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5.13 Proactively market long-term development opportunities
This plan identified many sites for development that would have a visible and catalytic impact on the look and feel of the corridor. Other development opportunities exist, however, that should be actively marketed and promoted to prospective developers. The Commission should work with the City and local realtors to create information packets to market a range of opportunities in the College Hill area. These opportunities most notably include: • Leverage the community’s investment in Tyler’s Place – The vacant housing development across from Tyler’s Place (the dog park) is an opportunity to build upon a community-driven initiative and capitalize on the expanding market in Huegenin Heights. • Redevelop Riverside Drive – The College Hill Corridor is cut-off from unique amenities including the river and both the Riverside and Rose Hill Cemeteries by the unfriendly and car-dominated Riverside Drive. In addition to intersection enhancements described in Recommendation 4.10, underutilized properties between Madison and Orange Streets should be redeveloped to add activity to this important connection. • Reinforce Tattnall Place and Beall’s Hill – The Macon Housing Authority’s investment in Tattnall Place has transformed what was once a deteriorating housing project into a mixed-income community. This investment should be reinforced with infill development on vacant sites along Oglethorpe primarily between College and 1st Streets. • Encourage infill development on Forsyth between Spring Street and City Hall – With the improvements recommended in this plan there is a string of recommendations all less than 900 feet from one another between Daisy Park and Mercer Village. The missing link is from Spring Street to City Hall – two long blocks with unique but scattered uses. Small scale redevelopment and rehabilitation of existing facades is needed to support public investments like the proposed roundabout at the intersection of New, Plum and Forsyth. • Redevelop underutilized space and consolidate parking on downtown’s western edge – Between downtown and College Hill is a large number of separate parking lots that creates a disconnected feeling between these areas. Opportunities to consolidate parking and redevelop key, visible lots along Mulberry, New and Spring Streets should be evaluated. A downtown parking study would help to define a specific redevelopment approach.
Top to bottom: Riverside Drive; vacant building on Forsyth Street; vacant land on Oglethorpe Street; parking lots on New Street.
DRAFT College Hill Corridor / Mercer Village Master Plan