Task force tackles blight around Macon-Bibb

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Macon-Bibb leaders are looking at ways to address abandoned structures in neighborhoods throughout the county.

Several members of different departments in the consolidated government are part of the government’s blight task force. As the rain falls on Wise Avenue in Macon, county leaders are planning ways to brighten up the neighborhood.  

“If you drive through any of our communities and neighborhoods, you’re going to see houses that are vacant. You are going to see lots that are derelict,” Charles Coney, the Assistant County Manager for operations in the county, said. 

Members of the county’s blight task force are looking for ways to rid the city and county of run-down structures like the ones on Wise Avenue. 

Coney is spearheading the project.

“When you drive through Macon, it doesn’t look like we want it to look so therefore we are striving for better,” Coney said. 

The group is made up of several internal departments including economic and community development and public works. 

“I think we’re working through the most difficult part which is to bring everybody together to have an understanding of how large the problem is,” Alison Goldey, the executive director for the Macon-Bibb Land Bank Authority, said. 

The county used to partner with outside developers to address blighted properties. The firms would then build onto the property once the structures were removed. 

Coney says that solution doesn’t work anymore. 

“I think what we need to do is put forth the community healing. The community looking better,” Coney said.

Nearly every home on Wise Avenue is vacant and blighted. The task force is looking to knock all of these homes down and turn it into green space. 

“Lets take a vacant lot and reuse it. Lets put a playground there. Let’s have green space. It doesn’t necessarily have to be replaced with another house,” Coney said. 

The task force is looking at others in Madison, Georgia and Detroit, Michigan for ways to improve. 

The group says at the end of the day, it’s about making Macon look even better. 

Coney says the goal for the task force is to implement recommendations from the Macon-Bibb Commission including reaching out into the community for suggestions and developing a blight “czar” to address areas that need improvement.