The College Hill Corridor Commission has announced eight projects are receiving funding through the Knight Community Projects initiative. The eight recipients, sharing a pool of $50,000, represent the best of 47 applications from local residents and organizations who requested funding for ideas to continue creative placemaking efforts in the College Hill Corridor. The projects to be funded will support:
- Installing a sign at Washington Memorial Library to highlight it as a monument submitted by their staff and board.
- Developing a traffic study and landscape plan to create an urban trailhead at the intersection of Appleton Lane and Columbus Street submitted by the Macon-Bibb Urban Development Authority.
- Designing and conceptualizing a new and unique playground for Tattnall Square Park submitted by Brent Meyer a College Hill resident.
- Creating a branding campaign for the Beall’s Hill Neighborhood including a logo, website, and light pole banners submitted by the Beall’s Hill Neighborhood Association.
- Producing the #LiveInTheCorridor marketing campaign to help attract new residents to College Hill submitted by Historic Macon Foundation.
- Developing a traffic study and landscape plan to add pedestrian crosswalks at the intersection of College Street and Coleman Avenue submitted by Brad Belo, College Hill resident.
- Creating interactive maker exhibits at the Second Sunday concert series as part of a Spark Macon initiative submitted by Spark Macon.
- Introducing electronic timing equipment allowing for nationally sanctioned youth races at the Magnolia Soapbox Derby submitted by their board.
The Knight Community Projects initiative, administered by the College Hill Corridor Commission, was made possible through a partnership between the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and Mercer University.
College Hill Alliance Returns Leadership to All-Volunteer Commission
After six years in office – and additional Knight Foundation grant of $2.2 million in 2012 – the College Alliance is now returning leadership of the initiative to the all-volunteer Commission. With over 90 percent of the original College Hill Master Plan complete, a stronger community driving the sense of place, and a hip and historic town and gown connection found throughout Macon’s urban core, the Alliance has successfully completed its job and exceeded expectations. But the work of College Hill continues just as it started – with the neighbors, stakeholders, participants and believers leading the game-changing effort with the newly formed College Hill Corridor Commission and Knight Community Projects Fund.
The announcement was made during a celebration of success, held December 9, 2015 at the Tattnall Square Center for the Arts. The celebration and announcement marked the completion of the grant-funded College Hill Alliance’s six-year tenure in office and included the naming of a newly restructured College Hill Corridor Commission, the all-volunteer, community-based task force that is overseeing the continued work of the College Hill Corridor Master Plan.
Check out the Alliance’s Final Report to the Community