Saving Places Index REPORT FRONT COVER, TOP: Downtown Macon at night. © VISIT MACON; BOTTOM: Georgia’s Pan African Festival at the Tubman Museum. © VISIT MACON; BACK COVER: Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park. © VISIT MACON The Trust for Public Land creates parks and protects land for people, ensuring healthy, livable communities for generations to come. Printed on 100% recycled paper. tpl.org © 2021 The Trust for Public Land Saving Places Index REPORT Message from The 1772 Foundation The 1772 Foundation and Historic Macon Foundation are at the forefront of testing a new model for community conservation. The fields of land conservation and historic preservation have been operating in discrete silos in the United States. Yet in the United Kingdom, these fields are blended into one organization that protects special places of all kinds. The broad-based support created by their blended conservation work is extraordinary. We would like to see that model more fully explored in the United States. Our three groups have been exploring blended community conservation efforts through a new framework. Using facilitated community visioning sessions and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping, we are working on programs that will create integrated whole-community maps, helping citizens from all walks of life to identify and visualize high-priority areas that reflect the character of each unique community. This process is driven solely by the desires of the residents — to protect what matters to them, both land and buildings. The 1772 Foundation has provided over $16 million in funding over the past 10 years to land conservation and revolving funds. It is our goal to explore how we might combine these two efforts using citizen-driven data and holistic maps to create “revolving funds for special places.” We believe that blended conservancies based on data asset mapping are an important model to consider if we are to fully rally people behind holistic community conservation. Message from The Trust for Public Land The Trust for Public Land is pleased to release this Saving Places Index report for Macon-Bibb County. We are grateful to The 1772 Foundation for its support and to Historic Macon Foundation for its collaboration. Without these partners, this project would not have been possible. Our work extends beyond this report to include a StoryMap and a decision support tool that will serve the people of Macon for years to come. The strength of this work comes from marrying site-specific data captured by The Trust for Public Land’s Geographic Information System (GIS) team with the historical perspective provided by the community. The resulting report and decision support tool will allow civic leaders to align their goals for land acquisition and historic preservation. At The Trust for Public Land, we preserve land and create parks for people. For nearly 50 years, we have worked with community, government, and business leaders to understand how parks and public spaces can meet their needs and improve quality of life. We look forward to working with Macon in the years to come to build upon the Saving Places Index and ensure that all residents have access to a safe, quality park. Thank you again for your collaboration. ii SAVING PLACES INDEX REPORT Preface Acknowledgments Hundreds of community members helped to create the Macon Saving Places Index, from community members who participated in workshops or used the Saving Places App to local public sector and nonprofit employees who guided our mapping and community engagement as Steering Committee members. This was a collaborative effort from start to finish, and it would not have been possible without the outpouring of community support. This project was made possible through the generous support of The 1772 Foundation. The 1772 Foundation works to ensure the safe passage of our historic buildings and farmland to future generations. We are grateful for its support and vision. Project Staff THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND LARA MILLER, GIS Senior Project Manager MATT DIXIT MOFFA, Senior Planning Project Manager LINDSAY WITHERS, Senior Cartography Manager DANNY PAEZ, Cartography Associate PATRICK SMYTH, Senior Manager Web Application Development HISTORIC MACON FOUNDATION ETHIEL GARLINGTON, Executive Director MATT CHALFA, Director of Preservation Field Services LAUREN MAULDIN, Director of Neighborhood Revitalization HANBURY PRESERVATION CONSULTING MARY RUFFIN HANBURY, Founding Principal ADDITIONAL CONSULTANTS JESSICA WALDEN, Community Engagement Specialist Project Partners THE TRUST FOR PUBLIC LAND is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to creating parks and protecting land for people, ensuring healthy, livable communities for generations to come. Since 1972, The Trust for Public Land has helped protect more than three million acres in all 50 states. HISTORIC MACON FOUNDATION’s mission is to revitalize communities by preserving architecture and sharing history. Historic Macon Foundation (HMF) is a national leader in preservation and a role model for revitalization efforts SAVING PLACES INDEX REPORT iii throughout the country. Its innovative real estate tactics, state and federal tax credit consulting services, advocacy efforts with our Fading Five list of endangered places, educational programing, and low-interest loan programs allow Historic Macon to transform communities and demonstrate the powerful impact of saving historic places. HMF has completed nearly 150 houses and kept 25,000 tons of debris out of the landfill. Just since 2014 it has attracted $5.8 million in investments in its target neighborhood, Beall’s Hill. HMF’s work allows citizens to take preservation into their own hands. With the help of the community, they are proving that Macon is preservation. HANBURY PRESERVATION CONSULTING was established in 2008 to provide a full spectrum of preservation-related planning services to organizations, governments, individuals, and corporate clients. The firm specializes in historic preservation planning, heritage tourism planning, and strategic planning for preservation organizations. The firm’s methodology involves research, community input, and independent assessment to create consensus- based and organizationally driven plans with clear implementation strategies. Saving Places Index Steering Committee ANISSA JONES, Macon Water Authority BILL CAUSEY, Causey Construction Consulting BRAD BELLO, Macon-Bibb County Planning and Zoning Commission CHRIS SHERIDAN, Sheridan Construction DEMARCUS BECKHAM, New Georgia Project ELLIOT JAMES FERNANDEZ, Visit Macon EMILY HOPKINS, NewTown Macon GERRI MARION MCCORD, Ruth Hartley Mosley Center GREG BROWN, Macon-Bibb County Planning and Zoning Commission HEATHER BOWMAN CUTWAY, Mercer University/College Hill JANIS HALEY, Sidney Lanier Cottage at Historic Macon Foundation KAROL KELLY, UGA Cooperative Extension Office KELLY CORDEIRA, UGA Cooperative Extension Office LES HAMPTON, Macon-Bibb County Planning and Zoning Commission MELISSA JEST, Georgia Historic Preservation Division MYRTLE HABERSHAM, AARP NANCY CLEVELAND, Community Foundation of Central Georgia RACHEL HOLLAR, Bike Walk Macon SETH CLARK, political consultant STEVEN FULBRIGHT, Visit Macon SUSANNAH MADDUX, Macon Magazine iv SAVING PLACES INDEX REPORT Table of Contents Section 1: Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1 Section 2: Background on Macon-Bibb County ........................................................................................... 3 Section 3: What Is the Saving Places Index? .................................................................................................. 9 Section 4: Community Engagement ............................................................................................................ 13 Section 5: Spatial Data Analysis Results ...................................................................................................... 21 Section 6: Case Studies ................................................................................................................................. 29 Section 7: Closing ............................................................................................................................................ 37 Sources ............................................................................................................................................................. 38 Online Appendices (https://web.tplgis.org/macon/): Appendix 1: GIS Criteria Matrix Appendix 2: Online Survey Results Appendix 3: Stakeholder Interview Summary Appendix 4: Case Study Field Notes SAVING PLACES INDEX REPORT v Macon welcomes visitors from around the world who come to see the Yoshina cherry trees in bloom during the International Cherry Blossom Festival. © VISIT MACON SECTION 1 Introduction Welcome to the Historic Macon Foundation’s Saving Places Index Report. What you’ll discover in this document is a community-driven collaboration that identifies and brings awareness of places that haven’t been recognized or received preservation input before. Did you realize you can hop on your bike downtown, ride five minutes, and be surrounded by cow pastures? Or did you know there’s berry picking in Lizella? Or consider this — how important is the view from Coleman Hill to you? Shouldn’t we consider it a place worth preserving for generations to come? Macon’s Saving Places Index (SPI) will serve as our Greenprint. In its simplest