In the 1960s, the construction of Interstate 75 split the historic Pleasant Hill neighborhood into two. The new I-75 interstate left hundreds of homes destroyed, and a once thriving community left torn apart. One half of the neighborhood was isolated from the other, with no real way for citizens to navigate across the freeway.
In the last decade there has been effort to reconnect the neighborhood, but it is still far from being the interconnected thriving community it once was.
The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) began the Pleasant Hill Mitigation Plan in 2013. “They [GDOT] started the mitigation plan because the interstate was going to be expanded yet again,” Tonja Khabir, with the Pleasant Hill Neighborhood Organization (PHNO) said.
While the Mitigation Plan was intended to provide a solution to a decades-long problem, GDOT was slow to finish the mitigation projects. Macon has stepped up to ensure those projects finish.
The Pleasant Hill Pathway Project, funded by the Knight Foundation, made it possible to finish the James Brown Bridge that covers Walnut Street, according to Khabir. This bridge allows residents to walk and drive over the interstate from one side to the other, connecting to downtown. The same project will extend the sidewalk on Walnut Street.
In 2024, a collaboration of national foundations and civic leaders, the Reimagining the Civic Commons (RCC), announced its investment in Macon-Bibb County. The county was to receive $750,000 to reconnect the neighborhood in adaptive ways after being split in the 1960s.
Part of that project is thanks to a $500,000 grant through the Inflation Reduction Act’s Neighborhood Access and Equity Program. “This grant was submitted through the community’s participation in RCC,” according to a Macon-Bibb County press release. Receiving this grant was a direct result of the Pleasant Hill Strategic Plan, which included feedback of more than 400 community members.
The main priorities of the plan are: encouraging business development, neighborhood infrastructure, addressing blighted properties, access to safe streets and reliable transportation, quality recreation and public spaces, interrupting violence and fostering public safety, and celebrating arts culture and history.
Macon-Bibb has not received the $500,000, even though the grant was awarded in March 2024, and the money was supposed to be received in February 2025, according to Alex Morrison, Macon-Bibb County’s director of planning and public spaces and executive director of the Urban Development Authority.
“No date has been given for this [receiving the money] moving forward. Without the funding, we cannot hire a planner to do the full urban design plan,” Morrison said. “In the meantime, our team is still working with the neighborhood on aspects of the Pleasant Hill Neighborhood Organization strategic plan.”
While Morrison explained that the RCC money was meant to implement the plan from the urban design process that was intended to be funded federally, they are still putting the first year of RCC funds to use.
“We are using funds to do planning work and community engagement, for RCC travel, and we are exploring the possibility of direct neighborhood assistance with the funds,” Morrison said.
