Downtown Revitalization Meeting, Thursday at 3 pm

The City of Macon is looking to become the next Georgia community to successfully revitalize its downtown by becoming a designated Main Street Community. A program of the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, the Main Street designation would indicate that Macon is ready to undertake comprehensive redevelopment efforts in the downtown area—which include business attraction, streetscape improvements, and improved branding efforts.

A meeting will be held at Macon City Hall on July 15 at 3 p.m. to kick off the establishment of the local Main Street organization. All downtown stakeholders are invited to attend and provide input into the goals of the program and to volunteer to be a part of the effort.

The Main Street program follows the Four Point Approach of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The four points—Organization, Promotion, Design, and Economic Restructuring—work together to ensure that the approach to downtown redevelopment is inclusive, comprehensive, and effective. By forcing the local Main Street organization to work in all four areas, the program simultaneously addresses all downtown issues are to produce an incremental, yet robust, redevelopment of the downtown area.

Of course, the City alone cannot create these dramatic results. A major tenet of the Main Street philosophy is that only through public-private partnerships can a downtown reach its full potential.

In that regard, the City of Macon needs the help of all downtown residents, business owners, property owners, realtors, promoters, and all others who want to see Downtown Macon once again thrive.

Cities such as Columbus, Athens, and Woodstock have successfully used the Main Street approach to downtown redevelopment.

For more information regarding the Main Street program and/or this meeting, please contact Alex Morrison by email or by phone 478-335-4061.