Macon-Bibb County is seeking public input on a new name for a park in Pleasant Hill it is working to revamp with nearly $2 million in federal funding.
Linear Park runs alongside a barrier wall separating the east side of Pleasant Hill from traffic on Interstate 75 northbound where Middle Street once was.
The park’s generic name – not to be confused with Macon’s famous poet, Sidney Lanier – reflects its oblong shape, which is dotted with cul-de-sacs marking the cauterized ends of avenues that once spanned the width of the neighborhood before it was split in two with the construction of I-75 in the 1960s.
The park is mostly open greenspace with no shaded areas for summertime gatherings. Many of the trees planted a few years ago are dead or dying because they lack irrigation. The county plans change that.
“We’re now in a space where we could get a different level of community input on how to use the park to make it a little bit more family friendly,” said Tonja Khabir, a resident in the neighborhood who was contracted by the county as the community engagement consultant for the project. “We’re using this as an additional opportunity for community ownership and community involvement to say, ‘Hey, now, let’s also rename this part to something that’s relevant to us.’ ”
The county is seeking suggestions for new names from members of the public. Suggestions may be made via a public web form that will remain available until Nov. 1.
The effort to rename the park comes as the county received some $1,375,000 in American Rescue Plan Act grant money to pay for additions to it that include a pavilion, improved sidewalk design, an irrigation system for its trees and plants, a bicycle course for children, an outdoor fitness area and an amphitheater.
The county also received a $500,000 grant from the U.S. The Department of Transportation to “reconnect the community and connect it with Macon-Bibb County’s downtown business district,” according to a news release in March from the office of U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff.
Khabir said a name for the park would be chosen by a board that will review submissions then send a recommendation to the county commission for final approval.
State’s park falls short of promise
Linear Park is one of two parks created as a result of the Pleasant Hill Mitigation Plan, a $18.7 million multi-faceted project meant to offset negative impacts to the neighborhood from the ongoing $500 million interstate expansion project. The plan was born from hundreds of neighborhood residents who banded together to negotiate with The Georgia Department of Transportation in the early 2000s as it planned the ongoing interstate expansion project.
But Linear Park fell short of what GDOT promised to the neighborhood. Concrete reliefs on the visual/noise barrier walls that were designed by residents are supposed to be facing the park and neighborhood, but many were installed in the wrong places or face the Interstate. Bronze plaques that were to be installed near the concrete reliefs to provide details about the neighborhood’s history were never installed.
The Macon-Bibb County Community Enhancement Authority, a local authority created by Democratic House Minority Leader Rep. James Beverly in 2016, was contracted by the county to manage and maintain Linear Park. But the county cut ties with the authority earlier this year following its inability to produce receipts showing how it spent county money.
Macon-Bibb County resumed management of the park, but neighborhood residents are upset with how the county has gone about awarding contracts for the redesign and construction work on it.
In June, county commissioners unanimously approved spending $154,450 on a contract with Oak Haven Studio for landscape architectural design for the park. The company belongs to Laurie Fickling, a member of one of the family which founded the annual Cherry Blossom Festival.
The Macon-Bibb County Commission unanimously approved the contract under a local ordinance that allows the county to award contracts without a competitive bidding process.
Macon-Bibb County spokesperson Chris Floore said Fickling’s company “has been part of the project from the beginning and helped with the initial design work, even identifying all the subcontractors.”
George Muhammad, vice chairperson of the Pleasant Hill Neighborhood Organization, said the county has “obscured” the process and awarding the contract without going through the typical bidding process is “definitely a slap in the face of Pleasant Hill.”
“I think it’s very disrespectful to the community in terms of the Black contractors and Black people having a role in the development of their community,” Muhammad said of the county’s decision to award the contract without the usual competitive bidding process. “We’re already concerned about gentrification and these kinds of moves are being made.”
Muhammad said he has mixed feelings about renaming the park.
“Who do you name it for? How do we name it? There’s a lot of notable people and institutions and things that could be honored with the use of that space,” he said.
Revamping the park is part of the Macon Action Plan, an initiative to revitalize downtown that is spearheaded by the Macon-Bibb County Urban Development Authority and NewTown Macon. The Macon Action Plan area includes the east side of the neighborhood but not the larger west side across I-75 where a majority of Pleasant Hill residents live.
Floore wrote in an email that the neighborhood organization asked the county and Macon-Bibb Urban Development Authority “for things to happen in the park” as part of the Macon Action Plan and Reimagining the Civic Commons.
