After nearly three years of whispers and possibilities, Costco officially announced its intention to build a 158,000-square-foot warehouse across from Dillard’s behind the Shoppes at River Crossing.
Although the address is 1990 Bass Road, the proposed shopping center with 873 parking stalls and 32 fueling stations fronts Wesleyan Drive at the corner of New Forsyth Road in north Macon.
Costco plans new traffic lights at parking lot entrances on Wesleyan and New Forsyth, and a third light at the corner of New Forsyth and Bass roads for that busy intersection near the Academy for Classical Education.
The store is expected to generate more than 6,374 vehicle trips per weekday and up to 8,300 Saturday trips on Macon roads, but the widening of Bass Road won’t begin until mid-2028.
Monday, as Costco engineer Julie Miller successfully requested highway commercial zoning for a nearly 23-acre parcel that was zoned for planned development-mixed use, and 4.4 acres of agricultural land, P&Z Chair Jeane Easom asked: “And you can say this is a Costco?”
“I can say it is a Costco,” Miller replied.
That wasn’t the case in 2023 when New Forsyth Associates secured conditional use approval for an unnamed wholesale club warehouse and other stores on more than 48 acres across New Forsyth Road.
That approval expired, but Costco was back to P&Z late last year with a draft of this proposal, which The Macon Newsroom reported in December.
The store plans to hire up to 200 people at its opening.
Last month during taping of Ask Mayor Miller, Mayor Lester Miller said he’s already looking ahead toward more commercial development on that larger site.
“It’s still going to be a development across the street from Costco as well, and I can’t wait to announce that. Hopefully, it happens when I’m still the mayor, but otherwise I’m still going to be a part of it,” Miller said.
He hinted in January, “Where Costco goes, you’re usually going to see a Trader Joe’s. They go well together… like peas and carrots.”
Commercial corner at Bass and Rivoli
Northwest Macon Presbyterian Church member Joe Timberlake opposed plans for a convenience store next to the church a few years ago, but during Monday’s P&Z hearing he endorsed two professional office buildings at the corner of Bass Road and Rivoli Drive.
“I’m telling you that this is the best opportunity we have to have a decent facility there on the corner,” Timberlake said.
Dr. Rana Munna plans to relocate her office from off New Forsyth Road because of her patients’ traffic concerns with the Academy for Classical Education.
A second tenant has not been secured, but engineer Steven Rowland believes it will likely be a medical office and secured conditional use approval for that.
Rowland successfully argued to rezone more than nine acres to neighborhood commercial from agricultural and two-family residential.
Neighbor Elmo Richardson, who has lived on Rivoli for nearly 50 years, opposed the “spot zoning” plan although C-1 is the lightest commercial use.
“We’ve got a span of over three miles of essentially single-family residential properties. To rezone to C-1 right in the middle of all the single-family residential destroys the integrity of the neighborhood,” Richardson said.
Two upscale Truitt Preserve residential neighborhoods are planned on both sides of Rivoli and Rowland said the office buildings will complement those developments.
“If you have seen the proposed building, this is a very attractive site, very attractive building, highly landscaped,” Rowland said.
Time lapse kills Mead Road transfer station plan
Receiving planning and zoning approval for a project is only the first step toward construction. Other pertinent agencies such as the Macon Water Authority, Fire Department or Macon-Bibb County Health Department have to review a project in order to secure a building permit.
If construction does not begin within a year, P&Z’s approval expires and the applicant must reapply.
The expiration of P&Z’s October 2023 conditional use approval for a contested Mead Road waste transfer station proved to be costly for MMM Transfer Station LLC.
In January of 2024, months after Eberhardt Industries and Mead Road Environmental 2 revised its site plans to address complaints from nearby residents and stakeholders and then secured P&Z approval, MMM bought the land but did not pursue a permit or begin construction.
Although P&Z staff sent Guy Eberhardt a courtesy notice that his permit was about to expire in October of 2024, that message never got to the new owners. P&Z was not notified of a change of ownership, which is needed to assume the existing approval.
Mayor Miller plans for Macon-Bibb County to build its own solid waste transfer system to more efficiently move waste to out-of-town landfills. In September of 2023, the county imposed a moratorium on new facilities until the Solid Waste Management Plan, SWMP, could be updated.
Because Eberhardt’s P&Z application was already underway, it was exempt from the moratorium.
MMM applied for an extension, but P&Z Attorney Pope Langstaff said because the zoning approval expired, there was nothing to extend. The time to apply for an extension is before approval expires, Landstaff said.
At its June 2 meeting, county commissioners lifted the moratorium and adopted the SWMP that now prevents solid waste facilities within a mile of residences, schools, churches and recreation areas.
MMM can no longer file a new application for the site because of the new one-mile restriction.
Other agenda items
- 1955 Dove St. — P&Z denied FreeUp Storage’s appeal to keep an advertising banner that exceeds 24 square feet.
- 455 Third St. — P&Z approved the conditional use of a television and radio station as part of the renovations to the old Bibb Theatre that will house Visit Macon’s The Creek radio station and a broadcast studio.
- 3165 Hartley Bridge Road — The Welcome Center Church can build its accessory structure to house their van as long as it is properly spaced from the property line.
- 2255 Gray Hwy. — P&Z approved Crossport LLC operating a logistics/distribution company delivering pre-packated perishable food items to major distribution centers in the old Dairyland across from Graham Road.
- 1501 Bass Road — Medical office approved for OrthoAtlanta and Piedmont Medical Care.
- 4380 Mercer University Drive — Vehicle Leasing & Rental approved to run a used car lot with up to 12 vehicles for sale that are properly parked off the right-of-way.
- 6790 Houston Road — P&Z approved Triple Point Engineering’s request for a self-storage facility.
- 8820 Industrial Hwy. — ArcelorMittal Building Solutions manufacturer of steel panels received approval for eight above ground carbon steel storage tanks and one underground tank for the raw materials needed for production.
- 576 Will Scarlet Way — Variance granted for a metal carport to be placed within 10 feet of the property line.
- 4800 Holley Road — Variance request to allow a lot not fronting the right-of-way deferred until July 27.
- 0 Davis Road — Variance approved for a property not fronting the public right-of-way.
- 3490 Tidwell Road — Rezoned from Planned Development Single Use to agricultural.
- 1335 Jackson St. — Certificate of appropriateness granted for window modifications and a new screened room in the rear of the house.
- 144 Pierce Ave. — P&Z approved exterior modifications to the front porch with an entrance for accessibility and a relocated rear door.
- 441, 433, 425, 417, 409 Pittman St., 2634 Cason St., 434, 426 Holloway St., 2619, 2625 Broadway, 447, 439, 431, 423, 415, 407 Holloway St. — P&Z rezoned these properties from light manufacturing to single-family residential due to recent zoning changes that prohibit homes in manufacturing zones.
- 1231 Jefferson Terrace — Conditional use application to allow a professional office was deferred until Aug. 24.
- 1415 Bass Road — Conditional use application for Rock Springs Congregational Methodist Church to erect a 150-foot cross sculpture was deferred until July 27.
—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.
