Dozens attend Macon Mall Amphitheater input sessions

Dozens of people attended two input sessions Thursday for the Macon Mall Amphitheater project where they met with members of the design team. 

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — A few dozen people attended two input sessions Thursday for the Macon Mall Amphitheater project.

Residents got a chance to share their concerns and ideas with representatives from Macon-Bibb County and the amphitheater design team.

Essie Morgan, who’s lived in Macon her entire life, says she was concerned when she heard about plans to build a 10,000 seat amphitheater on the Macon Mall property. She attended the input sessions to learn more about the plans and share her concerns about safety.

“That’s one of the big issues everyone has,” Morgan said. “I think that might help with that and in talking to the people here and seeing it all, it’s on their minds as well.”

Macon-Bibb County leaders and members of the design team hosted the input sessions. Emery Leonard, a principal with the architecture firm TVS Design, said they wanted to hear from the community and that most are concerned about sound and traffic.

“The usual concerns like traffic, congestion,” Leonard said. “This place was designed to handle that from the get go, so being able to take advantage of that is definitely a benefit.”

Leonard says they’ve also heard a lot of excitement around Macon’s musical history and that library employees stopped by to talk with them about music-related artifacts in their archives.

“Pulling that into a project like this in some way, both as a guest when you’re coming and understanding the music heritage of Macon, but also for the folks and talent that show up,” Leonard said. “Seeing a wall of information about the musical history of Macon and the importance of the place and that they get to participate in that and get on stage.”

Morgan says as someone who’s seen the ups and downs of the Macon Mall property, it gives her hope to know a project like this is in the works.

“If they can do everything that we’re hoping that will happen, it will be an enlightening experience, I think for the whole community, for Macon,” Morgan said.

The design team will now work with the build team to get the amphitheater designed and constructed. They’re hoping to finish building by Mayor Lester Miller’s target date: mid-2023.