*This story has been updated with the correct square footage of Mercer University’s new School of Medicine and surrounding development. An earlier version contained incomplete totals taken from P&Z’s report.
An east Macon businessman who defied a cease and desist order lost his operating permit Monday despite his attorney’s attempt to buy him more time to come into compliance.
Over more than three years, Johntrell Johnson and his United Hustle Enterprises have applied to the Macon-Bibb County Planning & Zoning Commission to run different businesses at 635 Womack St. which has very little parking to accommodate most commercial uses.
Johnson tried a solar-powered, indoor aquaponics farm that sells live bait and tackle, a U-Haul rental location, a fresh food and fish market and a hookah lounge serving alcohol.
In November, P&Z denied Johnson’s application for the cigar and hookah lounge that included busing patrons to and from the business to try to circumvent parking regulations.
By the first of the year, P&Z received complaints that Johnson was operating the Skyline Lounge and event center anyway.
Cease and desist letters followed in mid-February, but social media ads for the business were still appearing in March.
With the business permit revocation on Monday’s agenda, attorney Roy Miller appealed for extra time to allow him to educate Johnson on what is required under P&Z regulations. Miller cited historical suppression of Black-owned businesses to bolster his argument that Johnson needed education not revocation of the permit.
Although P&Z Commissioner Kesia Stafford contemplated a deferral for extra time, P&Z Executive Director Jeff Ruggieri reminded the board of Johnson’s history of non-compliance.
“The last time Mr. Jackson was here, we heard the same thing. He doesn’t want to hurt the community. It’s going to be community friendly, he’s going to support his community, and we received a string of complaints from his community about the business that he was operating — noise complaints, people urinating in people’s yards, gunshot holes in adjacent houses,” Ruggieri said.
The board voted to revoke his permit, but invited Johnson to determine what business he wants to develop and reapply to P&Z.
Commissioners settled another revocation of an operating permit for the Food Mart at 1408 Forsyth St. after the business owner agreed to come into compliance by removing an unauthorized driveway off Monroe Street and complete landscaping the corner lot.
Since late 2022, a series of events plagued this project including a building permit mixup that allowed the demolition of the mid-Century modern old “Handy Andy” convenience store on the corner despite P&Z denying the request to tear down the store.
P&Z approved a sidewalk for the new store along the property line, but a driveway was installed instead. As a result, commissioners revoked the new store’s permit in January.
Because of the history of non-compliance, P&Z required the owner to put up 125% of the cost of landscaping to guarantee that the work would be completed, or the owner could lose the funds.
Plans call for shrubs, ground cover and trees to be planted along with sodding the remaining unpaved areas of the corner lot.
If the landscape plans materialize, the business owner will be able to continue to do business.
New Hyatt, RV camp, Medical School plans
North Macon will be getting a new 128-room, seven-story Hyatt studios hotel at 1512 Bass Road, near Providence Boulevard after P&Z approved the project.
Applicant Mangesh Patel said the 72,000-square-foot building on two acres will be a “simple hotel” without a bar, restaurant or swimming pool.
Commissioners also granted conditional use approval for Riley Windham’s RV park and campground along the Ocmulgee River at 5271 Arkwright Road, just north of the old Georgia Power plant.
Windham, who grew up in Twiggs County, said it was his dream to rent tiny houses and hookups for recreational vehicles to provide places for people to stay along the river.
He plans two tiny homes and four 15 ft. by 50 ft. RV parking stalls on the three-acre property.
“There’s not a lot of attractions on the river,” Windham said. “I mean, we have an untapped resource there. I don’t know if any of y’all kayak or anything, but it’s an awesome place to be and we have it right here in our backyard.”
The commission also approved rezoning more than 11 acres along Riverside Drive and Willow Street for the future home of the Mercer University School of Medicine and nearby development including the nearly 144,000-square-foot medical school, a two-story medical office building still in the design phase, 195-unit Ocmulgee Lofts apartments totaling 253,000 square feet, and a 255,000-square-foot parking deck.
“The renditions are beautiful,” P&Z Commissioner Mindy Attaway acknowledged at the start of the hearing.
Not all of the building designs are complete, including the parking deck which will be shielded by other buildings, engineer Don Carter told commissioners.
“It will still have a Mercer look to it. I’m not sure what that means but it will probably have some red brick in it,” Carter said.
He asked that developers be able to work with staff on the approval of those designs and to quickly process the land disturbance plan, or LDP, which is required for protection of the natural environment.
That document is necessary to begin the site improvements in the first phase of construction.
The land once housed a manufactured gas plant and had been listed on the state Environmental Protection Division’s hazardous site inventory until 2011 after Macon-Bibb County took corrective action on the property, and residential restrictions were removed on the first 15 feet of soil.
An environmental covenant remains on the property to provide guidelines for development.
Mercer expects to open the new medical school by the fall of 2028.
Future development plans for acreage closer to Second Street are still pending.
Murals without the Mayhem
Although the owner of 164 Franklin St. hoped hundreds of signatures in support of his building murals would allow him to keep them as is, P&Z sided with the Design Review Board’s recommendation to paint over portions of the artwork.
Will Peters enlisted his artist tenants at Georgia Peach Properties to beautify the dilapidated old warehouse building that overlooks Riverside Drive. One side featured the business’s peach designs, while the mural on the alley side depicted Mac, the Macon Mayhem hockey team’s mascot and the words “All out Mayhem.”
Peters was hoping to keep the Mayhem reference, but P&Z commissioners agreed with the DRB that the words and the logo mean the mural is actually a sign and and would need to comply with regulations.
“We don’t believe that a hand-painted sign is truly a replica of a logo or a billboard. I mean, other than in size, I don’t think it’s comparable by definition,” Peters argued.
Under Monday’s decision, Peters must remove the word “Mayhem” but could change the phrase to “All out Macon” and still be considered a mural, but he wasn’t keen on the idea.
“Which I believe would kind of defeat the purpose of the mural and support of the city. And it doesn’t make as much, I guess, venacular sense,” Peters said.
The review board ruled and P&Z concurred that Peters must reduce the size of the business’s name on the front side of the building to comply with sign restrictions of two square feet on a commercial building. On the “Franklin St. Studios” portion of the mural, he could remove the word “studios,” add the numerical address, and still comply with sign regulations.
“Before you do anything, I’m going to suggest that you go back to the (P&Z) office and show them what you’re going to do, to make sure we don’t cover up something that doesn’t need to be covered up,” Easom said.
Other agenda items
- 1144 Columbus St. — P&Z approved Sarahi Amaya’s replacement windows and planned exterior modifications to an 1870 home in the Beall’s Hill District.
- 1184 Holt Ave. — P&Z approved Blanton McGhee’s plan to renovate this circa 1900 home to create three affordable housing units. Commissioners and staff originally were concerned about adequate parking on the property, but determined there was enough space for six parking spaces.
- 5826 Columbus Road — Allen Edwards’ automobile repair shop approved for an existing nearly 3,400-square-foot garage and office building.
- 3821 Fulton Mill Road — Widner & Associates received conditional use approval to build an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers training facility and union hall on about six acres. IBEW plans three single-story buildings, a covered training area and 80 parking spaces on a triangle-shaped lot off Eisenhower Parkway.
- 7209 Hawkinsville Road — KK Capital Investments will be allowed to display, store and sell portable storage buildings and tiny houses under P&Z’s conditional use permit. Elite Cabins and Design will have an employee on duty from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturday.
- 2600 block of Antioch Road, Pitman and Peacock streets and 2649 Antioch Road and 501 Charles St. — P&Z continues to rezone acreage designated in the 1950s for light industrial uses, but has remained predominantly residential. Because residential uses are no longer permitted in M-1 districts due to zoning changes made in December of 2024, P&Z staff is redesignating them as single-family residential so that property owners may be able to add on to the houses or rebuild on those lots, if necessary.
—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.
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