For the second time, beautician Vivian Akpalaba made an impassioned plea to the Macon-Bibb County Planning & Zoning Commission to keep barbed wire on the fence around her salon at 1639 Burton Ave.
Monday, Akpalaba appeared for a required second vote after P&Z deadlocked 2-2 last month when Chair Jeane Easom was absent.
“The salons in Macon, Georgia, are at high-risk,” Akpalaba said at the July 22 meeting. “Imagine anyone having our loved ones come to the salon and not return home. You could help us.”
The woman, who said she was so excited to learn how to style hair that she initially took a job cleaning toilets at a salon, spoke of the criminal activity, break-ins, robberies and trespassing.
Although P&Z Commissioner Kesia Stafford said the proximity to houses gave her pause, as does the thought of opening up a slew of other requests for barbed wire, she sympathized with Akpalaba’s plight.
“Personally, because of where you are, I am for the barbed wire because it is dangerous. I know you all are there late, so it does touch me in a certain kind of way,” Stafford said.
As a woman who has witnessed a robbery herself, Stafford said she understood the safety concerns.
“Why should you have to stop conducting business to the hour you desire because someone has decided to violate your rights?” she asked.
Although P&Z Vice Chair Tim Jones said he also witnessed a robbery outside of church, he said the community needs a holistic approach to curtailing crime.
“I don’t think barbed wire going up is the solution,” he said.
Jones, originally voted against the barbed wire, was absent Monday, but P&Z Chair Jeane Easom was back.
At Monday’s hearing, Akpalaba said shortly after the last P&Z hearing, five young men came in with a customer who was demanding his money back.
She doesn’t allow the 16 private contractors in the salon or their clients to have firearms in the shop near Mercer University Drive.
“The only way we can at least protect their lives since we don’t allow them to bring in guns was to enhance security,” she said.
“I feel for you,” Easom told Akpalaba. “This is only my opinion, but that is not a zoning issue. We have guidelines in our regulations that say that in this zoning, barbed wire is not permissible. So, I will have to vote against it.”
P&Z regulations permit barbed wire in agricultural and industrial zones. The salon is in a commercial zone.
Just like last month, Stafford moved to approve the conditional use of the barbed wire, but the vote deadlocked again. She and Mindy Attaway were in favor and Easom and Robby Redmond opposed making the exception.
Three votes are needed for approval, so P&Z denied the request.
Commissioners approved the plan for enhanced security at The Massee apartments which will be adding a new fence around the parking lot at 347 College St.
“They have a huge security problem there,” said architect Gene Dunwody, who represented building owner Jeff Moody in applying for the necessary approval.
The Massee began the project without securing the required certificate of appropriateness for the historic district and P&Z halted the project.
Dunwody stepped in to assist with the application for what he called “one of the most iconic buildings in downtown Macon.”
Although P&Z staff did not think the stone masonry columns were appropriate along the decorative aluminum paneled fence, Dunwody recently explained to the Design Review Board that the original brick used for the 1924 high-rise apartment building is no longer available.
Some of the natural stones selected for the columns compliment the brick and the caps of the columns will match those in front of the building, with the same color mortar planned “to tie everything all together,” Dunwody said.
“It serves a lot of functions, not just aesthetically, but with having some security concerns with the parking lot,” he said.
The Design Review Board’s Trey Wood, also an architect, replied, “My eyes agree with yours.”
Wood and the others on the board recommended approval for the fence, but since the review board contradicted the P&Z staff analysis, Dunwody returned Monday to successfully make his case to P&Z commissioners.
Design delay for D.T. Walton Way project
Both the Design Review Board and P&Z expressed concerns over renderings for a six-story mixed-use development with 136 apartments, 7,000 square feet of retail space and a 355-space parking garage at 552 and 556 D.T. Walton Sr. Way and 753, 743 Plum St.
The development will flank the existing buildings at the corner that are owned by attorney Brian Adams and businessman Alex Habersham. The Plum Street lots where county employees currently park will be replaced by the new parking deck.
Architect Will Stanford chairs the design review advisory board of P&Z that voted unanimously against the proposed design of the apartments on Aug. 5. At Monday’s P&Z hearing, he shared his concerns that there wasn’t enough brick or architectural variety on the upper five floors.
P&Z’s Stafford, president of Stafford Builders, echoed those concerns and offered some advice for G. Scott Thompson of Gateway 75, that is developing the project.
“Bringing some definition would give it a little more of what everyone here is speaking of,” she said. “Come up with some kind of way to create something that is not so flat.”
Architect Shannon Fickling, who said she didn’t oppose the project, shared concerns earlier this month with the review board about the parking deck, which will be visible behind City Hall.
“I think it’s wonderful we have a building of this size and scale going in,” Fickling said. “But that parking garage is big and ugly.”
Wood referred to the concrete structure as a “monster” and “pretty brutal” in design.
The Macon-Bibb County Urban Development Authority plans to enhance the look of the parking deck, which it will eventually own and operate.
Thompson is about to finalize a development agreement with the UDA, which will issue revenue bonds to cover the $14.3 million purchase price of the parking deck. The county will use at least 175 spaces for City Hall employees and visitors, 150 spaces will be for tenants of the mixed-use development and the remaining spaces will be for the general public.
UDA is exploring artwork or other aesthetically pleasing facade treatments, but the design is still a work in progress.
Although Thompson is trying to keep the project on schedule to open in mid-2026, he agreed to come back in two weeks with an updated design for the apartment building.
“We want this project. We need this project, but we want it to be the best it can be,” Easom said. “It’s going to be here a long time, and I don’t want us to say in a couple of years that we wish we had held off.”
Other P&Z actions
- 458 Second St. — Signage approved for the new Jalapenos Cantina restaurant that is moving into the old Macon Beer Company location.
- 3555 Mercer University Drive — Veronica Simmons received conditional use approval to open a hookah lounge and bar with occasional live entertainment in the shopping center across from Macon Mall. Simmons agreed to halt any live music at 11 p.m. “This is not a club. This is a lounge for 25 and older,” Simmons said. “It’s for adults. We get tired.”
- 1457 Calhoun St. — P&Z granted Christian Yun a certificate of appropriateness to build two duplexes, as long as he varies the design of the facades to comply with Bealls Hill Historic District Guidelines.
- 1460 Bass Road — New location of Peoples South Bank approved for construction near the corner of Providence Boulevard.
- 2531 and 2505 Allen Road — P&Z granted a conditional use permit for Buckeye SE Terminal to expand its existing facility and build a 48-foot-high aboveground fuel storage tank to hold more than 45,000 barrels of crude oil. Because the 1969 fuel storage facility predated the 1997 mobile home neighborhood, P&Z granted a variance to allow the new tank to be built about 350 feet away. Regulations state tanks should be at least 500 feet from a residential district.
- 4220 Forsyth Road — Conditional use permit granted for Macon Little Theatre to upgrade its changeable copy sign.
- 4951 Forsyth Road — P&Z granted approval for Avilys Sleep & EEG to add a third floor to the 22,000-square-foot building that formerly housed BB&T Insurance.
- 484 Second St. — Approval granted for replacement of windows on the second floor of Ocmulgee Brew Pub.
- 124 Third St. — P&Z approved a certificate of appropriateness for applicant Mark Conable to repaint the painted portions of the former Macon Occupational Medicine. The Design Review Board did not sign off on painting unpainted brick to match the color scheme for the new Piedmont Occupational Medicine facility. The review board’s Lauren Marshall said the existing yellow brick is a defining feature of the mid-century modern building and should be preserved.
— Civic Journalism Senior Fellow Liz Fabian covers Macon-Bibb County government entities for The Macon Newsroom and can be reached at [email protected] or 478-301-2976.
