Shaping Peachtree Corners: New Vision for the Central Business District

In this episode of Peachtree Corners Life, host Rico Figliolini discusses the recently concluded moratorium on residential mixed-use development in Peachtree Corners’ Central Business District with Shaun Adams, the city’s Community Development Director. They explore the creation of a small area plan, which subdivides the district into seven distinct zones, enabling tailored development strategies for each. Shaun highlights the goals of this plan: better aligning future projects with the city’s vision, enhancing placemaking, and ensuring balanced growth. They also discuss updates to the city’s 2045 Comprehensive Plan, public engagement efforts, and upcoming steps, including the December 17th City Council vote. Listen to learn how Peachtree Corners is shaping its future while preserving its unique community character.

Resources:
Peachtree Corners Website: https://www.peachtreecornersga.gov/
Community Development: https://www.peachtreecornersga.gov/190/Community-Development
Upcoming City Council Meeting: https://www.peachtreecornersga.gov/Calendar.aspx?EID=1198&month=12&year=2024&day=25&calType=0

Timestamp:
00:00:00 - Residential Mixed-Use Moratorium and Central Business District Revamp
00:04:40 - Comprehensive Plan Guiding City's 10-20 Year Vision
00:06:50 - Distinguishing Institutional and Commercial Areas in the Central Business District
00:10:17 - Differentiating Commercial and Residential Zones in City Planning
00:15:56 - Planned Roundabout and Redevelopment Opportunities
00:17:40 - Balancing Town Center Development and Traffic Concerns
00:20:30 - Flexible Zoning for Diverse Housing Options
00:25:06 - Suburban Condo Financing Challenges
00:27:22 - Suburban Density and Apartment Conversions
00:28:49 - Targeted Infill Development to Support Existing Office
00:35:42 - Envisioning Flex Office Redevelopment in Chamblee
00:38:37 - Envisioning a Balanced Suburban Density
00:40:50 - Zoning Changes Headed to City Council

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And try to buy one of those pieces. You know,
we would be looking at this and saying, you know,
your development is inconsistent with our small area plan.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
You're listening to Peachtree Corners Life, a podcast sharing ideas, opinions,
and news about the city of Peachtree Corners, the community
we live in, and the people that are your neighbors. Now,
your host Rego Figliolini.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
Hi, everyone, this is Rico Figliolini, hosts The Peachtree Corner's Life.
You have a great guest today. We're gonna be discussing
a lot of things here regarding residential mixed use, the
moratorium that recently ended on that development. Sean Adams is
with me today. Hey Sean, thanks for being with me.
Good good, So we're gonna we're gonna talk. Let's let's

(00:52):
set the stage a little bit about why if you
could give me a two minute brief about why the
more tourum was put in place, and then what you
were doing during that moratorium to start developing the ideas
that we're going to be visually showing.

Speaker 4 (01:10):
Our guests.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Sure thing, so back in May we put the moratorium
place on May third, and one of the reasons that
led to that is we were starting to see, you know,
from the marketplace, a lot of properties in our Central
Business District come online for sale. Office was not in
great shape, so they're looking to redevelop sites in a
way that didn't necessarily align with what we fell our

(01:32):
long term vision of the Central Business District was. And
when you look at the Central Business District, it's a
big piece of all of our office parks, including Tech
Park in some of our retail nodes, and having one policy,
if you will, that covered that whole area, you know,
seemed to be a little broader than what we were
ultimately looking for, and so we pressed pause moratorium and

(01:54):
started working on a small area plan, which is now
gotten to the point where we were heard in Planning
Commission a couple of weeks ago in November twelve and
it's set to go before Council on December seventeenth. And
you know, through that process, we've held a couple of
focus groups with brokers and owners office owners in the
Central Business District. We had a public engagement meeting. I've

(02:17):
had some one on one conversations with members of the
public who reached out to me as well and provided feedback,
and so we've taken all of that and we actually,
as a byproduct of that, we had a couple of
themes that came out of those engagement sessions that spoke
to more placemaking opportunities or amenetizing the Tech Park Central
Business District area, kind of taking it from an eight

(02:39):
hour day to a sixteen hour day type of thought process,
more gathering space where we could a better mix of
housing stock within the area. And so you know, we
also turned around and did a asset inventory as I
call it, where we put eyes on every commercial building
in the Central Business District. We did a market analysis

(03:00):
as well to determine how they were from a condition standpoint,
what their occupancy rates were, what's on the market, what's not,
What properties have kind of more underutilized space or parking
than others. And as a byproduct of that, we kind
of set out these seven sub areas, which is probably
the biggest change in the small area plan within the

(03:23):
sub district. That allows us to get a little more
granular and look at each of these areas and say, okay,
what may make sense when a redevelopment standpoint or development
standpoint in one area may not make sense in another
So how can we take all this information that the
public and the experts have given us and mix it
around and come out with all of that? So I

(03:45):
have seven sub areas within the Central Business District that
will be presuing the council.

Speaker 3 (03:50):
And my returning was placed on the Central Business District area,
so no one could apply for rezoning within that six
month period that ended November third, right, So during that time,
you guys did what you needed to do as far
as research and the inventory assets and developing these ideas, because,
like you said before, from someone walking in that doesn't

(04:13):
know anything about this, the Central Business District area was
governed by or ruled by one broad regulation, if you will,
And now by subdividing these into seven districts, each of
them will be uniquely managed, if you will, right about
what can go there or how it can be developed.

(04:35):
So now that it ended November three and City Council
is going to be seeing this December seventeenth as the
last public hearing, if you will, before it's voted on
when would it take effect?

Speaker 1 (04:49):
So you know and remember this Mario Plan is essentially
going to be an adendum to the twenty forty five
cop plan, so it'll be baked up under that and
you know, once they vote on it into December, it
will be it's being voted on to be adopted as
a part of our complan, so essentially take effect right away.
It is a policy document, it's not a law document,

(05:11):
and so you know, it's one of the things that
we try to help people know is that the Comprehensive
Plan is meant to guide our ten to twenty year
vision of how we see the city progressing. And you know,
some of that is you know, proactive in nature, and
some of it is obviously defensive in nature. But this
will plug right into that and allow us as staff

(05:32):
when projects come through right away, we'll be able to
point to this. If it's a project that comes in
the essential business district, we will immediately be able to
point to this once council votes on it and says, hey,
you know this is this is kind of how we
view this area of this problem.

Speaker 3 (05:48):
Right and the complaint gets reviewed every was it every
five years?

Speaker 1 (05:52):
I guess it's every five years from update the reality
of the process for us, it feels like every three
to four where you get started on.

Speaker 3 (05:59):
It right, right, that's true because by the time you
finish public hearings and all that, I mean, it takes
a while. So like you said, I mean, this is
a guide, right, so what maybe on there at least
allows the city and developers to know exactly what's expected
what's going on, but it does give you that leeway

(06:19):
to be able to adjust as you go. City Council
votes on and Planning Commission votes on it. It's a process, right,
public hearings are done, so it's not like all of
a sudden something shows up that might be different from
what would be on there all of a sudden, because
it has to still go through the process of public
hearings and all that. We were talking before we started this,

(06:42):
I mean, it was interesting to me that a certain
maybe you want to pull up the map and we
can start with that, because one of the sections that
is in the Central Business District that I didn't even
realize was the g section that we talked about, the
intersection of p Stree Corn Circle in West Jones Bridge
Road and Crooker Creek where the elementary school is as well.

(07:07):
I didn't even realize that was in the Central Business
District area.

Speaker 4 (07:11):
But you all have been.

Speaker 3 (07:12):
Proactive when you went through this process to make sure
about a few things. So let's start there a little bit.
So what we're seeing on here is the seven subdivided
areas to our central Business District and the G which
is the green area.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
Is.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
So the top top one is the is the intersection
of where the YMCA is, Ptre Corners Baptist Church and
Cornerstone Christian Academy. And the one on the left side
on this top map is the Crooker Crete and Petree
Elementary School area. Correct, Yeah, so explain to us why

(07:53):
that was pulled out separate.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
So you know, as you kind of look at that area,
you see that kind of sick out anyway from the
core of the central Business District. I think the reason
why they're probably originally included in is because they are
mostly institutional uses which tend to lean on the commercial
side versus everything around it being residential. But when when
you have a broad policy guide or policy statements like

(08:21):
we have in the Central Business District before this, where
you know, the central business district in most places is
where your highest intensity of development shall occur, both mix
of uses. You know, things like you see a town
center in the forum you know, that's also come the
Central Business District. And so when you just say that
broadly across the whole character area, well that means everywhere

(08:42):
that you see on this map right now, which includes
those two sections. But we identified and understood that what
may be appropriate along one forty one and Subarea A
probably isn't appropriate in G. And so we wanted to
try to carve that out for you know, a couple
of reasons. And you know, one is for the community

(09:04):
to understand that we recognize there's a difference and what
might be able to go there, but also for developers
to know that, you know, while it's in the Central
Business District, the athletic fields and parking lot of PCBC
probably isn't the place for, you know, an intense development.
And so what what are this is called the suburban
Transition sub Area is what G is, and the way

(09:27):
we articulate it is that it's the idea is that
it will maintain its existing institutional character with the schools
and the churches and the YMCA there to the extent
that it were to be redeveloped in the future. It
needs to take on the low intensity residential character of
all the all the residential around it, and so if anything,
it should act more like the Amberfield and Patre Station

(09:50):
and everything that's right by it, and less like the
Central Business District. And so it kind of gives us
that buffer, and then now give staff the ability of
somebody were to come in and try to buy of
those pieces. You know, we would be looking at this
and saying, you know, your development is inconsistent with our
small area plan and surrounding uses, and that would give
us some of the ammunition we need to be able

(10:12):
to make a recommendation denial on in that.

Speaker 4 (10:14):
Case, which wasn't in the original plan.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
I mean, anyone could have probably come in and bought
that parking lot if you will, across from PCBI and decided,
or the YMCA, if that was ever to be sold
or whatever, that someone could come in and say, well,
you know it's a transition point.

Speaker 4 (10:30):
We could put townhouses there.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
Which you know, in a reasonable way you might say
that that could be like type of thing, type of development,
but this dis eliminates sort of that right.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
And townhomes are lower to medium intensity. But the bigger
thing is you could take that YMCA property and it's
big enough that they could have tried to come in
with the mix of uses and even more intense. And
while we can, certainly from a staff stamp point look
leveraged the fact that all the surrounding uses are lower
intensity and try to use that to drive a staff

(11:06):
report of denial, it would be harder for us to
say it's inconsistent with the comp plan when the COMP
plant's calling for the higher intensity use in that character area.
But now this subbery allows us to be able to
point to both and say no, that type of intense
use in that area would not be appropriate.

Speaker 3 (11:23):
And did was this I don't remember now, but obviously
the city's thirteen years old was and we adopted Gwinette
County's plans, right, I mean when we became a city essentially,
and now that's slowly been amended and changed and all
the time. But would that have been allowed in I

(11:44):
wonder if that would have been allowed during that time
before we became a city.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
I'm not well. I mean Gwennette County would have had
larger character areas since it was county wide. They would
have certainly looked at this area long one forty one
and had more of a commercial know for it. Would
be my guest, So we would have done our own
comp plan before this to kind of have character specific
to the city. But a lot of times what happens,

(12:10):
as you see here is this is the core of
our commercial and retail district, and so that and then
everything above it is residential. But now as we start
to grow and develop, you know, and you start to
see some of these properties in the market kind of
change from what it was in the eighties and nineties,
then you know, now that becomes more at risk today

(12:33):
than twenty years ago, and mixed use wasn't really a thing.

Speaker 3 (12:36):
So cities being proactive by doing this obviously and subdividing
this makes sense to me too as well, as we
would discuss them before we started. Tell everyone what the
dark darkened areas are. They should know from the map.
But like the Forum Town Center, I guess Stick Sporting
Goods is on the south end, along with where the

(12:58):
Chick fil A is, that those areas and they darkened
because why so.

Speaker 1 (13:05):
They're darkened for a couple of reasons. One that's really
our retail entertainment sections right there, which you know, from
my perspective, really isn't the same as the rest of
the Central Business District, which is office focused. But also,
you know, as we kind of talked before, the complant
gets updated about every four to five years. These two

(13:25):
areas here at our town Center and the Forum, they're
pretty much from a redevelopment standpoint, they are what they are.
They're either in process or already already built out. There's
not a lot of potential for change really. The only
i'd say, the only property grade out would be the Engles,
you know, but whether that's something that would ever change
in five years or not, we don't know. I mean,

(13:47):
it's a stable shopping center that's leaded uff right now,
and so you know, there hasn't been anything of a
recent note to indicate that it would be different. But
it is probably the only property in that area that
doesn't have that post two thousand designed to it. And
the same thing at the bottom with Target Dix Boarding Goods,

(14:07):
the only fitness plaza that's a retail node that's not
likely to change the next five years. And so what
I would prop you know, i'd posit to you is
at the next comp plant update, if anything, I could
see those becoming a different character area potentially in the
Central Business district, but as in order to kind of
fully flesh that out now it would have taken another

(14:30):
full blown update, and so we wanted to focus on
areas that were right for potential redevelopment within the next
four to five years, like what's likely to change. And
so that's why you'll notice the E section as well,
where even though a lot of times that area around
pH Corner Circle with the legal DIVINTIONI Court, you know,

(14:50):
Hexagon is often kind of part of that downtown focus.
They that is an area that one has a ten
did redevelopment recently and it probably has the potential for
redevelopment in the next five years at some point in time.
And so we included that and made it its own
sub area as a town center gateway because we wanted

(15:11):
to feedback from the community on that since we felt
like it would you know, likely be sought for some
sort of transition over the next five.

Speaker 4 (15:19):
Years in that area.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
I know that for example, the E part the two
the west side of one there that's where the day
building is. I know that they've been they applied for
rezoning there. They'd like to put next shoe so residential,
I think, And then you have these, so let's start there.

Speaker 4 (15:40):
Let's talk about that.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
Actually. So, yeah, the west side here, my cursor is
the curve that you see is the Cower parcel that's
not developed yet, but that's where he has the entitlements
for the fifty six condos. Right. The day building is
actually over here in our commercial war Okay, so since
it's a little further P Street Corner Circle, it kind

(16:02):
of fell out of the gateway based off.

Speaker 3 (16:06):
So the is the fifty unit condo still, that's the
one that I think what's up to the intuitive.

Speaker 4 (16:14):
Properties maybe or the other.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
It does, so it's kind of the one that's tucked
in behind the QT and the Creme Delegram and then
intuitive part of the Intuitive campus is on the other
side of it.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
By the way, is that I think the roundabout that
was being planned that been approved and going into that
part with the Creme de la Creme and the exit
from the forum is is that has that been approved?

Speaker 1 (16:40):
I believed that kind of follows more on my public
work side. I believe it's in design, but I'm going
to leave that for Brian and Greg to speak more
clearly to it. But I mean it's I believe it
is still in play, but it would be aligned with
the creme. Okay, access point is where that is has
been discussed to be slated.

Speaker 3 (17:00):
Okay, do you foresee I know in the e port
on the south on the east side of the south side,
there's a couple of other buildings there that are being
looked at.

Speaker 4 (17:10):
Right is Regis one of those buildings.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
Regis Hexagon is one where I think half of its vacant.
Right now the Hexagon has moved out, Regis still has
their side. So you know, that's a building again fifty
percent or less occupancy, a lot of parking. So you know,
in my mind that's one where you could see somebody
coming in and kicking tire as any point, and so

(17:37):
it was important to make sure that was included as
a part of this conversation.

Speaker 3 (17:41):
Sure, when don't we why don't you start? I guess
from there? I mean that's the town center gateway. It's
called right and where, And let's work our way around
to tell us a little bit about each why each
of these have been adjusted the way they are.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
Certainly so, I mean, I guess Center Gateway. You know,
what we point out here is that it is kind
of a wrapping around as a part of that downtown
and you know, could provide opportunity to connect directly into
the town Center area to amenetize and you know, not
only those office buildings there, but there is enough excess

(18:18):
parking there to provide some additional body heat and residential
units to further support town Center and the Forum. And
so that's kind of been looked at as a you
know area for meetium to high build for equity product.
There was discussion of Planning Commission, you know that I'd
say the one one concern that some of the community

(18:39):
has expressed is with regards to our recommendation of medium
the high density and the E area, largely over traffic
concerns in terms of, you know, if you put a
few more one hundred units in that area, what will
that do from a traffic standpoint. We are you know,
continuing to work to look at that and provide you know,
analysis for it in advanced council. But you know what

(19:02):
I have kind of spoken to is the reason again
this being a guide, right, is the importance of having
somewhat of a range and saying medium the high intensity
is you know, I'll use Da Vinci as an example
just because they kind of made this reference in their
public hearing, but they talked about the fact that they
currently of the twelve plus acres, they have about nine

(19:23):
acres of it as asphalt. Four acres of it, I believe,
is what they said in public hearing, is excess so
they can maintain their four to one parking ratio that
they need for their tenants and get rid of four acres.
And so, you know, if if they were to come
back in with a proposal with residential units that you know,

(19:45):
were what city in the community wanted, people generally were like,
that's a good proposal, and we'll just you know, for
the sake of easy math. You know, it's four acres
that they came in with, you know, eighty units of townhomes.
But they did it as a whole twelve acre property.

(20:05):
That's less than eight units an acre. Right, that's like
low end of medium if anything, you know, in terms
of density. So everybody'd be like, that's great, that's awesome,
great job, you know, looks good. Everybody's happy. Well, if
they sold off the four acres of parking in a
different whoever bought the four acres or was contracted to

(20:26):
buy the four acres comes in to zone eighty townhomes.
Now that density is being accounted for off of four acres,
not twelve. And so what it was a less than
seven acre, seven unit per acre project now looks like
a twenty unit per acre project. And now it sounds
like high density. And so you know, the reason for

(20:47):
having the range is saying, look, all of these properties
within that gateway, in order to put one residential unit
on it, they'd have to come to us for a rezoning.
So we get to look at on a case by
case basis and say, you know what if it's eighty
town homes there on four acres, whether it's all twelve
acres is zoned as a mud or four acres of

(21:10):
it is zoned you know, residental infill, or you know
some other zoning opportunity there. The idea is that it's
eighty units for the core of that site that's meant
to serve the property. So we might look at that
differently more supportive than three hundred and fifty units on
say the Hexagon building or the Synergy building or something. Right,

(21:34):
you know, so that's still high, but it's a lot
more units. And so by baking in a range. It
allows us to contemplate those scenarios where you might have
parcel carpouts and that person comes in because maybe the
office owner doesn't want to wrap everything into a mixed
use for whatever reason, but he's okay giving a piece

(21:56):
of the parking to you know, add something to it,
you know. And so from a planning standpoint, we have
to look at what's the total number units going on
the ground in an area, and that's really what's going
to come down from a traffic standpoint, anybody from support
and so but if we just said medium and that
same project came in, I mean, technically counsel could look
at it case by case and still say, I understand

(22:19):
based off of the four acres, it looks like higher intensity,
but you know, totality of the circumstances, if you will,
it really is more like medium, and therefore we would
support it. They still have that ability to do it.
But I think it's from a legal standpoint, from a
policy standpoint, to have the range in there, it's easier

(22:39):
for us to kind of defend and support on a
case by case basis. And so that's that's something that
we're looking at and trying to help articulate why the
importance of the range is there.

Speaker 3 (22:52):
So when equities talked about, I mean, the only equity
that I hear all the time is either homes or
town homes. Don't hear anything about condo. So transition is
right to apartments. Like if someone came in and decided
they wanted, you know, to apply for one hundred and
eighty two hundred units, it's always looked at as multi

(23:12):
family apartments versus versus inequity property like condos would be.
I mean, is is that even in the plans does
that allow for that? Or is that one of those
you know, one of those expanded juices that could be,
but it's not explicit in there.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
Well. So one of the changes we made as well
is instead of trying to speak to known housing product types,
we spoke to intensity of the residential use, so load
to media and medium to hide density. And the reason
why is, you know, we are I think we are
at a point where the residential housing community is trying
to shift to find more creative housing product types to

(23:55):
help address you know the fact that we have less
land to develop on the the need for more attainable
price points for housing people and not everybody wants by
four in a door, and there's no opportunity to build
it and in most places anymore. And so where do
our empty nesters want to go if they want to
own but downsize. And so, you know, we're starting to

(24:17):
see stacked town home options where it looks like a townhome,
but it's two units stacked on top of each other.
They each have a garage. They still have that into
a parking, but they have flat level living once they
get there. We're seeing courtyard style homes or coming out
smaller cottages, kind of going back to that nine hundred
and fifteen hundred square foot single family detached on small lots.

(24:40):
And so, you know, as what what I don't know
ten years from now. If I did, you know, I'd
probably be in the construction side, is what are those
types of uses? You know, what does that makes a
housing product type? And so what we want to be
able to do is say, look, it really matters the
intensity of the use, and then we'll know when we
see it what comes in if it's the type of

(25:01):
housing product type that makes sense and the area and
kind of assimilates into the surrounding environment. So rather than
boxing us in and saying no single family detached or no,
you know, no town home, let's do it that way.
And so but to your point on the condo front,
you know, most people forget that, you know, a stacked
a mid rise, stacked black building can be equity or rental, right,

(25:25):
and condos and ownership type out of structure. But we
are I think suburban condos if you will, like a
mid rise condomity and project doesn't financier paper in suburbia
right now, and that's why you don't see it like
you see inside the perimeter. But what does are We're
starting to see kind of like what you know Waterside

(25:46):
they have that condo component where that's three levels with
the parking deck. You know that type of product works.
And the reason why is because if you know, for condos,
you have to pre sell fifty percent before you can
get the financing. You need to go vertical on a building.
So if you take a fifty unit mid rise, you
got to sell twenty five units before you start going

(26:08):
unless you're self funding. Yeah, right, And the problem with
that is you're asking people to put money down where
they won't be able to benefit from it for potentially
two to three years. But if you have an eight
unit kind of stacked town home building or something like that, One,
that building is a lot cheaper to build than a
mid rise. But two, you don't have to pre sell

(26:29):
four units, and then you get the aggregate of the
pre sales moving forward. So once you get four units sold,
you build one, You put a couple of models in there,
and as you sell that out, you can now build
the next one. And so that tends to work better
in suburbia. And we're starting to see some of those
products come in and kick around.

Speaker 4 (26:50):
Right and try.

Speaker 3 (26:51):
I mean and I and I can appreciate that and
then understand that, and they look nicer that way too.
This better quality of living maybe, But I've also seen
and maybe this is more urban. I guess where apartments
come in, let's say multi union apartments, but they have
pre wired this set. They could be they could be

(27:12):
condo products. And eventually some of them do turn into that,
right they seven years later they become condo equity property.
That's actually an easy way of doing it, right, Build
the apartment, finance it that way, and then the conversion
can happen later.

Speaker 4 (27:30):
So that's been done before.

Speaker 3 (27:32):
But you're right, maybe the suburban area we live in
right now is that quite doesn't need to be quite
that dense with those types of developments.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
Well, I will I will say that in the apartment
projects that are coming in, even the ones I know
a couple of them have been denied. But the proposals,
and you know touson Court as well, Robstone, they are submeter,
they are pre wired in a way to where they
could be converted. So and I know that's the difficulty
is And he's like, well, then why can't it finances

(28:02):
a rental product but not an ownership product? And you know,
we can go into the legal wakings and on that one.
But they are being built now to have that conversion.
If we ever find that people going back towards wanting
to buy like that, I can see that happening.

Speaker 3 (28:18):
Yeah, And it's mainly a financial issue, right, it's manually
the banks and what they're willing to finance. And I'm
glad that actually the city I think it was a
few years ago started doing that may conditioning developments to
be sub wired and all that, because that makes sense,
I mean, to be able to look to the future

(28:38):
and all that, plus energy wise and everything else. That
just makes us to have it done that way. All right,
let's go into the d's in the C area. Let's
let's go into the sea and why why is that
area and describe what business is actually there at that point?

Speaker 1 (28:57):
Certainly, so the sea is what we're calling targeted infill.
These are typically slightly smaller lots in general, but you
still have businesses and buildings where there's some underutilized space,
maybe over development, or in some cases you might have
a smaller office building on a smaller site that isn't
doing so great, but you have better office around it,

(29:18):
and so there's the potential for maybe you know, one
property might change so that it betters the ones around it.
And so with the targeted infill, you know, what we're
really looking at here is some of that medium In
some cases you might say higher dency, but again because
it's a smaller lot, so we're not talking a lot
of units, but it might be you know, more in

(29:40):
that ten to fifteen unit range or you know, fifteen
to twenty unit break or range, but still maybe only
eighty two hundred and fifty unit something like that. But
the idea behind it is it needs to be something
that's meant to kind of help stand up and support
existing and surrounding office. So we're still focusing on on

(30:02):
that goal. You know, some of the areas you see here,
so that down here at the bottom is twenty and
twenty two Tech Parks South. You know, it's already zonned
as a mixed use. And then right that spur right
across from it is the Isaacson one that just came through,
which is the office to condo conversion for thirteen units.
So again this right here's an example of where this
office was sacrificed. But around that these office buildings here

(30:24):
are much better performing a better condition, doing well. And
so by adding some residential here right on PIB kind
of in the gateway in, it's going to now help
support some of what is around this, since that's kind
of the idea. This section back here is Research Court.
You've got Petree Farms down here, which already kind of

(30:45):
has that little bit more of a residential type of
character to it. But a couple of these buildings here
are either fully vacant or you know, in need of
quiet repair. So there's the opportunity to do some stuff
around here that can maybe stand up of the office
within here, but also helpful further support you know what

(31:05):
we have in D and then this is faulty one
forty one, so goodwill plaza here hapag Lloyd fifty five
to fifty triangle and that's this whole section here. And
on the other side, and you have the Summit building
Bank of America, and you know it's kind of the
space in front of it in the hotel. So that's

(31:25):
kind of a corridor area in some smaller lots where
you know, you could probably see some redevelopment occur at
some point in time, which that kind of gives us
the idea D is our we're calling a commercial core.
D is really the area where we don't expect to
see a lot of change away from office. A lot
of the office and you know, flex space or what

(31:47):
have you in that area is doing well or conditioned well,
so we don't see substance of change. Obviously, most of
this area up here is intuitive the flex office space
here fifty two, fifteen fifty three nineties seeing up well,
it's performing. And so you know here what we say
is any redevelopment here is going to be accessory in

(32:08):
nature to the existing and surrounding office, so much lower intensity.
If it's residential, odds are because it's off the major corridors,
it's probably not going to support retail anyway, and so
this is where you can amenitize it. You know, the
trailheads can come through in certain places, that type of thing,
and so that's that to me is kind of like

(32:28):
our stable base of office, and so not a lot
of change right a as you see here, we're calling
it the district hub, but it's pretty center or central
to the central business district if you will. It's right
along one forty one for context, this is Engineering Drive
comes through right here. So this kind of southeastern side

(32:49):
of one one is Broadstone, the liquor store, the racetrack,
so that's already already is what it is that's built
out developed. The other side you have D. R. Wharton
back here, and then this is the Carmacks Plaza. There's
a little kind of ride angle building tucked away that
you don't really see from the road, but overlooks the lake.

(33:12):
So Carmacks see it. Parking right on one forty one,
full signalized intersection, really underutilized space and part of what
we heard when people talked about a minietizing tech park
beyond gathering spaces and trails, was creating opportunities for entertainment
placemaking uses that wouldn't pluck from town center in the forum.

(33:33):
Don't want to start to compete fully with that. If
there is a place to do it, it should be on
a major thoroughfare. And so this is probably where your
highest intensity of redevelopment would occur as it relates to
additional commercial uses and residential because of its proximity and
full access. And so it's kind of what the idea
is that hopefully this kind of becomes your entertainment place

(33:55):
making hub to the central business district.

Speaker 3 (33:58):
I think part of that wasn't there at the discuss
at one point about adjusting some of the regulations for
allowing like recreational uses inside certain buildings that don't exist. Actually,
at this point as far as an allowed use is
that amended, I think already yes.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
Back in March, I think March April timeframe, we did
the Social Recreation Facility and Social Hobbyists text amendments that
kind of address some of those smaller scale uses that
didn't we didn't really have a clean and tidy place
for right, but yeah, I mean this could be the
kind of thing where you know, your fairway and socials
or brewery things like that. We'd love to see that

(34:38):
type of anchor use come in here, something that could
hopefully stabilize and make the Carmacks building more more valuable
because it's it's a pretty good shape building. You know,
if you put some stuff around it, you could foresee
a situation. You've got two hundred and ninety five multi
family twenty six towns on this side, seventy five towns
coming on d R. Horton, so you know you kind

(35:00):
of been that three you know, three eighty just shy
four hundred range. If out of all this, you know
in this area, if you had a little more residential
along with some entertainment uses, you really have a core
that can support that additional retail or entertainment use coming in.
So it brings a product to the city. We don't have,

(35:20):
hopefully that all of our residents up here in the
shaded out area. It can easily pop down into and out,
but most anybody else coming to it is going to
leverage you know, the main thoroughfare of one P forty
one in an out the city to do it, and
so you know, that's we felt like that there was
a place to have it. That's it. And then I
will I'll hit f real quick because it should be

(35:42):
real quick. This is really our Saturn Court down here.
This is off of PIV. This is we call it
flex office, but this is where most of our true
kind of industrial one story bay door flex office buildings are.
You know, anything here is going to be more to
enhance that. It shouldn't see much in the way of
true redevelopment there. It's a pretty stable spot and so

(36:03):
we kind of drew those out on their own. And
then the last one is B We're calling it district
infill perspective wise, I mean, this is jayber Alley right here.
So you know down here you have the Comcast building
down here. Below this is Mary R. Queen up here.
This two buildings right here are one property. My understanding

(36:27):
is this building is fully vacant. Most people are in
this back building. As you can see. You look around,
you have a ton of underutilized parking and space, office
park and even the public engagement sector, our public engagement meeting.
This is where most people said, hey, the intensity of
residential and everything, if anywhere, that's where it should be.

(36:47):
It's further away from town center where they know a
lot of people feel like we already have a lot
of growth going on. It's adjacent to Hulkombridge Road corridor.
We're trying to do a lot to redevelop without a corridor,
and so this is where it makes the most sense.
And so here, you know, is where we're kind of
proposing that medium to high you know, opportunity as well

(37:08):
for residential mix of uses still with the preference for
a built for equity products. I think there's some opportunity
because unlike see these these properties are larger, so you
can do you can take one property and do more.
We're ce you might have some three to four acre
sites here, you've got a lot of twelve fifteen acre sites.
So there could be some opportunity to do more with

(37:29):
a mix of product types. You could potentially stabilize the
office building with it, or you may have to take
one to support others.

Speaker 3 (37:37):
So let's I mean medium to high density. So when
for example, I drove through I think it was it
was a Beauford Highway now Petri Industrial Boulevard going south
into the city. It was actually Chamblie. I was driving through,
and I hadn't been through that part in quite a while,
apparently because all of a sudden.

Speaker 4 (37:59):
I notice all these buildings.

Speaker 3 (38:01):
Beautiful architecture, actually well well designed, well designed apartment buildings,
pretty looking. I got to say them Broadstone. But you know,
that's just my take on it. Better architectural planning on that.
Do we foresee that that type of local development too,
maybe in that be area, because I mean, does that

(38:25):
just so that people can sort of envision what is
going to go where?

Speaker 4 (38:29):
Maybe as far as that goes.

Speaker 1 (38:31):
Right, I consider that to be more of an urban
higher density than a suburban higher density. You know, my
vision for down here is there's certainly maybe a couple
of sites where you know, multifamily might need be needed
or might make some sense to be able to support
the retail that's right here. But really, when I look

(38:51):
at this doing some of that residential info, you know,
like a couple of zarn industrits are talking about, I
could see an opportunity for mix of product types, whether
it's taps and detaps town homes with some stacked town
homes or smaller cottage homes. You know, or we can
find an opportunity to do that to bring in some
more of that equity product. But it can be smaller footprints,

(39:12):
and so it may be fifteen to twenty units an acre,
and you know, my mind, anything less than twenty you're
still kind of in that medium range. You get over
twenty is when when there's a two in front of
it and it starts to feel like okay for suburban areas,
that's probably that's the low end up high. You know,

(39:33):
when you get like the Chambli area, they're probably forty
to fifty sixty units an acre is what you're probably
seeing there. I don't foresee that, you know, our even
our current regional or I say regional, but our current
mixed use organs that we have, even with all the
bonus density you can get capsure at forty five and
thirty two is the base, and so I don't foresee

(39:56):
it being shambly esque, if you will, I want to
be a more efficient use of the space supporting the office.
But I think my mind, when you say medium to high,
I'm thinking this area is probably likely to be more
in that fifteen to twenty five type of type of range,
and hopefully supporting as many of those office buildings as
we can.

Speaker 3 (40:17):
Sounds good. So this is going to be presented to
the City Council again on December seventeenth. Public comments, public hearing.
People can come to that meeting and make their public
comments about that about that plan.

Speaker 4 (40:32):
It's been out there already.

Speaker 3 (40:34):
There's been public focus groups of public meeting, so it's
been out there just for those people that might look
at this, listen to this and say I didn't know
about it, But it's been out there, it's been advertised. God,
it's been ad nauseam with being out there. So finally
it's coming to City Council and it'll be voted on
at that meeting because it's gone past the first reading

(40:56):
on it. Do you foresee any additional Is there any
additional things that you should share that you want to share.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
Right now that we haven't covered Sean As far as
the plan, no, I mean, I think it's pretty well
out there. I mean this is the to me, the
biggest change is what the sub areas are allowing us
to do. I mean, other than stating that you know,
we've got a couple of zoning districts and the works
as a byproduct of this so that we can fully

(41:26):
implement the plan. But outside of that, we haven't had
We do have two applications in for December Planning Commission,
but they're not well, you know, they're not really specific
to these changes. So we haven't had that rush even
in the more time minded on the number third of
people coming in. So it'll be interesting as people maybe

(41:46):
look their heads out of the sand after the holidays
in January and start to kick tires again to kind
of see the reaction of the development community the first
couple of times they come in on some of these
properties and talk with us about it.

Speaker 3 (42:00):
Sounds good, great, So again for those it's December seventeenth
City Council meeting. If you have a questions, what I'm
going to do is in the show notes for this,
I'll have a link to the meeting. I'll have a link,
can we I think we could get a link to
this plan as well.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
It'll be it'll be in the package.

Speaker 3 (42:22):
Okay, is there a secarpediaf available on this that we
can link.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
To or I can get I can get one set
up for the for the full plan that'll be shown.
All right, this was a specific presentation. It doesn't have
the full plan in it that I'm sharing right now,
and so but I can get the full plan and
maybe with a draft water mark on it or something,
and then have that so it can be shared.

Speaker 4 (42:45):
All right, that'd be great if you could do that.

Speaker 3 (42:47):
If anyone has comments, certainly leave it in the comments,
email myself or actually Sean Adams at the city if
you have any questions. And sorry, cats are going crazy,
so just you know, put your comments and we'll see
about getting answers to you before the meeting. Will certainly

(43:08):
bring them to that meeting and you'll know a little
bit more about what's going on. So Sean, thank you
appreciate you being with me hanging there for a minute
while it's just while we say goodbye. In fact, if
you want to take the map off, you're fine to
do that. Everyone else thank you again. This is Peterrecin's life.
My name is Rico Figliolini, host of this and publisher

(43:30):
of Peatrecorn's magazine in Southwest when at magazine and Sean
Adams here, well, what's your give me a title again, Sean,
because I should remember that.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
But community development director there.

Speaker 3 (43:41):
You go, so tell us all what you think. Give
us some feedback in the comments. We'll look forward to
the next episode of this podcast when we talk to
John again and likely Brian Johnson, the city manager, and
we'll get more information about what's going on. It's gonna
be a lot going on in twenty twenty, that's for sure,
So thanks again, hang in there.

Speaker 2 (44:10):
Thanks for listening to Peachtree Corner's Life with Rico Figliolini.
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(44:31):
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(44:53):
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