Parking in downtown Macon is often a talking point. While some visitors find it difficult to find a spot, city officials say that’s actually a sign that downtown is growing — and something they’re trying to manage better.
Before parking meters in downtown Macon, cars would stay in parking spots for hours on hours and customers wouldn’t be able to find parking. Macon instituted the three-hour limit of on-street parking back in 2018 to try to combat this, and now they’re working to make the system more effective.
Margaret Peth, who works with the downtown parking system, said the goal has been to make parking more available by increasing turnover, especially in busy areas. Peth says that it has improved.
As downtown has gotten more popular, parking has naturally gotten busier too.
“We have a lot more people downtown,” Peth said. “More residents, more businesses, and there’s a much higher demand for it.”
Especially Thursday through Saturday nights. Streets like Cherry, Second, and Third tend to fill up quickly with people going out to eat or hang out.
Alex Morrison, executive director of the Macon-Bibb County Urban Development Authority, explains, “In most places, especially in the South, people rely on cars,” Morrison said. “So if people are going to be downtown, there has to be parking.”
The city tries to keep street parking open for customers, while employees and residents are encouraged to park in other areas. The idea is to make it easier for people who are just coming downtown for a short time to actually find a spot.
Morrison explained that before paid parking, “Customers would come downtown, circle around, couldn’t find a place to park, and then leave,” Morrison said.
He said a lot of spaces used to be taken up by the same cars all day, which made it harder for businesses to get customers in the door.
While paid parking can be frustrating for some, Morrison said it helps make parking more accessible overall.
“If it wasn’t managed, it would basically be unavailable for most people,” he said.
He also said a lot of people don’t realize that the money from parking stays local and helps support downtown improvements, instead of going somewhere else.
“Our goal is efficiency and compliance, not revenue,” he said.
As downtown keeps growing, the city is already looking ahead. New parking decks are being built, which could add hundreds of spaces.
Even with those plans, parking will probably keep being an issue people talk about, just because more people want to be downtown.
For Peth, though, that’s a good problem to have.
“It shows that downtown is growing,” she said. “More people want to be here.”
Now the challenge is keeping parking manageable while everything continues to grow.
