Mayor Continues State of the City with Economic Development Updates, Public Forums

Throughout January, Mayor Robert Reichert is providing the public with presentations and forums that will serve as a State of the City update. This week, the Mayor will be speaking at several meetings and forums about economic development in Macon, including the Second Street Downtown Corridor, Middle Georgia Regional Airport, Consolidation, and the Sardis Church/Sgoda Road Connector.

There will be three community input sessions this week for the Second Street Downtown Corridor master planning process. The Mayor will take time at the beginning of each meeting to discuss the impact that redeveloping and revitalizing the area from East Macon through Downtown and on to Mercer along 2nd Street will have on the entire city.

The first meeting will be on Monday, January 14 in the 4th floor Conference Room of the Historic Macon Terminal Station from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. The public will have a chance to review and comment on the Draft Design Plan that was developed at the multi-day, public Design Charrette last September and then refined by the CHA Team and the City of Macon over the past 3 months. The next two meetings will specifically focus on soliciting neighborhood input regarding the Draft Design plan. The first will be for the Tindall Heights, College Hill, and Bealls Hill neighborhoods on Tuesday, January 15 at the Buck Melton Center, and the final neighborhood meeting will be for the East Macon, Coliseum, and Centreplex neighborhoods on Thursday, January 17 at the Middle Georgia Regional Commission office. Both Neighborhood meetings will be from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.

The Draft Design Plan for the Second Street Downtown Corridor is available for viewing ahead of time by clicking here: http://cityofmacon.net/sites/default/files/Mayor/2nd_street_corridor_dra.... Additional presentations and information about this project can be found by clicking here: http://www.cityofmacon.net/mayor

On Tuesday, January 15, the Mayor will make a brief presentation at the Macon Kiwanis Club meeting regarding economic development. The meeting will be held at Mulberry Street United Methodist Church at 719 Mulberry Street at approximately 12:15 p.m.

State of the City
Mayor Robert Reichert is will be providing the public with a State of the City through several presentations, meetings, and forums throughout January. A presentation regarding the City’s greatly improved fiscal health, as shown by the Fiscal Year 2012 audit, was given at a City Council Work Session on Tuesday, January 7. That information can be found by clicking here.

“Instead of trying to encapsulate all of the successes of the past year, the work that still needs to be done, and our focus for the final year of the City of Macon into a single presentation, I want to give this important work the attention and in-depth analysis that the public deserves,” says Mayor Reichert.

Throughout the month-long State of the City, the Mayor will address the most recent audit, economic and community development, projects funded through the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST), and ongoing planning and updates in the Second Street Downtown Corridor project. The Mayor will cap off the State of the City by providing the public with a Strategic Plan for his Office for the final year of the City.

“There is a lot of work that needs to be done in the next year, from day-to-day operations, on-going city-wide projects, and, of course, preparing for the new, consolidated Macon-Bibb County government,” says Mayor Reichert. “We have worked for several months to develop a plan that will identify the big projects that need to be completed, steps needed to ensure long-term projects are continued, and that City services continue uninterrupted.”

About the Second Street Downtown Corridor
A key City project being funded by Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) funds is the redevelopment and and revitalization of an area designated as the Second Street Downtown Corridor, stretching from East Macon through Downtown, connecting to Little Richard Penniman and Mercer University Boulevards, and creating a gateway into Macon at the interchange of Mercer University Boulevard. Long-term, the City wants that Corridor to expand further west along Mercer University Boulevard to the Macon Mall and Macon State College.

CHA & Huntley Partners are developing a master plan using focus groups, tax and development data, and a multi-day public design charrette; by engaging a variety of stakeholders – including business and community leaders, local organizations, residents, and the general public – the plan will have a unified vision about how people want to revitalize our City and attract new residents and businesses.