The Growth and Blooming of Downtown Macon, Part Two - Parking

Moving forward with our theme of Downtown growth and progress, a question on everyone’s mind is parking. With new businesses, restaurants and residential developments moving into the downtown core, the need for on-street parking is only going to grow.

In November 2016, Macon-Bibb County Commissioners approved a new downtown parking plan that allows Macon’s Urban Development Authority to fund the addition of parking meters, pay stations and other parking management systems to Macon’s downtown core – the area between Walnut and Poplar and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and First Street. The downtown core contains 1260 parking spaces, and according to Alex Morrison, the Executive Director for the Urban Development Authority, around 850 meters should be installed by the end of this month.

According to a March 2018 article by Linda Morris of the Macon Telegraph, paid parking will be enforced Monday – Saturday between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. and will cost $1.25 an hour. These parking meters are anticipated to generate $1 million annually, which will support the parking system itself, and then any extra revenue will be put back into downtown through accessibility and parking improvements. Bibb Urban Development has contracted with Lanier Parking Meter Services to install and manage parking meters and the authority’s parking decks downtown. The bright side to this new parking system downtown is that there will be a higher turnover of available spaces because of the two-hour parking limit, meaning more opportunities for people to park downtown and enjoy all Macon has to offer.

The great thing about living at a Lofts property is the gated, access-controlled entry parking! At Lofts at Capricorn and Lofts at Navicent, residents have guaranteed parking spaces. Both properties are located downtown, meaning an evening stroll down a block or two leads you directly to a wide selection of restaurants, bars, and theaters! You could even grab your morning coffee just one block from Lofts at Capricorn at Taste and See!

Living downtown definitely has its perks, but with downtown growth booming and new parking regulations starting, the idea of guaranteed parking presents an easy choice -

Live it, Love it, Loft it! Life just got better at the Lofts!

http://www.macon.com/news/business/article206026124.html

Write up provided by Blog Contributor: Reed Jones

Additional photos provided by: Gateway Macon, WGXA, and Macon.com