Macon Magazine

38 maconmagazine.com | October/November 2026 and staff recommendations because the politics are not involved," Ruggieri said. The public is invited to comment on any matter before commissioners and agendas are publicly presented a month before each meeting to allow for input. PA I N T E D WA L L S S PA R K D E B AT E It was late summer social media posts announcing the artists selected for the 2026 festival that alerted Adams of the plans to paint the side of Vintage Threads. He's watched the owners painstakingly renovate that 1910 building and create another development on one parcel on Rogers, and the city council sided with the neighbors and overruled P&Z. Then Mayor Lewis B. Wilson was already working on plans to give independent authority to P&Z when that first board held the Ingleside hearing. The 1946 Georgia General Assembly allowed for creation of such commissions. Frustrated with the lack of authority, the first group disbanded, and The Telegraph's editorial page was peppered with calls for the mayor, council, and commissioners to do something. "Taxation is bad enough, but to have your property values depreciated by someone building a honky tonk or a drive-in theatre in front of your property is a terrible thing, but it is exactly what we face unless our two governing bodies get together and act quick," an anonymous letter writer said. The board as it is currently constituted was approved in 1952. While members of the public might not appreciate having to take P&Z to court to reverse decisions, current executive director Jeff Ruggieri said he thinks it "works wonderfully" to remove politics out of the decisions. The ten people serving on either the Design Review Board or the commission are the "best appointed officials he's worked with in 27 years," he said. "They put a lot more weight on staff research ABOVE A mural on Central City Skatepark created a sense of beauty in a public park as part of the mural festival.

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