). This building is used as an emergency shelter, part of the city’s archive storage, a community pantry, and home to meeting spaces.
3. The Tybee Island Library, a Chatham County Branch Library.
4. The City’s Fire Department, also original to the park, with the area expanded with a training facility.
5. The Gym, which is home to the city’s outsourced recreation department, the YMCA.
6. Sports areas (volleyball, tennis, basketball). The sand volleyball court is also used as a sandbag staging area. The tennis courts see heavy use for pickleball.
7. A children’s playground.
8. A concrete pad once used as a skate park, now in use as the foundation of the large, screened pavilion.
9. Small historic pavilions and picnic tables.
10. A walking and biking path.
11. A now-defunct dog park.
12. A Veteran’s Memorial.
13. A cemetery, its boundaries fenced for delineation.
14. A community garden.
15. Bathrooms.
16. Plantings of memorial trees.
17. A temporary “laydown” area for debris following hurricanes and occasionally as a recycling area.