College Hill Corridor / Mercer Village Master Plan
Macon, GA
In response to a student project, the College Hill Corridor Commission was formed to forge a stronger link between Mercer University, Downtown Macon, and the City’s InTown communities. The College Hill Corridor is historic and unique, with striking architecture and natural scenery, but also a “missing link.” Population loss since the mid-1900s has drained the Downtown of the concentration of stores and restaurants that once made living in Macon exceptional. These and other uses have been replaced with parking lots and wider roads to accommodate the growing number of commuters seeking to reach what is still the major employment center in the region. The resulting road designs actively discourage walking and bicycling. Combined with visible pockets of underutilized land, the result is that despite close proximity to one another, local amenities like parks, schools, stores and historic landmarks often feel remote and out of the way.
The planning team was challenged with getting people out of their cars and onto the streets, re-populating the Corridor with residents and businesses, and devising a strategy to integrate 500 new student beds for the University into the surrounding community. Above all, the plan was intended to generate added excitement about the concept which has already fueled a lot of interest and participation in the Commission’s activities and events.
Bicycle tours, walking tours, cocktail hours, a series of focus group meetings, interviews, two public “open houses,” and use of the Commission’s web page with a distribution list of over 1,000 residents provided insight and first hand knowledge of the Corridor’s challenges and opportunities. The result was a community-driven plan designed to make a visible statement by creating Macon’s first bicycle lanes, reclaiming excess asphalt to provide attractive sidewalks and encourage walking, cultivating a college town vibe to retain Mercer grads, adding residential density, identifying opportunities to develop a series of connective trails, and infusing new uses in underutilized open spaces.
The College Hill Corridor recently received a 5 million dollar grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for implementation of the Master Plan completed by Interface Studio. $2 million will be used to create and staff the College Hill Alliance to guide implementation activities, and $3 million is allocated to the Community Foundation of Central Georgia to fund resident ideas for transforming the area in keeping with the Master Plan’s recommendations. In addition, only months after the plan’s completion, the College Hill Corridor Commission has expanded their Sunday Gospel Brunches, organized a Downtown scavenger hunt, created a student guide to Downtown Macon, and launched an annual soapbox race down Magnolia Street.
Client: College Hill Corridor Commission
Project Team: Land Strategies, Inc., Polis Studio LLC, Civic Economics
