People living near Brookdale Avenue will have new food options, Fatty’s Pizza patrons won’t have to leave their car, and Love’s Travel Stop plans more overnight parking following Monday’s Macon-Bibb County Planning and Zoning Commission hearings.
At 3527 Brookdale Ave., P&Z approved Chriszetta Mercado’s “Lot Bites” proposal for a nearly 24,000-square-foot concrete parking platform for up to three food trucks that would lease spaces.
Macon–Bibb County Mayor Pro Tem Valerie Wynn told commissioners she favors having more options in that “food desert,” but questioned whether the food trucks will be affordable.
“The folks that live there can’t buy $15 tacos and hamburgers and stuff you see at the Cherry Blossom Festival or some place like that,” Wynn said. “I’d like to see a vegetable food truck, or fruit food truck, something that the residents around there that can come, can afford to buy.”
Donnell Somerset, who represented Mercado at the hearing, said they plan to lease to trucks providing a variety of affordable food options.
P&Z Commissioner Kesia Stafford said, “If a food truck is not viable, I mean if they’re not profitable to be there, they probably won’t come back there.”
The applicants don’t plan to have any seating or permanent kitchens or restrooms, but will have a porta potty available for food truck workers.
Commissioners also approved Vivian Morgan’s application for a new Jamaican restaurant to be nestled among houses at 327 Pittman St., which is a little more than a block off Broadway a few blocks south of Eisenhower Parkway.
P&Z Executive Director Jeff Ruggieri, an admitted fan of Caribbean cuisine, proclaimed: “I think this is the perfect Jamaican restaurant.”
The 980-square-foot, shotgun-style, 1900 building has a history of commercial use dating back to 1960, including as a barber shop, daycare facility, restaurants and retail shop in this light manufacturing zoning district.
With only on-street parking available, P&Z staff originally recommended a carryout-only business due to concerns about patrons impeding traffic on the side street, or causing problems for nearby residents.
Commission Chair Jeane Easom said: “I’m good with this,” referencing the proposal for seating inside.
P&Z staff also mentioned Morgan needs to secure the necessary permits from the health department to open, but did not have other major concerns since it is not a bar and no live music is planned.
“The proposed restaurant is small in scale and, in general, is not expected to create significant impacts such as excessive noise, smoke, or other contaminants,” the staff report stated.
Commissioners also withdrew a requirement for a fence between the restaurant and a nearby house after P&Z Executive Director Jeff Ruggieri questioned the effectiveness of screening a building that’s been in the neighborhood for over 125 years.
“It’s been there forever,” Ruggieri said. “I’m just not sure if a fence really accomplishes anything… besides adding some substantial cost, in my opinion.”
Commissioners also granted conditional use approval for Fatty’s Pizza to have a pickup window at 3955 Arkwright Road.
When the drive-up window was originally proposed late last year, P&Z staff and the commission had concerns about the tight turns around the building in the parking lot, which also serves Steve’s Steak & Seafood, Azul Salon and Spa, and Republic Finance in that strip mall.
In late January, after the owner failed to show for three hearings, P&Z denied the request.
The restaurant reapplied, and Fatty’s representatives Olivia Aycock and Savannah Harris were present Monday.
They explained that staff will keep an eye on traffic, and if customers start lining up and interfere with people getting in and out of parking spaces, they will ask drivers waiting for an order to move to one of their reserved curbside parking spaces.
Parking proposals
At 5955 Zebulon Road, P&Z approved a variance for Walmart due to changes in its parking lot that left them with not enough parking spaces under the code for a store over 207,000 square feet.
When the sprawling shopping center was approved in 2002, P&Z already granted a variance from the required six spaces per 1,000 square feet of the store’s floor area, or 1,262 spaces, down to 1,006 spaces.
After 2017, the addition of metal shopping cart corals further reduced the number of spaces to 981.
Because the parking lot rarely reached capacity even in the height of Black Friday shopping, P&Z approved a variance for the remaining 974 spaces that will remain following installation of more cart corals.
Commissioners also approved expanded overnight parking for Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores at 5189 Sardis Church Road.
A year ago, P&Z approved 12 parking spaces for recreational vehicles with an entrance on Frank Amerson Parkway, and 47 tractor trailer spaces at the travel center.
Monday, P&Z granted the company permission to add an additional 44 smaller “bobtail” parking spaces for truckers to park without trailers.
Across the street at the new 7-Eleven at 5230 Sardis Church Road, commissioners granted a variance to Full Tilt Sign Company to place an additional freestanding sign to direct tractor trailers to the appropriate parking lot.
Other agenda items
- 828 Riverside Drive — Commissioners approved Alfred Hughes’ building sign for Middle Georgia Locksmith, but signs on the gate must be removed.
- 3837 Houston Ave. — P&Z approved a new digital sign for Unionville Missionary Baptist Church.
- 100, 104, 110 Cattlemens Drive — P&Z rezoned over 10 acres from planned development, single-use and agricultural to the M-2 heavy industrial district. Summit Electrical USA plans to relocate from Woodfield Drive and use an existing building for offices and storage.
- 3494 Ada St. — Clifton Dalrymple received a variance for a fence that was properly permitted, but improperly placed. Due to sightline issues for drivers approaching Greter Street, P&Z required Dalrymple to set the fence back to be in line with existing homes and cut down the fence along Greter Street from 6 feet tall to 4 feet.
- 192 Stonewall Place — In an ongoing case involving multiple historic district violations for work done without prior approval, P&Z will allow the homeowners to keep newly installed brick that replaced a stucco finish around the front porch. As justification for amending the December 2025 certificate of appropriateness, the applicants provided a picture of older brick underneath. The Design Review Board did not object to the change, although December’s decision mandated the bricks be covered in stucco and stated: “Although there was probably brick under the original stucco, it would have been a substrate for the stucco and was never exposed. Therefore, the Design Review Board finds the brick, as currently installed, inappropriate.”
- 2556, 2576, Broadway, 0 Holloway St, 2575, 2587 Stevens St., 2614, 2628 Broadway, 358 Holloway St., 2621 Stevens St. — These are the latest lots Macon-Bibb County Planning & Zoning Commission staff has rezoned from light manufacturing to single-family residential following changes in the code that now prohibit residential uses in a manufacturing district. Without the change, current homeowners would not be able to rebuild or add-onto an existing house.
— Peyton Anderson 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.
