September 5, 2024 • 43 mins
In this episode of Peachtree Corners Life, Rico Figliolini interviews Peachtree Corners City Manager Brian Johnson. They discuss the transformation of 25 Tech Park into a 13-unit condo, a rezoning initiative addressing office space vacancies, and future developments like outdoor parks and trails. They also explore local zoning challenges, parking solutions at The Forum, and community concerns over Jones Bridge Park. Tune in for an insightful update on city planning, public safety, and the evolving landscape of Peachtree Corners.
Resources:
Peachtree Corners Website: https://www.peachtreecornersga.gov/
Current Land Use Cases: https://www.peachtreecornersga.gov/1406/Current-Land-Use-Cases
Timestamp:
00:00:00 - Introduction and 25 Tech Park Condo Conversion
00:02:21 - Rezoning for Residential Conversion of Office Building
00:07:14 - Comparing Home Sizes and Prices in Duluth Area
00:09:48 - Efficient Redesign and Outdoor Space
00:13:47 - Addressing Vacant Office Space and Zoning Changes
00:18:04 - Land Use Planning Process Explained
00:24:36 - Concerns Over Jones Bridge Park Safety and Access
00:31:28 - Securing Community Access and Navigating Challenges
00:34:53 - Evolving Plans for Parking and Retail Development Plans
00:41:52 - Closing Thoughts
Resources:
Peachtree Corners Website: https://www.peachtreecornersga.gov/
Current Land Use Cases: https://www.peachtreecornersga.gov/1406/Current-Land-Use-Cases
Timestamp:
00:00:00 - Introduction and 25 Tech Park Condo Conversion
00:02:21 - Rezoning for Residential Conversion of Office Building
00:07:14 - Comparing Home Sizes and Prices in Duluth Area
00:09:48 - Efficient Redesign and Outdoor Space
00:13:47 - Addressing Vacant Office Space and Zoning Changes
00:18:04 - Land Use Planning Process Explained
00:24:36 - Concerns Over Jones Bridge Park Safety and Access
00:31:28 - Securing Community Access and Navigating Challenges
00:34:53 - Evolving Plans for Parking and Retail Development Plans
00:41:52 - Closing Thoughts
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is an ever evolving thing, and so you try
to build in protections against the worst case from happening.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Welcome to Prime Lunchtime with Brian Johnson, a monthly podcast
featuring the city manager and your host, Rico Figliolini, taking
the conversation beyond just talk. It's about getting the facts,
discussing the issues, and asking honest questions of our city.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Hi, everyone, this is Rico Figliolini, hosts a Pastrey Corner's Life.
This is Labor Day Weekend, interviewing and talking with Brian Johnson,
our city manager. Hey Brian, Thikoel, how are you good? Good?
Thanks for being with us. This episode, we're going to
talk a little bit about twenty five Tech Park and
the thirteen unit condo unit that's going to be working
(00:50):
out of that building. And we're also going to talk
a little bit about what the our DA is doing
with new buildings coming out and some of the rules
in that. And then we'll recap a little bit with
Jones Bridge Park and what's going on there. That's some
update on that. So why don't we start. So twenty
(01:12):
five Tech Park Technology Park Way is where a thirteen
unit condo development is going to go, and it's literally
going into a office building that's going to be cutted
out versus being torn down and going on. That's a
tell us how that's working and why they chose to
(01:33):
do that versus tearing it all down and maybe building
forty town homes there, which they could, right.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah, they could. So this one is a little bit
unique in that it's actually to back up, it's actually
twenty five Tech Parks South, I believe it's not. They're
in the infinite wisdom of whoever named the streets. Inside
of Technology Park, we have Technology Parkway which runs essentially
(02:03):
parallel to PIB to P Street Parkway, you know, in
the middle of the split in the connection coming off
into Tech Park coming off of I guess it's now
p Street Boulevard, not PIB, but coming off of their
into Tech into Tech Park Atlanta, there's a small stretch
(02:25):
of road that links up Pie Boulevard and Technology Parkway,
And of all the words that could have been used,
and they excited to call it Tech Park South or
Technology Parkway, which it doesn't even really run north south,
but regardless, that's where it is. And this is an
(02:47):
example of a property owner who's owned the office building
for twenty five plus years and approach the city with
this zoning request because the building's use for office only
as such that he doesn't believe he could generate the
(03:11):
amount of you know, rent that he could by doing
something else. And the current condition of the building is older,
so it's not competitive for those who are really looking
for so he would have to put money into renovating it.
(03:33):
And he just said, the money to put into renovating
something merely to chase you know, less office occupants, and
we've had you know, maybe ever, and so he said,
I want to do something different. He is a he's
(03:55):
a resident really a age restrict, a retirement community developer
by by trade, so he has you know, residential development
experience and wanted to do that here. It's the first
time we've allowed resident residential development in inside of Tech Park,
(04:20):
not on a main corridor like on one forty one
or you know, Phtree Boulevard. So he came in and
asked for thirteen it to be rezoned for thirteen condo
or equity units and came to that number because he's
(04:40):
taking the existing building and he's gutting it and turning
that into residential units. It's a building that overlooks the
lake in Tech Park, so it isn't a good location,
easy access to you know, two main roads out there,
and the produ ducked or the the the target audience
(05:06):
for the residential units are going to be a target
unit we've talked about here recently, which is either the
empty nester who has owned a house in Petree Corners
for a long time, they don't have kids, they want
to downsize, but I want to leave the area, and
they'd like to buy something and not rent, and there's
(05:28):
nothing really here for them to buy that doesn't basically
take what they could get out of their house and
put all of it into something else. An example that
would be Waterside. You know. Some of the complaints from
people is those units are as expensive as the home
that I would sell to move over there. What's the point?
(05:51):
And so the empty nester and it's not so you know,
too expensive, or the call it the earlier home buyer
or equity purchaser. My earlier I mean it might be
the very first time somebody buys something, and so they're
not in a position to buy something that's you know,
(06:14):
approaching a million dollars, but they want to and they
like the area, so it could be that missing middle,
you know, or the early purchaser or the empty nestor
so to be able to do that and still be
you know, have market rates and not be any kind
(06:34):
of a rent control, you know situation. The developer doesn't
want to do more units than he's asking. The city
actually was interested and that's a product that we desperately need.
And he could have done as many as maybe forty
of these units if he had demoed the building and
(06:56):
built a new building and went higher than the two
stories it currently is, maybe two additional stories, but what's
interested because he felt like the it would be you know,
of course a lot more headache and you know, everything
than a rento, and he felt like it would push
(07:16):
the price point above the one he wants to hit,
which is five. You know, wants to maybe try to
keep it at six or below. And he doesn't feel
like he can do it if he has to scrape
and do a complete rebuild, because the construction costs would
be higher, so you'd have to put more do do
you know?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Do you remember how many square feet these units are.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Each one? No? I do believe we can pull that
up as we're talking.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
The interesting part to me, I was looking at Holmes
just recently with my son, and we're looking at he
was looking at the louth for argument's sake, just kicking
stuff around. Yep, fourteen hundred square foot, four hundred thousand.
I mean some of them are not good looking homes.
They're in also older neighborhoods, like old neighborhoods, like forty
(08:11):
year old neighborhood's probably fifty about forty maybe or somewhere
around there. But they were like four hundred grand for
like fourteen hundred or thirteen hundred square foot home, which
is small for that amount of money, and it really
couldn't find anything for less than that. I mean, essentially
a Starterholme for most people will be around in this
(08:32):
area at least to lose priest for corners, forget Berkeley Lake,
it would be somewhere around four hundred thousand if you're
lucky to get that for a small home. So you're
really looking at maybe half a million for a decent
but you can call starter home maybe.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Right right, Yeah, So you know he's trying. I'm trying
to see if I can find the square footage all
right here. It is looks like there's going to be
two types of units. Six of the units are two
(09:09):
thousand square feet three bedroom, three bath, and the remaining
units looks like will be fifteen hundred square feet two bedroom,
three bath, and it'll have direct access to Oh and
(09:31):
what's part of this rezoning is for the developer to
put in the section of our multi use trail that
goes going around that lake. So it now we've also
got verbal commitment from the owner of the only property
(09:53):
that's in between this one we're talking about and ash Ray,
which is where our trail ends. They are very open
for us to do the trail at the back of
the air So it looks like we'll be all the
way around almost to be able to link up to
what Courtland did way back when it was built. What, yes,
(10:16):
eight years ago, seven years.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Ago, I think Courtland Apartments you're talking about, which was
called something else before that, I think. Yeah, it was
so interesting to me when you mentioned that about you
know that actually work in the same building, because we
at one point talked about repurposing office buildings that it's
not easy to do that. It's actually difficult to do
(10:39):
that because the plumbing, doesn't you know, people look at
that and say, well, can't they repurpose? Well, if you
look at a typical office building and the restrooms are
probably in the center or in a certain place, and
so they're not all spread out. I mean you have
to work your piping and all that. So my assumption
is they're going to cut out this building totally, and
we worked at piping to be able to make it work.
(11:00):
It is to me right.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Facil It's only two stories and it's built into the
slope as it slopes away from you know, the property
slopes away Technology Parkway south down towards the lake. So
each of the units will enter at grade for them.
(11:23):
So there's no stairs in these units.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Okay, yeah, I'm looking at the elevation plant.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yes, stacked over each other, so that that's you know,
it saves eighty a compliance. They don't have to put
you know, raiders in and they the I guess the
joice in between the two floors built the way that
(11:50):
there's a lot of room for them to then re
run plumbing's two stories. If they rerun it, they just
get to go both directs, you know, have the unit.
So it just it was you know, one of those
where it worked out the way the building was built. Yeah,
So I mean again, we'd love to have more of
(12:12):
this product, right.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
But you know, so I'm looking, yeah, and I'm looking
at the I guess the the survey plot because there's
a lot of parking around there.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
So what are they doing with that because apparently, you know,
I mean it's thirteen units, and I can't see thirteen
units using all that parking. Au They're not.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
They're reducing the impervious surface footprint of the property by
over thirteen thousand square feet.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Okay, and so the.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
The parking let's see the total parking spaces on there
is forty six for this right, which is a pretty
significant reduction. What they're doing with the remain of the
parking spots that they're ripping out is putting it up
a park, an outdoor area for the residents.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Okay, no amenities, I'm just just a park area. Is
that along the trail?
Speaker 1 (13:23):
It is so you know, the of course the trail
will be right along the shoreline of the lake, including
much like if you've been on it behind Nash Ray,
some of it's out on piers even out from so
there'll be a lot of that there, and they'll have
a connection from that section out to the road so
(13:46):
you can get out to the sidewalk there and to
walk parts. And then that green space that they're creating
is just going to be for the residents and it's
not activated. I think it'll probably be seating and maybe
tree ease and maybe something so not big and not
open to everybody, you don't need it.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Okay, this has been going on for a while too,
I think right their application has been in there for
a while. So this obviously was approved just recently at
this last city council meeting.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Yes, this last.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
So we have a moratorium going on right now, which
will end at some point soon. There's going to be
a meeting set up in an open house probably October fifth,
if I remember correctly, that's your son that people. It's
a public meeting. People will be able to go to
talk about the more talk about some of the improvement
to code regulations dealing with buildings redevelopment. I want to
(14:46):
just talk briefly about that. Yeah, so the more we're
going to have another we'll have another podcast on this
with Sean Adams about this.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
But if you could just speak too well because I
have some who's more of a subject matter expert than
me and that's Sean. But you know what we did
is we wanted to and you know, I think if
those who keep up with this stuff, no, we started
to have a quite a significant increase in in larger
(15:21):
rezoning requests coming into the city, kind of our central
business district, if you will. We had some really big ones,
you know, the Da Vinci Court Day Building, and you
know that's just you know, a year after you had
some other significant ones like at the Forum. And we
(15:41):
know that with the office product, the office market being
as soft and under you know, significant duress right now,
that combined with we had office product owners starting to
come to the city with all sorts of some of
them unique, some of them you could maybe go so
(16:03):
far as to say weird or like uses that we're like, eh,
But some of them were in a gray area because
you've never had a situation where existing office product was
in vision to ever have some of these uses, so
code doesn't specifically speak to it. So it started to
(16:25):
get to where so we were like, we need to
just take a pause, and this moratorium is again only
for a certain area of the city only for certain uses.
And in fact, the twenty five Tech Park South is
the last one that got in that their application came
in before the moratorium started, which is why these things
(16:47):
take a while to get through the system, if you will,
the process. And we just knew that we needed to
relook at our code. We needed to add protections where
we might need to add protections, We needed to add
language where it might be we want some you know,
some of the uses that these owners have been proposing.
(17:10):
We wanted to be flexible so that we weren't sitting
on office product that not only was vacant and not
generating any revenue for the cities, you know, through our
occupational tax, which is our you know, one of our
most significant revenue streams since we don't have city property tax.
But we didn't want office product to not only you know,
(17:32):
go vacant from that standpoint, but vacant office product is
not climate controlled. It starts to fall apart quicker when
people aren't in it taking care of it, and you
just run the risk of the building going down into
a state of disrepair such that then nobody would ever
want it. And then if then you get into problems
(17:53):
beyond that, you.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Know, so having them at a time which comes comes
to end Son it was a smart move and I
think right and given the city an opportunity to address
all those issues. So that that's coming up to a
public meeting too, because there'll be suggestions of what those
changes are.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Our internal experts and some external consultants and land used
experts have been working on this together and they are
about ready to have again a product that's worthy of
the public, you know, hearing and weighing in on. That'll
(18:36):
be the October fifth date from open house where you
can come in and see what's being proposed. At the
end of that, there's a little bit of time that
we can take any input from the public and tweak it,
and then it'll go in front of Planning Commission and
then ultimately in front of City Council.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
What I what I want to point out to people too,
is that the city's taken the improvement to the website.
So if you're looking at land use plans and such,
it was a little bit more difficult to find that,
not because it was being hidden, but just because government
websites are it always the easiest to navigate, but you
all have really improved the website quite a bit communication wise,
(19:17):
and although there may people may be people out there
that feel that they are not aware of what's going on,
stuff is getting out there in a variety of ways.
You know, not everyone's listening. There's a lot of noise
out there and stuff. But you all did a good
job with There's a link on the website like people
to know called land use cases. This is at the
(19:37):
city's website right on the homepage. If you go there,
you can actually see the current land use cases that
are filed and active along with their application, the site
plan staff report, when the first public hearing is or
read rather and when the second read is which is
the public hearing where comments could be made, and such
(20:00):
a lot of information here and there's kind of this one, two, three, four,
this five cases right now active as we speak. One
of them was approved, that was the twenty five Technology
Parkway South. But so if you're interested in what's coming up,
this is the pace to go to there and then.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Don't forget like and we're going to change it based
on your zoo jet Umbrico. But it'll essentially say how
does an application become a product first got a product project?
How does an application ultimately become a project? And we
created four different ways that somebody might be able to
(20:43):
kind of see, and it is complicated. There's a lot
of law involved, a lot of public meeting and you
know the public hearing requirements. I mean, it's a big deal,
as we all know. So we describe the process and
we're different like ways, and so for somebody who wants
(21:04):
to know, well, how does almost like how does a
bill become a law? This is essentially have application become
a project?
Speaker 3 (21:11):
That's right, and it's really it's really easy and it's
really easy. The first part that you go to is
how does land News application become a proved project? And
it shows thirteen steps and it'll explain each one of
the steps from pre application meeting all the way to
fees paid, all the way to public hearings, all the
(21:33):
way to planning and commission public hearing. I mean, it's
thirteen steps through this before you finally get to permitting
the piece. But it's so for anyone that doesn't know
the process, it is a long process to do this
and does take time.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Charge and you know when you do it in all
the arrows that you're going are out. You know, you're like, wow,
there are a lot of steps, but there needs to
be yes. And you know, our steps are the same
steps that everybody else, every other local government has to
go through. You know, there's some slightly different ways they
(22:12):
do some of those steps, but we all have to
go through those steps. So hopefully this will make it
a little bit easier, and then hopefully this may a
little bit easier to understand the process and specific cases
a little bit easier to find them. I believe. Now
there are seven different vectors in which you can get
to the same land use document. You can get to
(22:35):
it from the council agenda or a Planning Commission agenda.
If you happen to know that, you can get to
it from our calendar, if you know the date, you
get to it from you know, the department, from the homepage,
you know, any way we could think of that. Somebody
might think, oh, I want to find that information. We
(22:57):
link it to the same you know, packet of documents
that you described. Hopefully it makes a little bit easier
and this is based on things we're working on anthem
input from the community.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
So yeah, no, this is a terrific improvement. I haven't
usually city government, county websites. It's a very difficult process
to find things because it's because of the way it's done.
It's they're not companies, you know, doing making things easier
because it's commercially viable for them too. It's not an
(23:28):
Apple website or you know, but you all have improved
in and it's so much easier now to find to
find those applications than it was before.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Hey, you know, rico. Our biggest challenge, most government's biggest
challenge when it comes to the website is too much
information because everybody, you know, by law, we have to
be transparent and then be on the minimum transparencies if
you will. Residents citizens are always saying, you know, well
(24:02):
I didn't know that, or where do I find that information?
Should make it, you know, publicly accessible? Well, our website
is the epicenter of that. Everything linked to that. Social
media posts link back to the website, newsletters back to
the website. So our website is constantly under pressure to
(24:22):
put more because people are like that should have been
made available to the public, Well, how do you make
it available? And you put it on the website, and
so it is a challenge for us to make it.
Put lots of things on the website, but not make
it's so so crammed and condensed that it's just hard
to find. And that challenge you just brought up is
(24:45):
a real challenge that we will struggle with probably all
the time.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Yeah, I'm sure. And there's a lot. I mean, just
doing the dropdown menus, you could see dozens of choices
a where to go, and the website is chock full
of information, I mean this amount of information depending on
who you are and what you're looking for. So I
wanted to actually touch upon something else too that we
spoke about last time, which was Jones Bridge Park and
(25:13):
what's going on there. There's some updates. I know there's
a public meeting that's going to be held let me
just say that October October fifteen. Yeah, right at two
o'clock at Pictonville Community Center. So it's being held by
(25:34):
the community group that you know, very intimate knowledge of
Jones Bridge Park. A lot of stuff going on there.
So we talked a little bit about it. But if
you can give us again brief about where we are
with this, that would be great.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Well, this is kind of this meeting that you just
referred to in some previous ones are the result of
residents who live in homes that are up against Jones
Bridge Park or or nearby you know, neighborhoods that suffer
(26:15):
the you know, loss of quality of life at best,
if not. There have been instances where somebody ran from
police down into Jones Bridge Park. It's a dead end.
They bail and they're running through neighborhoods the middle of
the night with you know, law enforcement chasing them, including
(26:36):
you know, you know aviation units like their helicopter up
you know, with search lights, and so there's you know,
there's some concerns. And Jones Bridge Park is unique in
that it's one of the few parks at least in
North Metro Atlanta, that has access to the Chattahoochee River
(27:00):
all the way down to where there are man made
improvements for you to get into the river versus like
walking down a you know, unimproved you know, with bank.
It's also one of the few places that has I
wouldn't call them rapids, but some white water right there.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Rocks that were added out crops to the river and.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Such, right and then it's been improved over the years
to have lots of covered pavilion you know, barbecue pits,
things like that, playgrounds. So it's a big park and
it's popular for those who might not have access to
pools or want or barbecue or just grounds. But unfortunately,
(27:51):
when the park closes, there are people who like to
go back in there, and it's a big park and
it goes way back, winds way back in there, and
residents have brought up some concerns and you know, the authority,
ultimate authority, but the ultimate responsible party is Gwenette County
(28:11):
because it's a Parks and Rec Department asset, and residents
are concerned that there's access to the park because there's
not a gate that's being closed when the park closes,
and so people go back there, and uh, it's a
(28:32):
minority of the time if there's somebody back there that
one ATPD is even either notified or able to send
an asset there to deal with a trespasser. And as
a result, people go back there and they do some
pretty I mean, we've had you know, gun fire back there, luckily,
(28:55):
but a lot of yeah, and then a lot of
the stuff, even short drag racing and doing donuts back
there speakers, you know you're talking about right, you know,
like it, I think the hours are dawned to dusk
(29:16):
of the park and so you know, depending on when
the time of the year, it could be you know,
as early as six or seven where it's dark and
people are still doing things, and so people go back there,
loud music, drugs. We've had a lot of inappropriate behavior
back there and you know, responds when Connet, when Gunette
(29:38):
can respond, but it's not been enough and you know
for the residents to feel like their quality of life
and safety is being protected, and so this frustration is
born out of that.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Yeah, there are definitely a lot more people using the
park over the past few years than they weren't before.
So I think it's just got more aggravating for people.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
So Metro Atlanta is growing, so it's not going to
get any less.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
No, it's just trying to figure out how to you know,
I know, the city was going to pay for the
for the gate, the time gate to go down, and
the maintenance of it is negligible over a year. But
you know, I mean, yeah, we're not empty, right.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Yeah, So the county, you know, the Parks and rec
Department of Gwenec County. It's their facility, them not closing
and opening a gate. You know. Their contention is, we
don't have the staff to do that, right, but the
residents themselves have offered to be the ones to do that,
(30:49):
you know, like, look, let us open and close it
every day, so at least we prevent it. They haven't
wanted to do that. I don't know the reason. I
suspect it might be the well, you know, what happens
if they close it and then they don't open it,
you know, early enough forgets the next day or what.
(31:10):
I don't know. I would submit that, you know, I
think we talked about last time where the fields Club
has multiple facilities, and they have multiple entrances to multiple facilities,
and the fields Club doesn't have staff be able to
open and close it every day. So the residents that
(31:32):
are nearby there just kind of basically they just because
they're you know, oftentimes ten feet away from the gate
or much farther, they just kind of, you know, organize
a little spreadsheet. Hey, Rico, you'll do it on this day.
I'll do it this day, and you just go out
there and close it and it's unlocked the next day.
And when it started, I remember, you know, Field's Club
(31:54):
happen to be on the board saying, look, if it
doesn't work out, well, we're going to have to you know,
not allow you to do that anymore, you know, if
you're walking it before somebody can get out and they had,
you know, the authority to be back there or whatever.
That's worked out well. So I'm not sure why Gwinett
didn't say, well, we'll let you try it unless you
(32:16):
screw it up and then we'll you know, remove that.
But they just said no thanks. So then at the
city we offered to buy and have installed a vehicular
gate similar to what you see at say railroad crossings,
and have that gate. We researched ones that automatically go
(32:37):
down at a certain time and go back up at
another time, so it could be programmed to do it automatically,
and it was remotely accessible so that emergency services could
have it go up, you know, if they needed to
get back there. And we offered to donate and install
it if Gwenett would then take it over because it
(33:00):
would be securing their park and it would be at
their entrance and we don't have the authority to restrict
some access to property that the city doesn't own. And
we the company that quoted the price for the you know,
purchase and install also gave us price about one thousand
(33:22):
dollars for the annual maintenance for this company to do
annual maintenance and for them to have the remote accessibility,
so it would have been they accepted it, you know,
and one thousand dollars a year bind you the an
organization that has over a billion dollar budget, but thousand
(33:42):
dollars a year, and they have declined that option as well,
So I'm not sure where. So we will also have
a presence at that October meeting, but you know, the fifteenth,
we'll have a presence at that meeting as well. Our
marshalls will. But unfortunately it's not going to get better.
(34:06):
We've got to figure out something and so hopefully we can.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
Yeah, it's always there's one thing or another that goes
on in the city, everything from town Center parking that
to the Forum to all these other places. There was
just another purchase done in the community of the nine
million dollar purchase of the shopping center on Hulkinbridge Road
(34:30):
where it used to be the Outback Center. The restaurant
used to be there. But that's where you'll see petre
Quorinna's eye clinic, Duncan doona Taco bell. So that property
was just purchased.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Nor property was just bought by Jamestown.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
There you go. There was another bright now and I
spoke to someone from the North American Properties. Nothing will change.
Apparently it will continue on with the plan that they
that they have the improvements that they want to do.
So you know, but yeah, things change, right they do.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
See. You know, no government can say, well, you know,
you can never sell it or you can never you know,
do this. We'd love to, but you know, we can't
ensure that a company remains a viable company. Companies go
out of business, they merge, they make business decisions to
go different directions. I mean, it is an ever evolving thing,
(35:31):
and so you try to build in protections against the
worst case from happening. But you know, legally we can
only go so far. We just want to make sure
we go as far as the law allows us to
restrict certain things from happening after that initial you know change.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
I mean, you know, we're fortunately that we have a
good nigh but there for example, at the forum, I
mean that's just opened the plaza. They're going to move
on to I think the parking deck later next year
or something.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
They're working because that'll be Yeah, that's certainly. There are
people who have been complaining about why would they remove
some parking if they didn't already have a and you
know it's it's not.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
It's just a nice looking place. Now, yeah, it is.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Well, I will say an update on the parking though.
They have made the decision that it's more cost effective
for them to take the overflow parking for for you know,
those who were visiting the proper shoppers, if you will,
(36:45):
and they were going to move that and put it
in the service parking lot by Belk. Yes, but given
the amount of utilities storm water, water and sewer everything.
Speaker 4 (36:57):
That are underground and what it would take, they're going
to add it to the pedestal that will be part
of the parking for the apartments and the hotel on
each side of the front entrance.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
So if you're coming in off of one forty one,
parking decks on both sides as you're going down kind
of the angle towards the fountain, and that's all. They're
going to add another level on each side for the
shoppers to park at, and then those who are either
(37:36):
in the multifamily or the hotel are in other levels,
So that'll that'll be where the it's called pedestal, it's
built in where you have the units above it, and
that's where so you know, really it's the same distance
of a walk. Maybe it's a little bit easier to
get to it drive into it, so you wouldn't have
(37:58):
to go through the fountain and across the way to
the back.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
So when would that happen.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Then it's still happened at the same time. It's just
they're going to build the parking for the shoppers first.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
Yeah, we're going to continue to.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Go up above it when it's time for the hotel
or the multifamily to go in.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
So when you're driving up, there's a part where it
sinks down on either side, so we're going to build
and that's parking right there. Also that they're going to
build the deck then onto that parking, those parks.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Do one level below it and then keep going. Yeah,
that's when you're driving down from Peatreet Parkway Forum Drive,
you're driving to the fountain. Right on each side there
there is you know below that ran down there. There's
the ability. It's one's behind what is it Alta? I
(38:59):
think it's the back of Alta, and the other one
is the back of Barnes and Noble.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
It's not all title. The Culta is on the other side,
so it's behind Barnes and Noble. And then what's the one. Yeah,
I forget what the retail is over there. It's a
retail store. Figure what that is. So definitely where your
and there's still I know they're still you know, able
to do the apartments is what they want to do
above that area, and they still the Indigo, a boutique
(39:28):
hotel of some sort, was posted on the other side.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
I think, yeah, the only change is just moving the
shoppers parking from where the Belks was too closer to
the road.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
Okay, so they're not doing anything back there, like you said,
because of utilities, And because I drove back there recently.
I would stop back there this past weekend to go
up to to do some shopping, and and I noticed
the utilities and stuff like that. I was wondering how
they would build that out there.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
It more expensive to do all that than it is
to add a level on the two sides of the
main entrance.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
So which vision because I was thincond also because isn't
that retaining wool back there too. I think the weight
of that parking deck on there, I was second, it's
going to be tremendous with the deck and the cars.
It's just like they were going.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
To filings in New York, but they were going to
have to relocate utility lines. You start getting into and
I think there's also a Georgia Power has got a
what do they call it transform? Yeah, maybe it's a
or a transform like it's a station. It does multiple things.
(40:42):
It could be anyway. Georgia Power has got what they
need to serve. The entire property is back in that
parking lot. So so you know, the residents who live
back in the amberfield, you know, should be happy because
there won't be each change back there.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
Yeah, yeah, you know they you know, but those who
are complaining about, oh, there's not enough parking because.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
They've removed some in the middle, you know, do what
they did. I mean, there is parking plenty right now,
it's just you have to walk maybe a little bit
farther than finding And I know that's frustrated. Who wouldn't
like to park right in front.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
Of But if you could park right in front of something,
that means there's not enough business going on enough for anything.
That's that's really what that is. And if you're walking
and you go to the plaza side, I mean, they've
done a really nice job there. I think in the
area that you know, you can eat, you can hang
out there. The more stuff that will be, more of
(41:49):
the restaurants. I mean, it's just it's just going to
be a nicer atmosphere to be I think. Brian, thank you.
It's been been a pleasure learning more about what the
city's doing and stuff. So everyone, thank you for being
part of you know, for listening in, and if you
(42:09):
have any questions, for sure put into the comments. This
is a simulcast live feed if that's what you're listening
to on Facebook or YouTube. So we'll try to answer
them post the show, and I'll put some of the
links to some of these things that we talked about
in the show notes. That's so you can find it
there as well. But hanging there for a second, Brian,
(42:29):
but thank you again for being with us, and also
thank you for our sponsor ev Remodeling Eli, who does
a great job in building renovation work from start to finish,
so check them out. He's a resident of Peace Recorders.
His website is ev remodeling ink dot com. Great guy,
(42:52):
so check out and we appreciate their support for these
podcasts and our publication. Thanks again, take care of guys.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
You've been listening to Prime Lunchtime with Brian Johnson, the
City Manager of Peachtree Corners, Georgia, with your host Rico Figlioni.
The show is part of a family of podcasts produced
by Peachtree Corners Magazine and Mighty Rockets. To find more
episodes of this show or our other podcasts, visit Living
in Peachtreecorners dot com or follow us on Facebook at
(43:24):
Peachtree Corner's Life
It is an ever evolving thing, and so you try
to build in protections against the worst case from happening.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Welcome to Prime Lunchtime with Brian Johnson, a monthly podcast
featuring the city manager and your host, Rico Figliolini, taking
the conversation beyond just talk. It's about getting the facts,
discussing the issues, and asking honest questions of our city.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Hi, everyone, this is Rico Figliolini, hosts a Pastrey Corner's Life.
This is Labor Day Weekend, interviewing and talking with Brian Johnson,
our city manager. Hey Brian, Thikoel, how are you good? Good?
Thanks for being with us. This episode, we're going to
talk a little bit about twenty five Tech Park and
the thirteen unit condo unit that's going to be working
(00:50):
out of that building. And we're also going to talk
a little bit about what the our DA is doing
with new buildings coming out and some of the rules
in that. And then we'll recap a little bit with
Jones Bridge Park and what's going on there. That's some
update on that. So why don't we start. So twenty
(01:12):
five Tech Park Technology Park Way is where a thirteen
unit condo development is going to go, and it's literally
going into a office building that's going to be cutted
out versus being torn down and going on. That's a
tell us how that's working and why they chose to
(01:33):
do that versus tearing it all down and maybe building
forty town homes there, which they could, right.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah, they could. So this one is a little bit
unique in that it's actually to back up, it's actually
twenty five Tech Parks South, I believe it's not. They're
in the infinite wisdom of whoever named the streets. Inside
of Technology Park, we have Technology Parkway which runs essentially
(02:03):
parallel to PIB to P Street Parkway, you know, in
the middle of the split in the connection coming off
into Tech Park coming off of I guess it's now
p Street Boulevard, not PIB, but coming off of their
into Tech into Tech Park Atlanta, there's a small stretch
(02:25):
of road that links up Pie Boulevard and Technology Parkway,
And of all the words that could have been used,
and they excited to call it Tech Park South or
Technology Parkway, which it doesn't even really run north south,
but regardless, that's where it is. And this is an
(02:47):
example of a property owner who's owned the office building
for twenty five plus years and approach the city with
this zoning request because the building's use for office only
as such that he doesn't believe he could generate the
(03:11):
amount of you know, rent that he could by doing
something else. And the current condition of the building is older,
so it's not competitive for those who are really looking
for so he would have to put money into renovating it.
(03:33):
And he just said, the money to put into renovating
something merely to chase you know, less office occupants, and
we've had you know, maybe ever, and so he said,
I want to do something different. He is a he's
(03:55):
a resident really a age restrict, a retirement community developer
by by trade, so he has you know, residential development
experience and wanted to do that here. It's the first
time we've allowed resident residential development in inside of Tech Park,
(04:20):
not on a main corridor like on one forty one
or you know, Phtree Boulevard. So he came in and
asked for thirteen it to be rezoned for thirteen condo
or equity units and came to that number because he's
(04:40):
taking the existing building and he's gutting it and turning
that into residential units. It's a building that overlooks the
lake in Tech Park, so it isn't a good location,
easy access to you know, two main roads out there,
and the produ ducked or the the the target audience
(05:06):
for the residential units are going to be a target
unit we've talked about here recently, which is either the
empty nester who has owned a house in Petree Corners
for a long time, they don't have kids, they want
to downsize, but I want to leave the area, and
they'd like to buy something and not rent, and there's
(05:28):
nothing really here for them to buy that doesn't basically
take what they could get out of their house and
put all of it into something else. An example that
would be Waterside. You know. Some of the complaints from
people is those units are as expensive as the home
that I would sell to move over there. What's the point?
(05:51):
And so the empty nester and it's not so you know,
too expensive, or the call it the earlier home buyer
or equity purchaser. My earlier I mean it might be
the very first time somebody buys something, and so they're
not in a position to buy something that's you know,
(06:14):
approaching a million dollars, but they want to and they
like the area, so it could be that missing middle,
you know, or the early purchaser or the empty nestor
so to be able to do that and still be
you know, have market rates and not be any kind
(06:34):
of a rent control, you know situation. The developer doesn't
want to do more units than he's asking. The city
actually was interested and that's a product that we desperately need.
And he could have done as many as maybe forty
of these units if he had demoed the building and
(06:56):
built a new building and went higher than the two
stories it currently is, maybe two additional stories, but what's
interested because he felt like the it would be you know,
of course a lot more headache and you know, everything
than a rento, and he felt like it would push
(07:16):
the price point above the one he wants to hit,
which is five. You know, wants to maybe try to
keep it at six or below. And he doesn't feel
like he can do it if he has to scrape
and do a complete rebuild, because the construction costs would
be higher, so you'd have to put more do do
you know?
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Do you remember how many square feet these units are.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Each one? No? I do believe we can pull that
up as we're talking.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
The interesting part to me, I was looking at Holmes
just recently with my son, and we're looking at he
was looking at the louth for argument's sake, just kicking
stuff around. Yep, fourteen hundred square foot, four hundred thousand.
I mean some of them are not good looking homes.
They're in also older neighborhoods, like old neighborhoods, like forty
(08:11):
year old neighborhood's probably fifty about forty maybe or somewhere
around there. But they were like four hundred grand for
like fourteen hundred or thirteen hundred square foot home, which
is small for that amount of money, and it really
couldn't find anything for less than that. I mean, essentially
a Starterholme for most people will be around in this
(08:32):
area at least to lose priest for corners, forget Berkeley Lake,
it would be somewhere around four hundred thousand if you're
lucky to get that for a small home. So you're
really looking at maybe half a million for a decent
but you can call starter home maybe.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Right right, Yeah, So you know he's trying. I'm trying
to see if I can find the square footage all
right here. It is looks like there's going to be
two types of units. Six of the units are two
(09:09):
thousand square feet three bedroom, three bath, and the remaining
units looks like will be fifteen hundred square feet two bedroom,
three bath, and it'll have direct access to Oh and
(09:31):
what's part of this rezoning is for the developer to
put in the section of our multi use trail that
goes going around that lake. So it now we've also
got verbal commitment from the owner of the only property
(09:53):
that's in between this one we're talking about and ash Ray,
which is where our trail ends. They are very open
for us to do the trail at the back of
the air So it looks like we'll be all the
way around almost to be able to link up to
what Courtland did way back when it was built. What, yes,
(10:16):
eight years ago, seven years.
Speaker 3 (10:19):
Ago, I think Courtland Apartments you're talking about, which was
called something else before that, I think. Yeah, it was
so interesting to me when you mentioned that about you
know that actually work in the same building, because we
at one point talked about repurposing office buildings that it's
not easy to do that. It's actually difficult to do
(10:39):
that because the plumbing, doesn't you know, people look at
that and say, well, can't they repurpose? Well, if you
look at a typical office building and the restrooms are
probably in the center or in a certain place, and
so they're not all spread out. I mean you have
to work your piping and all that. So my assumption
is they're going to cut out this building totally, and
we worked at piping to be able to make it work.
(11:00):
It is to me right.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Facil It's only two stories and it's built into the
slope as it slopes away from you know, the property
slopes away Technology Parkway south down towards the lake. So
each of the units will enter at grade for them.
(11:23):
So there's no stairs in these units.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Okay, yeah, I'm looking at the elevation plant.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Yes, stacked over each other, so that that's you know,
it saves eighty a compliance. They don't have to put
you know, raiders in and they the I guess the
joice in between the two floors built the way that
(11:50):
there's a lot of room for them to then re
run plumbing's two stories. If they rerun it, they just
get to go both directs, you know, have the unit.
So it just it was you know, one of those
where it worked out the way the building was built. Yeah,
So I mean again, we'd love to have more of
(12:12):
this product, right.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
But you know, so I'm looking, yeah, and I'm looking
at the I guess the the survey plot because there's
a lot of parking around there.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
So what are they doing with that because apparently, you know,
I mean it's thirteen units, and I can't see thirteen
units using all that parking. Au They're not.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
They're reducing the impervious surface footprint of the property by
over thirteen thousand square feet.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Okay, and so the.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
The parking let's see the total parking spaces on there
is forty six for this right, which is a pretty
significant reduction. What they're doing with the remain of the
parking spots that they're ripping out is putting it up
a park, an outdoor area for the residents.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Okay, no amenities, I'm just just a park area. Is
that along the trail?
Speaker 1 (13:23):
It is so you know, the of course the trail
will be right along the shoreline of the lake, including
much like if you've been on it behind Nash Ray,
some of it's out on piers even out from so
there'll be a lot of that there, and they'll have
a connection from that section out to the road so
(13:46):
you can get out to the sidewalk there and to
walk parts. And then that green space that they're creating
is just going to be for the residents and it's
not activated. I think it'll probably be seating and maybe
tree ease and maybe something so not big and not
open to everybody, you don't need it.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Okay, this has been going on for a while too,
I think right their application has been in there for
a while. So this obviously was approved just recently at
this last city council meeting.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Yes, this last.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
So we have a moratorium going on right now, which
will end at some point soon. There's going to be
a meeting set up in an open house probably October fifth,
if I remember correctly, that's your son that people. It's
a public meeting. People will be able to go to
talk about the more talk about some of the improvement
to code regulations dealing with buildings redevelopment. I want to
(14:46):
just talk briefly about that. Yeah, so the more we're
going to have another we'll have another podcast on this
with Sean Adams about this.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
But if you could just speak too well because I
have some who's more of a subject matter expert than
me and that's Sean. But you know what we did
is we wanted to and you know, I think if
those who keep up with this stuff, no, we started
to have a quite a significant increase in in larger
(15:21):
rezoning requests coming into the city, kind of our central
business district, if you will. We had some really big ones,
you know, the Da Vinci Court Day Building, and you
know that's just you know, a year after you had
some other significant ones like at the Forum. And we
(15:41):
know that with the office product, the office market being
as soft and under you know, significant duress right now,
that combined with we had office product owners starting to
come to the city with all sorts of some of
them unique, some of them you could maybe go so
(16:03):
far as to say weird or like uses that we're like, eh,
But some of them were in a gray area because
you've never had a situation where existing office product was
in vision to ever have some of these uses, so
code doesn't specifically speak to it. So it started to
(16:25):
get to where so we were like, we need to
just take a pause, and this moratorium is again only
for a certain area of the city only for certain uses.
And in fact, the twenty five Tech Park South is
the last one that got in that their application came
in before the moratorium started, which is why these things
(16:47):
take a while to get through the system, if you will,
the process. And we just knew that we needed to
relook at our code. We needed to add protections where
we might need to add protections, We needed to add
language where it might be we want some you know,
some of the uses that these owners have been proposing.
(17:10):
We wanted to be flexible so that we weren't sitting
on office product that not only was vacant and not
generating any revenue for the cities, you know, through our
occupational tax, which is our you know, one of our
most significant revenue streams since we don't have city property tax.
But we didn't want office product to not only you know,
(17:32):
go vacant from that standpoint, but vacant office product is
not climate controlled. It starts to fall apart quicker when
people aren't in it taking care of it, and you
just run the risk of the building going down into
a state of disrepair such that then nobody would ever
want it. And then if then you get into problems
(17:53):
beyond that, you.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Know, so having them at a time which comes comes
to end Son it was a smart move and I
think right and given the city an opportunity to address
all those issues. So that that's coming up to a
public meeting too, because there'll be suggestions of what those
changes are.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Our internal experts and some external consultants and land used
experts have been working on this together and they are
about ready to have again a product that's worthy of
the public, you know, hearing and weighing in on. That'll
(18:36):
be the October fifth date from open house where you
can come in and see what's being proposed. At the
end of that, there's a little bit of time that
we can take any input from the public and tweak it,
and then it'll go in front of Planning Commission and
then ultimately in front of City Council.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
What I what I want to point out to people too,
is that the city's taken the improvement to the website.
So if you're looking at land use plans and such,
it was a little bit more difficult to find that,
not because it was being hidden, but just because government
websites are it always the easiest to navigate, but you
all have really improved the website quite a bit communication wise,
(19:17):
and although there may people may be people out there
that feel that they are not aware of what's going on,
stuff is getting out there in a variety of ways.
You know, not everyone's listening. There's a lot of noise
out there and stuff. But you all did a good
job with There's a link on the website like people
to know called land use cases. This is at the
(19:37):
city's website right on the homepage. If you go there,
you can actually see the current land use cases that
are filed and active along with their application, the site
plan staff report, when the first public hearing is or
read rather and when the second read is which is
the public hearing where comments could be made, and such
(20:00):
a lot of information here and there's kind of this one, two, three, four,
this five cases right now active as we speak. One
of them was approved, that was the twenty five Technology
Parkway South. But so if you're interested in what's coming up,
this is the pace to go to there and then.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Don't forget like and we're going to change it based
on your zoo jet Umbrico. But it'll essentially say how
does an application become a product first got a product project?
How does an application ultimately become a project? And we
created four different ways that somebody might be able to
(20:43):
kind of see, and it is complicated. There's a lot
of law involved, a lot of public meeting and you
know the public hearing requirements. I mean, it's a big deal,
as we all know. So we describe the process and
we're different like ways, and so for somebody who wants
(21:04):
to know, well, how does almost like how does a
bill become a law? This is essentially have application become
a project?
Speaker 3 (21:11):
That's right, and it's really it's really easy and it's
really easy. The first part that you go to is
how does land News application become a proved project? And
it shows thirteen steps and it'll explain each one of
the steps from pre application meeting all the way to
fees paid, all the way to public hearings, all the
(21:33):
way to planning and commission public hearing. I mean, it's
thirteen steps through this before you finally get to permitting
the piece. But it's so for anyone that doesn't know
the process, it is a long process to do this
and does take time.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Charge and you know when you do it in all
the arrows that you're going are out. You know, you're like, wow,
there are a lot of steps, but there needs to
be yes. And you know, our steps are the same
steps that everybody else, every other local government has to
go through. You know, there's some slightly different ways they
(22:12):
do some of those steps, but we all have to
go through those steps. So hopefully this will make it
a little bit easier, and then hopefully this may a
little bit easier to understand the process and specific cases
a little bit easier to find them. I believe. Now
there are seven different vectors in which you can get
to the same land use document. You can get to
(22:35):
it from the council agenda or a Planning Commission agenda.
If you happen to know that, you can get to
it from our calendar, if you know the date, you
get to it from you know, the department, from the homepage,
you know, any way we could think of that. Somebody
might think, oh, I want to find that information. We
(22:57):
link it to the same you know, packet of documents
that you described. Hopefully it makes a little bit easier
and this is based on things we're working on anthem
input from the community.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
So yeah, no, this is a terrific improvement. I haven't
usually city government, county websites. It's a very difficult process
to find things because it's because of the way it's done.
It's they're not companies, you know, doing making things easier
because it's commercially viable for them too. It's not an
(23:28):
Apple website or you know, but you all have improved
in and it's so much easier now to find to
find those applications than it was before.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Hey, you know, rico. Our biggest challenge, most government's biggest
challenge when it comes to the website is too much
information because everybody, you know, by law, we have to
be transparent and then be on the minimum transparencies if
you will. Residents citizens are always saying, you know, well
(24:02):
I didn't know that, or where do I find that information?
Should make it, you know, publicly accessible? Well, our website
is the epicenter of that. Everything linked to that. Social
media posts link back to the website, newsletters back to
the website. So our website is constantly under pressure to
(24:22):
put more because people are like that should have been
made available to the public, Well, how do you make
it available? And you put it on the website, and
so it is a challenge for us to make it.
Put lots of things on the website, but not make
it's so so crammed and condensed that it's just hard
to find. And that challenge you just brought up is
(24:45):
a real challenge that we will struggle with probably all
the time.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Yeah, I'm sure. And there's a lot. I mean, just
doing the dropdown menus, you could see dozens of choices
a where to go, and the website is chock full
of information, I mean this amount of information depending on
who you are and what you're looking for. So I
wanted to actually touch upon something else too that we
spoke about last time, which was Jones Bridge Park and
(25:13):
what's going on there. There's some updates. I know there's
a public meeting that's going to be held let me
just say that October October fifteen. Yeah, right at two
o'clock at Pictonville Community Center. So it's being held by
(25:34):
the community group that you know, very intimate knowledge of
Jones Bridge Park. A lot of stuff going on there.
So we talked a little bit about it. But if
you can give us again brief about where we are
with this, that would be great.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Well, this is kind of this meeting that you just
referred to in some previous ones are the result of
residents who live in homes that are up against Jones
Bridge Park or or nearby you know, neighborhoods that suffer
(26:15):
the you know, loss of quality of life at best,
if not. There have been instances where somebody ran from
police down into Jones Bridge Park. It's a dead end.
They bail and they're running through neighborhoods the middle of
the night with you know, law enforcement chasing them, including
(26:36):
you know, you know aviation units like their helicopter up
you know, with search lights, and so there's you know,
there's some concerns. And Jones Bridge Park is unique in
that it's one of the few parks at least in
North Metro Atlanta, that has access to the Chattahoochee River
(27:00):
all the way down to where there are man made
improvements for you to get into the river versus like
walking down a you know, unimproved you know, with bank.
It's also one of the few places that has I
wouldn't call them rapids, but some white water right there.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
Rocks that were added out crops to the river and.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Such, right and then it's been improved over the years
to have lots of covered pavilion you know, barbecue pits,
things like that, playgrounds. So it's a big park and
it's popular for those who might not have access to
pools or want or barbecue or just grounds. But unfortunately,
(27:51):
when the park closes, there are people who like to
go back in there, and it's a big park and
it goes way back, winds way back in there, and
residents have brought up some concerns and you know, the authority,
ultimate authority, but the ultimate responsible party is Gwenette County
(28:11):
because it's a Parks and Rec Department asset, and residents
are concerned that there's access to the park because there's
not a gate that's being closed when the park closes,
and so people go back there, and uh, it's a
(28:32):
minority of the time if there's somebody back there that
one ATPD is even either notified or able to send
an asset there to deal with a trespasser. And as
a result, people go back there and they do some
pretty I mean, we've had you know, gun fire back there, luckily,
(28:55):
but a lot of yeah, and then a lot of
the stuff, even short drag racing and doing donuts back
there speakers, you know you're talking about right, you know,
like it, I think the hours are dawned to dusk
(29:16):
of the park and so you know, depending on when
the time of the year, it could be you know,
as early as six or seven where it's dark and
people are still doing things, and so people go back there,
loud music, drugs. We've had a lot of inappropriate behavior
back there and you know, responds when Connet, when Gunette
(29:38):
can respond, but it's not been enough and you know
for the residents to feel like their quality of life
and safety is being protected, and so this frustration is
born out of that.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Yeah, there are definitely a lot more people using the
park over the past few years than they weren't before.
So I think it's just got more aggravating for people.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
So Metro Atlanta is growing, so it's not going to
get any less.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
No, it's just trying to figure out how to you know,
I know, the city was going to pay for the
for the gate, the time gate to go down, and
the maintenance of it is negligible over a year. But
you know, I mean, yeah, we're not empty, right.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Yeah, So the county, you know, the Parks and rec
Department of Gwenec County. It's their facility, them not closing
and opening a gate. You know. Their contention is, we
don't have the staff to do that, right, but the
residents themselves have offered to be the ones to do that,
(30:49):
you know, like, look, let us open and close it
every day, so at least we prevent it. They haven't
wanted to do that. I don't know the reason. I
suspect it might be the well, you know, what happens
if they close it and then they don't open it,
you know, early enough forgets the next day or what.
(31:10):
I don't know. I would submit that, you know, I
think we talked about last time where the fields Club
has multiple facilities, and they have multiple entrances to multiple facilities,
and the fields Club doesn't have staff be able to
open and close it every day. So the residents that
(31:32):
are nearby there just kind of basically they just because
they're you know, oftentimes ten feet away from the gate
or much farther, they just kind of, you know, organize
a little spreadsheet. Hey, Rico, you'll do it on this day.
I'll do it this day, and you just go out
there and close it and it's unlocked the next day.
And when it started, I remember, you know, Field's Club
(31:54):
happen to be on the board saying, look, if it
doesn't work out, well, we're going to have to you know,
not allow you to do that anymore, you know, if
you're walking it before somebody can get out and they had,
you know, the authority to be back there or whatever.
That's worked out well. So I'm not sure why Gwinett
didn't say, well, we'll let you try it unless you
(32:16):
screw it up and then we'll you know, remove that.
But they just said no thanks. So then at the
city we offered to buy and have installed a vehicular
gate similar to what you see at say railroad crossings,
and have that gate. We researched ones that automatically go
(32:37):
down at a certain time and go back up at
another time, so it could be programmed to do it automatically,
and it was remotely accessible so that emergency services could
have it go up, you know, if they needed to
get back there. And we offered to donate and install
it if Gwenett would then take it over because it
(33:00):
would be securing their park and it would be at
their entrance and we don't have the authority to restrict
some access to property that the city doesn't own. And
we the company that quoted the price for the you know,
purchase and install also gave us price about one thousand
(33:22):
dollars for the annual maintenance for this company to do
annual maintenance and for them to have the remote accessibility,
so it would have been they accepted it, you know,
and one thousand dollars a year bind you the an
organization that has over a billion dollar budget, but thousand
(33:42):
dollars a year, and they have declined that option as well,
So I'm not sure where. So we will also have
a presence at that October meeting, but you know, the fifteenth,
we'll have a presence at that meeting as well. Our
marshalls will. But unfortunately it's not going to get better.
(34:06):
We've got to figure out something and so hopefully we can.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
Yeah, it's always there's one thing or another that goes
on in the city, everything from town Center parking that
to the Forum to all these other places. There was
just another purchase done in the community of the nine
million dollar purchase of the shopping center on Hulkinbridge Road
(34:30):
where it used to be the Outback Center. The restaurant
used to be there. But that's where you'll see petre
Quorinna's eye clinic, Duncan doona Taco bell. So that property
was just purchased.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Nor property was just bought by Jamestown.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
There you go. There was another bright now and I
spoke to someone from the North American Properties. Nothing will change.
Apparently it will continue on with the plan that they
that they have the improvements that they want to do.
So you know, but yeah, things change, right they do.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
See. You know, no government can say, well, you know,
you can never sell it or you can never you know,
do this. We'd love to, but you know, we can't
ensure that a company remains a viable company. Companies go
out of business, they merge, they make business decisions to
go different directions. I mean, it is an ever evolving thing,
(35:31):
and so you try to build in protections against the
worst case from happening. But you know, legally we can
only go so far. We just want to make sure
we go as far as the law allows us to
restrict certain things from happening after that initial you know change.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
I mean, you know, we're fortunately that we have a
good nigh but there for example, at the forum, I
mean that's just opened the plaza. They're going to move
on to I think the parking deck later next year
or something.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
They're working because that'll be Yeah, that's certainly. There are
people who have been complaining about why would they remove
some parking if they didn't already have a and you
know it's it's not.
Speaker 3 (36:20):
It's just a nice looking place. Now, yeah, it is.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Well, I will say an update on the parking though.
They have made the decision that it's more cost effective
for them to take the overflow parking for for you know,
those who were visiting the proper shoppers, if you will,
(36:45):
and they were going to move that and put it
in the service parking lot by Belk. Yes, but given
the amount of utilities storm water, water and sewer everything.
Speaker 4 (36:57):
That are underground and what it would take, they're going
to add it to the pedestal that will be part
of the parking for the apartments and the hotel on
each side of the front entrance.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
So if you're coming in off of one forty one,
parking decks on both sides as you're going down kind
of the angle towards the fountain, and that's all. They're
going to add another level on each side for the
shoppers to park at, and then those who are either
(37:36):
in the multifamily or the hotel are in other levels,
So that'll that'll be where the it's called pedestal, it's
built in where you have the units above it, and
that's where so you know, really it's the same distance
of a walk. Maybe it's a little bit easier to
get to it drive into it, so you wouldn't have
(37:58):
to go through the fountain and across the way to
the back.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
So when would that happen.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
Then it's still happened at the same time. It's just
they're going to build the parking for the shoppers first.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
Yeah, we're going to continue to.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Go up above it when it's time for the hotel
or the multifamily to go in.
Speaker 3 (38:22):
So when you're driving up, there's a part where it
sinks down on either side, so we're going to build
and that's parking right there. Also that they're going to
build the deck then onto that parking, those parks.
Speaker 1 (38:37):
Do one level below it and then keep going. Yeah,
that's when you're driving down from Peatreet Parkway Forum Drive,
you're driving to the fountain. Right on each side there
there is you know below that ran down there. There's
the ability. It's one's behind what is it Alta? I
(38:59):
think it's the back of Alta, and the other one
is the back of Barnes and Noble.
Speaker 3 (39:04):
It's not all title. The Culta is on the other side,
so it's behind Barnes and Noble. And then what's the one. Yeah,
I forget what the retail is over there. It's a
retail store. Figure what that is. So definitely where your
and there's still I know they're still you know, able
to do the apartments is what they want to do
above that area, and they still the Indigo, a boutique
(39:28):
hotel of some sort, was posted on the other side.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
I think, yeah, the only change is just moving the
shoppers parking from where the Belks was too closer to
the road.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
Okay, so they're not doing anything back there, like you said,
because of utilities, And because I drove back there recently.
I would stop back there this past weekend to go
up to to do some shopping, and and I noticed
the utilities and stuff like that. I was wondering how
they would build that out there.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
It more expensive to do all that than it is
to add a level on the two sides of the
main entrance.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
So which vision because I was thincond also because isn't
that retaining wool back there too. I think the weight
of that parking deck on there, I was second, it's
going to be tremendous with the deck and the cars.
It's just like they were going.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
To filings in New York, but they were going to
have to relocate utility lines. You start getting into and
I think there's also a Georgia Power has got a
what do they call it transform? Yeah, maybe it's a
or a transform like it's a station. It does multiple things.
(40:42):
It could be anyway. Georgia Power has got what they
need to serve. The entire property is back in that
parking lot. So so you know, the residents who live
back in the amberfield, you know, should be happy because
there won't be each change back there.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
Yeah, yeah, you know they you know, but those who
are complaining about, oh, there's not enough parking because.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
They've removed some in the middle, you know, do what
they did. I mean, there is parking plenty right now,
it's just you have to walk maybe a little bit
farther than finding And I know that's frustrated. Who wouldn't
like to park right in front.
Speaker 3 (41:26):
Of But if you could park right in front of something,
that means there's not enough business going on enough for anything.
That's that's really what that is. And if you're walking
and you go to the plaza side, I mean, they've
done a really nice job there. I think in the
area that you know, you can eat, you can hang
out there. The more stuff that will be, more of
(41:49):
the restaurants. I mean, it's just it's just going to
be a nicer atmosphere to be I think. Brian, thank you.
It's been been a pleasure learning more about what the
city's doing and stuff. So everyone, thank you for being
part of you know, for listening in, and if you
(42:09):
have any questions, for sure put into the comments. This
is a simulcast live feed if that's what you're listening
to on Facebook or YouTube. So we'll try to answer
them post the show, and I'll put some of the
links to some of these things that we talked about
in the show notes. That's so you can find it
there as well. But hanging there for a second, Brian,
(42:29):
but thank you again for being with us, and also
thank you for our sponsor ev Remodeling Eli, who does
a great job in building renovation work from start to finish,
so check them out. He's a resident of Peace Recorders.
His website is ev remodeling ink dot com. Great guy,
(42:52):
so check out and we appreciate their support for these
podcasts and our publication. Thanks again, take care of guys.
Speaker 2 (43:00):
You've been listening to Prime Lunchtime with Brian Johnson, the
City Manager of Peachtree Corners, Georgia, with your host Rico Figlioni.
The show is part of a family of podcasts produced
by Peachtree Corners Magazine and Mighty Rockets. To find more
episodes of this show or our other podcasts, visit Living
in Peachtreecorners dot com or follow us on Facebook at
(43:24):
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