September 5, 2025 • 49 mins
City Manager Brian Johnson joins host Rico Figliolini on Peachtree Corners Life for a practical update on projects shaping the city’s next few years. He walks through the newly developed Simpsonwood Park master plan—designed to keep the park passive and natural while adding ADA-friendly access, renovated bathrooms, an updated chapel, selective forestry management, and a modest river overlook. Johnson also explains why the city is outsourcing maintenance of the Peachtree Parkway median so residents finally see consistent, five-day-a-week care despite legacy design constraints.The episode dives into traffic and road fixes at East Jones Bridge and 141 (longer turn lanes, better alignment, and a right-turn slip lane), the ESPLOST renewal on the ballot, and the last phase of the Waterside development—now tracking at roughly half the density initially allowed and focused on equity (for-sale) housing. With candid context on what’s been approved or denied since cityhood, plus how extended-stay conversions and the Housing Authority factor in, this conversation is a clear, chart-backed look at how Peachtree Corners balances growth with character.Key takeaways
Timestamp:
- Simpsonwood Park will remain a passive park—no ballfields, pickleball, mountain biking, or major programming.
- Plan includes ADA-accessible paved paths, renovated bathrooms (including one closer to the river), resurfaced parking, and a chapel renovation.
- Selective forestry and wildlife/erosion work will improve long-term health of the park.
- City is outsourcing median maintenance on Peachtree Parkway; crews will be dedicated five days a week for mowing, edging, litter removal, and plant adjustments.
- Median design differs from Johns Creek (at-grade vs. raised), which has made upkeep harder; outsourcing addresses consistency and appearance.
- East Jones Bridge & 141: entrance realignment, longer left-turn stacking, and a right-turn slip lane to move traffic more safely and quickly.
- No municipal election this cycle for three council seats (no challengers qualified), but ESPLOST renewal is on the county ballot.
- Waterside final phase moves forward with for-sale (equity) units; overall buildout drops from up to 916 approved units to ~450.
- Post-2012 housing approvals show a measured approach—some apartment proposals approved, many reduced to townhomes or denied.
- Extended-stay hotel issues are being addressed, including a supervised conversion to efficiency units via the Housing Authority.
Timestamp:
- (00:03:29) Simpsonwood Park master plan details and community input.
- (00:09:55) Renovation of chapel, bathrooms, and forestry management plans.
- (00:15:27) Outsourcing median maintenance on Peachtree Parkway.
- (00:24:27) Election update and ESPLOST renewal.
- (00:27:03) Waterside development’s final phase and reduced density.
- (00:30:12) East Jones Bridge road improvements and traffic flow changes.
- (00:36:37) Housing trends, multifamily approvals, and denials over time.
- (00:42:41) Extended stay hotel conversions and housing authority oversight.
- (00:45:47) Balancing growth, community resistance, and long-term city planning.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
You're listening to Peachtree Corner's 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, Rico Figliolini.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Hi everyone, This is Peatree Corner's Life with Rico Figliolini,
your host here. And the city of Peatrie corn is
just north of Atlanta and I'm here with city Manager
Brian Johnson. Hey Brian here, ric How are you good?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Good?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
We haven't actually we haven't done this in quite a while.
But there's a lot of stuff to talk about in
this podcast, and you'll be sharing some charts and stuff.
We'll be talking about Simpson Wedmans, the plan that just
got approved by the advisory committee, the medium being outsourced,
the taking care of the media and on Peatree Parkway
and Eastern's Bridge Road, and a few other things as well. Right, So,
(01:06):
but before we get into that, I just want to
say thank you to our sponsors. So first, IV Remodeling Ink,
I want to thank you Live for supporting us the
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people know exactly what's going on because really no one's
(01:27):
covering this stuff. And with the AJAC now deciding they're
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me wonder how they're going to be able to cover
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(01:49):
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Corner resident and business owner ev Remodelingink dot com, the
next one vox popular also here in Petree Corners. Great
Great Guy, Andrew Daniel, their whole family. If you have
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(02:10):
stuff out, you want to market yourself, you need something
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(02:33):
them out. They also are a major sponsor of the city.
You've you've been to the concert, you've seen the Vox
stage Town Center. Without them supporting these great concerts and
other things may not be you know, it may be
not difficult to do, but it's great to have these
sponsors because they help get it done. So check them
(02:53):
out there actually at the concerts, usually with a display
stand there as well booth I think, and they have
great city branded apparel and stuff you can check out
if you want. But go to voxpopular dot com you'll
find out a little bit more about them. So now
that we've covered that, let's get right into it. Brian,
it's been a while and Simpson Wood Park has been
(03:15):
on everyone's mind and through this past year quite a
few meetings also well, not even counting the deer population issue. Right,
it's mainly what will happen to Simpson Would Park with
the master plan, so what's coming there? And basically the
Advisory Committee citizen Advisory Committee right ended up approving a
(03:39):
master plan that they'd like to see. After all these
public hearings and this is going to go to the
Recreation Board ye before it gets to the city Quinnett
County for approval will vote. So tell us a little
bit what you know, what's included? Now where are we
at after a year plus public hearings and such.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Well, so you know, going way back, I mean both
the city and the county have been interested in this
being a park because back in twenty fourteen, I believe,
is when the United Methodist Church decided to sell the
property and they were had i think a letter of intent,
if not an actual sale to a private developer who
(04:20):
was putting wanting to put in like four hundred and
fifty single family detached houses, you know, another subdivision, and
the county and the city got together and said, no,
we would rather that be a park. And so the
county and the city threw in money and ended up
buying it from that private developer and it became a park.
(04:41):
The county agreed to run the park, so we bought
it joint liam and the county threw in like two
thirds of the money in the city a third essentially,
but the county said we'll run it like a park.
They ended up creating a citizen advisory committee then and
worked through what was the initial master plan, and a
(05:03):
lot of it had to do with demolition of existing
structures at the time, and they got into the park
where kind of we know today was obviously like you know,
ten years of wear and tear on it, but.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
The originally just to remind people the original structures on,
there was essentially a resort, if you will, for retreats.
So there was a hotel essentially to a degree, right,
there was a meeting building, there was an apartment building there,
there were parking space if over two hunred plus cars
I think.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Yeah, you know, like covered outdoor basketball corps and they
had day camp or summer camp cottages you know, or
cabins and so yeah, it was kind of well. Then
the county, through the last bloss cycle, appropriated about seven
million dollars to improvements to Simpson Wood, and so they
(05:57):
decided to prior to deciding where that money would go,
and they said, let's stand up the Citizen Advisory Committee
again and let's have them weigh in on what we
do with the seven million dollars. And so they took
half of the original Citizen Advisory Committee and then a
(06:19):
new batch of people and put us together and I
was representing the city on this, and they ran over
the course of about the last year they've run us through,
I don't know, we had probably seven eight meetings and
basically went through the iteration of what is it that
(06:41):
should be there, what do you definitely not want to
have there, and over time just kind of refine the
master plan more and more to a point where, you know,
as all processes, you know, get to there had to
be all right, we have to make a you know,
we have to have this master plan that goes through
(07:05):
goes to the Recreational Authority Board than the County Commission.
To boil it down, I would say that, you know,
there were a number of things that were thrown out
that the committee didn't want. And the committee just also
was not always of one accord on this. So it
was a large committee. There was like I can't remember
(07:27):
twenty to twenty five people on it, and so the
committee wasn't on one accord, nor was it on one
accord last night. You know, there wasn't unanimity per se.
But we'll say this committee was able to really and
into the county's credit, County Parks and Direct Department's credit.
(07:49):
They allowed for a lot less man made development to
be put in there, things like big playgrounds. The amount
of trade they started with were a lot more than
we resulted in. There's less pavilions with grills, there's less parking,
(08:10):
you know, there's there's not a entry point into the
Chattahoochie like you see it jones Bridge Park. So very
much the committee was like, look, jones Bridge Park has
some things that make it unique and everything, but let's
not try to replicate all of that at another park
that's just down the road. And so the end result
(08:35):
is one where it has some man made trails such
that you know, you know, paved trails such that they're
handicapped accessible, you know, could be walked on if it's
wet outside and you don't get muddy. But yet there's
a lot of trails, more trails than not that are
(08:57):
just un developed up you know, trails that are are maintained,
but they're just like you know, little goat paths within
the woods. So that you get that there's not your
formal playground like you would think. There's only I think
it was three smaller pavilions and there is going to
(09:19):
be an overlook at the Chattahoochie, but not any kind
of a you know, developed entry into the Chattahoochie like
you see at Jones Ridge Park. So at the end
of the day people have to look at it. There's
a lot going on there, but it is going to
be a pass remain a passive park. There's not programming
(09:42):
out there. There's not soccer fields or pickleball courts or
basketball or mountain biking was another one. They were like,
no mountain biking. And so the day not everybody thought
it was perfect. I'll just end with and everybody thought
it was perfect. There were some people who still think
that there should be less of a certain thing, or
some others who are like, oh I would have liked
(10:03):
to have seen more, you know, won't get into each
the eaches. But overall, the county did listen and got
something that I think is a doable one and the
park will be better off forward. It don't have new bathrooms,
it'll have resurface parking. The chapel will be renovated. I mean,
you know, there's some things about it that'll make it good.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Chapel will stay there, will be renovated. The bathrooms at
the front, I imagine will be renovated or whatever.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Oh yeah, yeah, it'll be new bathrooms.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Will there be bathrooms any I know at one point
there was going to be additional bathrooms somewhere else.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Yeah, there's a smaller one down close to the river itself.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Okay, and the pavilions. Isn't that one already or is it?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
There's a massive one that was it covered a full
court basketball court. That's the current one. That one goes away,
and there's going to be three smaller ones.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
When you combine the three, I think it might be
a little bit more total covered pavilion space, but not
a lot you know, with you know, a lot more
and you know, again, the county listened in it, and
you know, it kept refinding it. So it's a well
thought out plan and the county you know, Parks and
rec Department did a good job on it. The consultants
(11:20):
that they used did a really good job. There's a
lot of Oh and maybe another important point people don't
oftentimes think about this, but there's gonna be some forestry
activities in there, because you've got groves of trees that
are not growing healthy, or you've got them too close
or the mixes and good and there's a couple of
(11:41):
places where you've got some disease and they're gonna end
up going through and having you know, you know, they've
had some arborous involved in that, and you know, so
it's well thought out and you know, it's moving through
the process.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Okay, cool, We're going to have I guess a map
and some information that we can share with this podcast
with listeners and stuff.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Yeah, it's just too big of a file and there's
too much going on. So i'll you know, Rico, You'll
get the link and you can share it with the
readers and they can go through it. I again, remember
there's two final step still. Recreational Authority Board has got
to prove it and then the County Commission approves it,
and then the construction of this will be multiple years
(12:29):
in the making. It's not there's not going to be
seven million dump to it right away. You've got prep work,
you got the forestry stuff, you got some wildlife preservation
activities and erosion you know work that's going to be
done first. Yeah. So it's going to be a number
of years in the making. But I think the end product,
(12:50):
given the diverse interest in this is a pretty good one.
And maybe the final point would be I don't think
you're going to see that in and of it itself.
It's going to attract a lot of people, which was
a concern to our local residents and a concern to
mayor council.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Sure, and that makes sense. I mean, they might not
even spend the full seven million because there won't be
seven million dollars of improvement going in, right, But certainly,
I know people were saying they didn't want to see,
you know, active ball fields or pick a ball like
you said, I mean those none of that will.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Be Yeah, there's no programming, so you're not going to
have large groups of people coming for a pick a
ball tournament or a baseball game or a soccer game.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
So even though the county doesn't like the word passive
park to a degree, it will be somewhat of a
passive park if you look at it that way, I guess.
But certainly the trails will be maintained. I don't, like
you said, it won't be as much. They wanted to
pave over quite a bit, I think at so now
it's not as much.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Maybe it's correct significantly less. So there's there's there's paved
handicap accessible. You will be able to get closer to
the river, you know, on on improved you know, paved path.
But there's want not as much.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
As right I mean, I mean that's necessary, right because
we should allow everyone to have access, so it should
be ADA compliant and stuff. All right, So I'll have
all that on on the website once this podcast goes out.
So this way, you all whoever wants to, you know,
click through it. You can say exactly what it is
(14:30):
and then yeah, so it sounds like you all did
a great job. I can't wait to see what's what
you know it's going to turn out over the next
few years.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Yeah, and council and christ was also on the Citizen
Advisory Committee and did a good job representing the city's
interests as well. He was one of the original on
the original. Yes, he was one that was carried over
from the original, so he actually was on it as
a as one of the original He wasn't on it
as a city council member. He just now happens to
(14:58):
be one. So there were two of us, yeah on there.
But yeah, he also did a good job and you know,
when communicated and Glenn Borman, who led it for the county,
did a good job on trying to meet all these
diverse needs. Again, the committee wasn't of one accord itself.
(15:20):
There was a lot of varying levels of it. So
it's hard when you have a group. There's a lot
of chiefs in there, and you know, a lot of
cooks in that kitchen. It's hard to get everybody. You know.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
This is what compromising is about me. Not everyone could
get everything they want. So and there's no sometimes right
way or wrong way of doing something.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Cool, So let's move on to there's something else that
when I was at the City Council meeting this week
was talking about the median and the outsourcing of the
media and maintenance of the median and the growth of it.
So could you speak to that a little bit.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Yeah, So the median you're referring to is eating on
Ptree Parkway and it's really if you're heading north into
p Stree Parkway from two eighty five, you we all
know that there's a split, and you know to the
right is PIB and to the left is Ptree Parkway
or State Route one forty one. Well, at that split,
(16:20):
it starts with the Paul Duke sign right that gateway sign,
and then now you've got a median all the way
up to the Chattahoochee River where Ptree Corners and John's
Creek meet. Well, that median. Since the city was created,
we have been attempting to maintain it internally to the
(16:42):
city and you know, the my public works employees, and
we've done that because you know, as a city with
no city property tax, we're trying to be as judicious
and cost effective as we can with our resources and
so bidding, you know, having a third party do it,
(17:04):
a company that does this for a living, like landscape companies,
is always the best because that's what they do for
a living. They cost more. And so over the years
we did it, but it started to get harder and
harder for us to stay on top of it. And
that's mainly for two reasons. One is over it is
(17:27):
probably the way it was constructed. And by that I
mean for those who have been on P Street Parkway
which then becomes Medlock Bridge Road up in John's Creek,
but that's stretch of one forty one. If you've been
on the two stretches, Oftentimes people are like, oh, the
Johns Creek median looks a lot better than p Stree Corners,
(17:47):
And I don't disagree as it stands, at least today.
And here's one of the two reasons. One I already
talked about is they outsource it. They have a professional
landscape company that does it for them. They also have
a very healthy city militarate in Johns Creek as well.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
And the second reason is the difference in the way
Georgia Department of Transportation constructed it. If you notice in
John's Creek, the median up there is raised, so they
poured curb and then they raised the whole median to
the level you know about, you know what, eight inches
(18:25):
above the roadway, and they buried the drainage underneath the median.
And the median is crowned in Johns Creek, so when
water hits, it'll roll off into the street and then
into drain inlets on a pipe running down the middle. Well,
when g DOT built our section, do that, except for
(18:50):
you may notice right out about the Wellington Lake Subdivision
entrance that point to the river, which is not that
long of a section. They actually did. At in Pa
Street Corners, we have the raised one, but most of
the median for us is actually done opposite. It's at
great so you've got pavement and then the grass is
(19:11):
at the same level. And then the meeting itself is
actually angled in and it's really a long ditch, a
grass ditch is really what it is. And so we
don't have the same opportunity to maintain that John's Creek
does because we have edging. You know, when grass is
(19:32):
at even with the road, you don't have a nice
even edge like John's Creek does with the curb. So
now you've got edge more because if not, grass starts
to grow into the road and that looks bad. Drainage
into the middle, I mean, John's Creek's landscape company doesn't
really only even have to worry about if it just rained,
(19:54):
they can still mow because the water has run off
and into the pie underneath ours is sitting there waiting
to slowly drain down the road. And just little things
like that make maintenance harder to do a little bit
more costly and when and then the final reason, so
(20:17):
we've been falling behind a little bit, falling behind, and
then we put in the gateway sign at the Medlock
Bridge East Jones Bridge, you know intersection that added a
final location that's really call it part of the median section,
and it just made us realize we just need to
(20:39):
we need to look at this. So we went ahead
and wrote a bid and we bid it out and
we're going to have and council approved Tuesday night us
to outsource the whole thing. And that means from the
Paul Duke Sign, including the Paul Duke Sign area all
the way up to the Chattahoochee, to include the new
(21:00):
gateway sign right there by Ingles you know East Show's Bridge, Midlocke,
and the maintenance of it, the edging. They're going to
actually do landscaping, like they're going to end up there's
some sections that have too many shrubs, some sections that
maybe we need to add some more, so they're going
to actually be involved in that part in addition to mowing, edging,
(21:22):
litter removal, to a point where during grass cracking season,
all In was saying, the company that's doing this is
going to have personnel on our section of Median all
five days of the week. There's enough work that they're
going to actually have an individual or individual's plural who
are just doing median work in patreet corners. So you're
(21:45):
going to find that, you know, we have we still
have a little bit of a disadvantage of not having
it raised.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah, and you're not changing you're not changing that that stane.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Oh that would be millions of dollars. And the final
one for those who are and that you're going to
see believe really it's well, Monday's labor day, so September
second should be when they start that. Oh okay, and
so you'll start seeing a difference. I would say give
them a month because they've got some catch up on
(22:17):
edging or whatever, but you're going to see a noticeable difference.
One final thing that we are going to fight is
if you're ever in John's Creek and you're wanting to
make a turn when the median is raised, you can't
cut a corner because to cut a corner would mean
(22:37):
you jump up on the curb and then you fall
back down right. And we have sections in which people
do cut corners and it ends up taking wheels over
top of the brass and it creates kind of some
less harder to maintain areas that are in site. Just
(23:00):
take for instance, if you're on East Jones Bridge coming
from Simpson Wood Park and you come out and you
hit one forty one and you want to turn north
into Johns Creek the left turn lane. If you are
on the inside of the lane, you can cut across
the median and people do and it's created a pothole.
You can't grow grass in it, can't. We still got
(23:24):
to address that. Or the other one is is like
if you wanted to turn on the East Jones Bridge
heading north or coming from the south, and you want
to get in that turn lane because when the protective
green arrow goes, you want to be there so that
you may be able to make you know, get flushed. Well,
(23:45):
if cars are backed up and you got that like
one car, we've always been there. That's just enough that
you can't quite get around them so you can get
to the turn lane. People will cut into the median,
oh yeah, to get on there, and that also creates
potholes and you can't grow grass.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
All Peatree Parkway by Peatree Corner Circle when you're let's
see people making you know, instead of making the full
left turn, they're making such a U turn.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Right, so yeah, and so that you know, so we're
gonna still struggle with that. We're looking at ways we
might be able to do some things to prevent from happening.
But that's like kind of the final ten percent what
you're going to see, and and so it's just we're
going to finally have the median that the city deserves
and and so. But you know, well say it's it's
(24:36):
not a inexpensive endeavor.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Yeah, I'm sure it costs money. Everything costs money, all right,
So let's let's also bull apoint a couple of things
before we get into the East Jones Bridge, which I
want to talk about also, But just so them people
are aware, contested election.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
No, right, corners do not have the three members of
city Council that were for election. Nobody call fed to run.
So officially, as of four o'clock yesterday, we will not
have an election because there's no opponents who qualified to run.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
So that was four o'clock yesterday being Wednesday, the twenty
seventh for those listening. So no qualifying means no one
needs to go to city Hall in November. But there
will be East Blost on the ballot, so go to
your normal polling place for that, right.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Yeah, the county polling places that you normally go to
Fork County or you know state in national elections, those
polling precincts are going to be open because there is
some there's East Blosters on the ballot, so that's going
to be renewed. The penny that goes to Gwenett County
Public School System, which I would encourage people, you know,
(25:46):
that is one where it's been something we've all been
paying on for a long time. So it does go
to a lot, you know, making sure that our school
system has the proper facilities and equipment, which whether you
have kids in school or not, our home values, the
quality of our communities do have you know, an association
(26:09):
with how good our schools are. So you know, you
can't quite just say, oh, I don't care my kids
aren't in school there anymore. I mean, we do want
to have a good public school you know system, so
it is something that will be on the ballot, and
you know, I do I do think much like just
splost which you know we use, is it's a you know,
(26:30):
it's a good it's also good and that it's sales tax,
so it's not just born on the shoulders of us
who live here. Anybody visiting. If they go to a restaurant,
a gas station, a rust shop, they pay sales tax.
They also are contributing to our improvements. So that's always
the beauty of sales taxes. It's not just like property tax,
(26:51):
where it's you and I, you know that live here
having to pay for it. So I've always been a
favor of these because I think it's you know, it
helps deframe the cost, and it and it's and and
it's also restricted. You can't use it for whatever you want. Great,
got to go to capital projects in public and school
safety and all that.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah. There's also a third phase water Side that just
started too, I think, which is off East Jones Bridge.
Anyone that knows that used to be the five serve
property years ago was changed over to water Side. So
that third phase is also additional apartments down Holmes cottages.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Well, there's no apartments there. It's all yeah, no, no, no,
all equity. It's either like cottages, stacked flats, town homes.
It's a mix of a lot of different but all equity. Yeah. There,
there's essentially three phases. Well maybe anybody's been there. They
you can see they started the front and they're working backwards.
(27:51):
So this is the very back part of the property
up against the Chattahoochee back behind Simpson Elementary, you know,
kind of just to the north of Jones Bridge Park.
So this is a section that nobody could ever actually
see unless you go into the property. So it's the
very back third of the property.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
And this is the final I think this is the
final stage.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
It is. This final stage does have some property reserved
for by the zoning condition for an institutional user like
memory care, assisted living type of thing, so that would
be in this final phase. We don't the construction of
Phase three has the property set aside, but right now
(28:41):
the developer, a Providence Group, does not have an institutional
partner yet, so there's not construction of that that started,
but there has been the roads have been put in
for the remaining equity products. One final thing I'll say
about it is based on how the market was and
(29:02):
how they sold and the demand and all that. But
it was originally zoned they could have put as many
as nine hundred and sixteen units in there. It will
probably max out at four hundred and fifty. Wow, that'll
be the total amount of units that will be there.
And so a lot less traffic than there could have
(29:26):
been based on you know, how things played out. So
that's good. And again it's an equity product and it's
a gated community and so the roads in there are
not you know, it's not something the city's got to
add to its resurfacing inventory. So you know, it's a
pretty good I mean, it's we're overall happy with the development,
(29:48):
and it's providing you know, active adults and opportunity to
you know, to buy something that's less maintenance heavy than
if you own your own stamp detached home.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Oh, definitely good looking property over there, and like you said,
a lot less than what was approved as far as
unit's go. So that's cool. So let's talk a bit
about about some of the changes going on at East
Jones Bridge towards where CBS is. Do you want to
bring up a map that we looked at.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Yeah, so it's gonna be a change that.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
God knows, I would take that that trip across from
Ingles straight into the Forum North parking lot sometimes and
you you hat to be careful doing that actually.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
And can you see what I'm showing now?
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Yeah, I'm seeing it. So yeah, that should be if
you're if you're watching this on video YouTube, Facebook, you'll
see it. If not, what I'll do is I'll make
sure that we have a copy of this on the
on the website that you come here.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Yeah, yeah, I'll send you this when I send you
the Simpson would one. So can you see my cursor
pretty well?
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Yeah, So you're hovering over for so the people will
know where it is. Is East Johnes Bridge where the CVS.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Yep, here's CBS right so the bridge coming into one
This would be the new Rome building. This is the
north end of the forum. Ingles is about right here,
and seeing here on.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
The map, the trivey coming out of Ingles onto East
John's Bridge is a reference point for us right now.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Yeah, so you know, and now all of the brown
here is showing where you're going to have lane improvements
or restriping. So couple of significant changes here. One might
be for those who are ever in the area of
Ingles and the north end of the forum, you'll know
(31:50):
that there's a ingress egress point coming out of Ingles
and CVS right here and then right across the street
but not lined up directly is when it's about right
here is where the forum North's entrance, And the reason
it's not a four way intersection is because we can't
(32:12):
well what one, We could not ever signalize this because
it's too close to a signalized intersection here. You can't
make that a four way stop. And so you didn't
want to line it up exactly because then you create
a real intersection, which is why it's offset a little bit.
But that offset always creates confusion. Like you know, Rico,
(32:33):
if you were coming out here and I was coming
out of Forum, I'm looking at you and I'm like,
all right, are you going first? Am I? Who is
right away? You know? And so one way we can
resolve this is we know we can't move the Ingles
entrance because CBS is locked in here and then this
building right here locks it in. So this is that's fixed.
(32:54):
But given that this has some flexibility, we're gonna take
this entrance that's right here, and we're gonna move it
to the edge of the parking lot so you can
still get into the parking lot. When you get in,
you would still you would be directed to come down
the middle again, but you can still enter this just
like before. But by moving it and making it clearly
(33:15):
you know, to where you're not fighting this traffic. A
lot of us who live down East Jones Bridge, we
can make a right and you're not having to look
across the street. If you're making a left out of here,
you know that you've got the you know, all these
people who are already on the travel and have the
right of way. You're making a left. You're not having
to look across the street to see. And maybe a
(33:38):
final of value is by moving this entrance here from here,
we're all we're gonna be able to increase the length
of the left turned stacking lanes farther back than they are.
So if anybody's ever left it Shone Bridge in the morning,
especially and all the people heading north up into John's
(33:59):
Creek and Forsyth, that left turn can get all the
way back into the straight lane. And so now you
couldn't even get to turning right on one for one
because all those people who are waiting to turn left
and waiting for the signal. We can increase the stack,
and we can put a dedicated slip lane for those
(34:23):
who want to merge onto one forty one, and we
can flush those those cars quick. Won't have to stop
like a four way intersection type of thing, and so
that's allowing that to happen. We're restriping this interset these
lanes here to make them line up. And so the
(34:44):
main improvements are against stacking and slip lane here, separating
these two entrances here and making sure you'll have double
lefts out of all of these. And so this this
will flush this intersect much better.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
And that left turn lane going on to East Shones
Bridge from p Street Parkway going north, So that stack here, yeah,
that'll go further back.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
It looks like right, that's right, you can see they're
red here. It will go further back. And you know
right now, I was talking earlier about how people coming
down here they want to get into that stack so
that they can get flushed when you've got the turns right,
and just so that you know, right now that's just
a single yes, yeah, for you know, right until the
(35:34):
very end. And so now that'll allow more traffic to
get out of the you know, straight and get into
the stack there, so it'll be all double step left turn.
So again a lot of traffic that uses it, but
this will help make it safer. So yeah, that's one
of the projects that we got going on.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Do you know when that will get off the ground.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Yeah, so right now, the final thing we've got, it's
under designed. Right now. G dot's got to acquire some
of the right of way. And of course this is
that crappy ditch that predates the city, but that should
have been that should have been piped a long time ago.
But it is what it is. But yes, we've got
(36:17):
to do it because as you see here, we're taking
a little bit more property here and EOT requires a
clear zone and so it's not affecting CVS, but you
have to go through the legal stuff and there's how
much CVS is going to get for it and how
much the state's going to pay for it, and that
(36:38):
is it. When that is done, I would say, you know,
six months from that, So I mean we're hoping that
maybe spring of you know next year.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
It Okay, that's pretty fast considering.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
That we've been working on it for a while.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
So, yeah, so you had some other charts to show
us too. We were talking about multi show.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Yeah, we were. You and I were talking a little
bit about There was a town hall meeting last night
as well. Councilwoman or Douglas and councilman Alex Wright held
a joint town hall meeting, and as town hall meetings
oftentimes go and rico. You can see the graph right now.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Correct, correct, Yes.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
As you know town hall meetings go the you know
elected body want updated information. And so they were asking
me and my staff for some stuff and there were
two graphs I provided them when people were wanting to
know about you know, you know, housing type, especially as
it relates to apartments. So you know this graph right here.
(37:45):
One of the things is we went back to nineteen
seventy three when the city really, this area it wasn't
a city yet really started to get developed. And that
was as a result the Tech Park Atlanta, so late
sixties and when Tech Park Atlanta started and then over
as it started to become more successful, you know, residential
(38:09):
developers were like, hey, we can build houses near all
these tech companies. And so you had this big you
know this this you know, yeah, this phase of apartment
building and these are all rental units, so this would
be apartments, and you had all this you know, this
(38:29):
crush of them in this short period of time. This
is where you get a lot of like the apartments
on outer p Street corner Circle between hulk Bridge and PIB.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Nineteen eighty seven showed a really huge spike of apartments
a thousand units.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
Yeah, and you know, so these are ones where you know,
you got that and then kind of petered off and
it was just you know, going along. And then the city,
you know, became a city in twenty twelve, and this
would be a good one to show. So in twenty
twelve city was incorporated. This shows the amount of rental
(39:04):
units that were approved in green or denied in red
the city was incorporated. The twenty nineteen would be Courtland
twenty nineteen EIB.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
In twenty nineteen for those that can't see the chart
because they're listening to the audio podcast, is the first
time we see approved multifamily. From twenty twelve to till
twenty nineteen, there was nothing approved like that. Ye, it's
been a long approved correct so multifamily. So twenty nineteen
is Courtland.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
Yeah, and then we skipped the twenty twenty one. In
twenty twenty two and those we had a lot of
a lot of apartment a rush that was kind of
the post COVID you know, hey, you know, housing demand
went up, housing prices got ridiculous. People were like, hey,
(39:56):
I don't always have to go down you know, down
town Atlanta anymore. The company I work at because they
let me work from home, I can maybe move out
to the suburbs and all happening. Yeah, and so this
is where you're gonna get. Like the units that were
like on Technology Parkway South and PIB which you know
(40:18):
is it was a long time vacant office building and
that would have been converted that one came in. You
had to Sun Court, which is right across the street
from Intuitive Surgical, right next to the post office. Right
that was another mixed use that had apartments. In twenty
(40:38):
twenty two is probably the big one there, as you
had the combination of the Forum and across the street
of the Town Center which is now Solace, which is
grand opening is next week. I believe that's where you
got that in twenty twenty two, And of course you
can see in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty four
(41:01):
there's been a lot of denials as well.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
For those that can't see it. In twenty twenty two,
so we had the that was the last spike really
of multi family, and then there was close to six
hundred plus apartments, so six almost six hundred multi family
denied in twenty twenty two. Now, some of that came
back as possible, you know, way less like townhouses or know.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
It did like yeah, Lenar's building one on Engineering and
one for one. They came in at like two hundred
and fifty one apartments. It was denied. We negotiated with
them and they came back with like seventy one townhomes.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
So a lot less and certainly are those townhomes I
even you know, good expensive townhomes of fuel.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
Yes, building the Day Building was another one. They came
in with like two hundred and forty eight apartments denied
work with them coming back with like sixty one town homes.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
So that was twenty two twenty three. There was nothing
either way or no approval still, but over or close
to five inrad units denied at that point as well.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
It'll be like Da Vinci Court that was a denial
during that period. Was a big, high profile project. And
so yeah, I mean and then twenty twenty five. The
only reason I'm even showing a seventy three because that
was actually a longtime extended stay hotel. That was a
(42:35):
huge crime problem, and they asked to convert the rooms
into efficiency apartment units specifically to help out those who
were had you know, a handicap of some sort or
and that's being run through the Gnatt Housing Authority. So
(42:58):
that was a conversion. That's not new. And trust me,
the extended stay hotel issue is not a good situation
for us to have at.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
All, No, for sure. And this one is for those
that don't know. This one is Jimmy Carter Boulevard right.
Speaker 3 (43:15):
Near p I B.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Yeah, right near PI B. Right, it's there's actually on
that strip is actually two hotels. This is the one
on the right if you're facing it looking west right
right forget what the other one is?
Speaker 3 (43:28):
Yeah by a car wash, right are yeah? I And
so yeah, that's you know, that wasn't new. That's definitely
an improvement with Gwenett Housing Authority regulating it. Now we've
got you know, one throat to choke if you will,
if you know things are not going well. But that
extended stay, I mean, all of them we have. You know,
(43:48):
we have a few like on you know Medlock and
pib which is actually a finger of nor Cross that
you know by the waffle house there those three are
a huge problem and so we'd love to convert more.
But anyway, that was just a show that you know,
you know, councils definitely considering all these on a case
(44:10):
by case basis, and you know there's you know, there's
consideration of the value proposition or lack thereof maybe. So yeah,
it was just as we were talking, thought that would
be interesting to share, and I'll share that with you
as well. Yeah, Christian, Yeah, that that'll help me.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
You know, listen the you know, for those listening, you know,
there's always I've been a resident of piece for corners
of this area since ninety five and so I've been
here through the city lie, through all the arguments to
stop the city hood and all that stuff. And you know, listen,
when Quinnett County was doing rezonings, they were doing a
(44:55):
lot of rezonings to multifamily Quanett County itself, right, and
we had no control over this area at all. I mean,
even with the county commissioner. And you know when they
talk about county commissioner preference or you know, you follow
the lead of the local county commissioner. Sometimes that was good,
you know, sometimes not. It just depends, right, So having
(45:18):
a city now that's all, you know, worried about itself,
you know, and it's its growth is way more important,
I think, And you could see that in that chart,
because I don't know how many times do I have
to hear people say we just have to stop developing
multi family and it's like, but if you look at
what's what's come, it's not as much. Now. Some can argue, well,
(45:40):
that's because there was opposition to it, which is good.
Healthy opposition is good, you know, to these things. You
want healthy opposition, not just a no on everything, because
that's sometimes what it seems like. And i'm editorializing here,
but it seems like there's a no for everything now
in my backyard.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
Not he no way.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
You know, sometimes you have to compromise and sometimes progress
is good. The Forum, without the progress of that development,
would have been seventeen empty stores moving towards a bad development.
Speaker 3 (46:15):
But even just that, going back a little bit before
that reco yes, before the Forum was constructed. Initially, yes
there was it was woods and I've read, you know,
some articles about the resistance to that and people were
just like, oh my god, it's gonna be And then
(46:35):
now you had that and everyone was like, oh, it's awesome.
I have a lot of this stuff that's close by.
I mean, yeah, you have to consider. But then there
are some that you're just like, nope, that that's not
good in any I.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
Think there was yeah, I think there was like twenty
four pages of regular ordinance change for that development.
Speaker 3 (46:55):
Twenty fifth conditions, yes.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
Of stuff that you can't can do. And when I
think when they added the Trader Jones later, which was
a second phase, I think back there there were more
people that didn't want it and stuff, and you know,
and granted, you know, Amberfield butts up to it and
they you know, it affected them more directly, I guess.
(47:19):
But I can't tell you how many people I see
going to Trade of Joe's.
Speaker 3 (47:23):
Oh, if Trader Joe's was leaving, everyone would now be
up in arms. Yes, you know, I mean so, yes,
it's not just not cut and dry. But again, there's
some times where somebody wants to do something you're like,
you know, that doesn't make sense in any universe and
so certainly doesn't make sense here. But anyway, you know,
as we talk about this, we've been talking about it
(47:43):
for years. These are just sometimes revealing to see you know,
this kind of.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
Stuff, and I appreciate you sharing that with us. Yeah,
so we're going to have all that on on the website,
show notes links to all these things, so if you
want to learn a little bit more about what's going on,
they could certainly fine follow those links out. I want
to thank you Brian for being with me for doing
the podcast. Yeah, no, enjoy it. And we haven't done
(48:08):
it for a couple of months, but I've been filling
in with urban podcasts for those that maybe might be
interested in listening to that. We've been I've been interviewing
several police chiefs and others about their local police department
and stuff and standing up to their police force. And
a couple of authors and there some local authors that
(48:29):
live here in Peace for Corners and in the area.
So some good podcasts there, I think, if I can
say that, but I do appreciate you all listening to
peacere Corner's Life. I know that whenever I have Brian on,
you know, people listen because they want to know what's
going on in this city. So glad to be able
to do that and get this going. Thanks Brian, Thanks
(48:50):
for the resource.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
Sure, so hang in there with me, but everyone else,
I appreciate you being with us.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
Thank you, thanks for listening to Peachtree Corner's Life with
Rico Figliolini. You can listen to the show wherever podcasts
are found, like iHeartRadio, Spotify, and Apple Podcast. Leave us
a review too, it helps others find the show as well.
Don't forget to like our Facebook page and YouTube channel
(49:18):
for notifications of our live simulcast video streams of the show.
Catch our other podcast shows at Living in Peachtreecorners dot com.
In fact, you can listen to our other popular show,
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leaders and subject matter experts find what you need to
(49:41):
meet today's challenges that every business owner faces. Check out
the show at The Capitalistsage dot com.
You're listening to Peachtree Corner's 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, Rico Figliolini.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Hi everyone, This is Peatree Corner's Life with Rico Figliolini,
your host here. And the city of Peatrie corn is
just north of Atlanta and I'm here with city Manager
Brian Johnson. Hey Brian here, ric How are you good?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Good?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
We haven't actually we haven't done this in quite a while.
But there's a lot of stuff to talk about in
this podcast, and you'll be sharing some charts and stuff.
We'll be talking about Simpson Wedmans, the plan that just
got approved by the advisory committee, the medium being outsourced,
the taking care of the media and on Peatree Parkway
and Eastern's Bridge Road, and a few other things as well. Right, So,
(01:06):
but before we get into that, I just want to
say thank you to our sponsors. So first, IV Remodeling Ink,
I want to thank you Live for supporting us the
journalism that we do, the magazines, the podcasts, all the
stuff that needs to be done to be able to
bring this type of stuff to the public so then
people know exactly what's going on because really no one's
(01:27):
covering this stuff. And with the AJAC now deciding they're
not doing print anymore, they're going to discontinue. That makes
me wonder how they're going to be able to cover
anything that's hyper local even going full digital, so that'll
be interesting. But ev Remodeling great people. They've served over
two hundred and sixty families doing whole house remodels, kitchen,
(01:49):
bath additions to homes. Great Guy talk to them. Peachtree
Corner resident and business owner ev Remodelingink dot com, the
next one vox popular also here in Petree Corners. Great
Great Guy, Andrew Daniel, their whole family. If you have
a brand, if you're a business and you have a
logo and you want to be able to get your
(02:10):
stuff out, you want to market yourself, you need something
to be able to market, and they bring everything to
life pretty much. So you need a vehicle wrap, you
need trade show displays, you need a pail with your
logo on it. Hat anything you can put a logo on,
think about it. They can figure that out. You want
to laser burn that logo of you yours onto something
you never thought about. They can do that, so check
(02:33):
them out. They also are a major sponsor of the city.
You've you've been to the concert, you've seen the Vox
stage Town Center. Without them supporting these great concerts and
other things may not be you know, it may be
not difficult to do, but it's great to have these
sponsors because they help get it done. So check them
(02:53):
out there actually at the concerts, usually with a display
stand there as well booth I think, and they have
great city branded apparel and stuff you can check out
if you want. But go to voxpopular dot com you'll
find out a little bit more about them. So now
that we've covered that, let's get right into it. Brian,
it's been a while and Simpson Wood Park has been
(03:15):
on everyone's mind and through this past year quite a
few meetings also well, not even counting the deer population issue. Right,
it's mainly what will happen to Simpson Would Park with
the master plan, so what's coming there? And basically the
Advisory Committee citizen Advisory Committee right ended up approving a
(03:39):
master plan that they'd like to see. After all these
public hearings and this is going to go to the
Recreation Board ye before it gets to the city Quinnett
County for approval will vote. So tell us a little
bit what you know, what's included? Now where are we
at after a year plus public hearings and such.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Well, so you know, going way back, I mean both
the city and the county have been interested in this
being a park because back in twenty fourteen, I believe,
is when the United Methodist Church decided to sell the
property and they were had i think a letter of intent,
if not an actual sale to a private developer who
(04:20):
was putting wanting to put in like four hundred and
fifty single family detached houses, you know, another subdivision, and
the county and the city got together and said, no,
we would rather that be a park. And so the
county and the city threw in money and ended up
buying it from that private developer and it became a park.
(04:41):
The county agreed to run the park, so we bought
it joint liam and the county threw in like two
thirds of the money in the city a third essentially,
but the county said we'll run it like a park.
They ended up creating a citizen advisory committee then and
worked through what was the initial master plan, and a
(05:03):
lot of it had to do with demolition of existing
structures at the time, and they got into the park
where kind of we know today was obviously like you know,
ten years of wear and tear on it, but.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
The originally just to remind people the original structures on,
there was essentially a resort, if you will, for retreats.
So there was a hotel essentially to a degree, right,
there was a meeting building, there was an apartment building there,
there were parking space if over two hunred plus cars
I think.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Yeah, you know, like covered outdoor basketball corps and they
had day camp or summer camp cottages you know, or
cabins and so yeah, it was kind of well. Then
the county, through the last bloss cycle, appropriated about seven
million dollars to improvements to Simpson Wood, and so they
(05:57):
decided to prior to deciding where that money would go,
and they said, let's stand up the Citizen Advisory Committee
again and let's have them weigh in on what we
do with the seven million dollars. And so they took
half of the original Citizen Advisory Committee and then a
(06:19):
new batch of people and put us together and I
was representing the city on this, and they ran over
the course of about the last year they've run us through,
I don't know, we had probably seven eight meetings and
basically went through the iteration of what is it that
(06:41):
should be there, what do you definitely not want to
have there, and over time just kind of refine the
master plan more and more to a point where, you know,
as all processes, you know, get to there had to
be all right, we have to make a you know,
we have to have this master plan that goes through
(07:05):
goes to the Recreational Authority Board than the County Commission.
To boil it down, I would say that, you know,
there were a number of things that were thrown out
that the committee didn't want. And the committee just also
was not always of one accord on this. So it
was a large committee. There was like I can't remember
(07:27):
twenty to twenty five people on it, and so the
committee wasn't on one accord, nor was it on one
accord last night. You know, there wasn't unanimity per se.
But we'll say this committee was able to really and
into the county's credit, County Parks and Direct Department's credit.
(07:49):
They allowed for a lot less man made development to
be put in there, things like big playgrounds. The amount
of trade they started with were a lot more than
we resulted in. There's less pavilions with grills, there's less parking,
(08:10):
you know, there's there's not a entry point into the
Chattahoochie like you see it jones Bridge Park. So very
much the committee was like, look, jones Bridge Park has
some things that make it unique and everything, but let's
not try to replicate all of that at another park
that's just down the road. And so the end result
(08:35):
is one where it has some man made trails such
that you know, you know, paved trails such that they're
handicapped accessible, you know, could be walked on if it's
wet outside and you don't get muddy. But yet there's
a lot of trails, more trails than not that are
(08:57):
just un developed up you know, trails that are are maintained,
but they're just like you know, little goat paths within
the woods. So that you get that there's not your
formal playground like you would think. There's only I think
it was three smaller pavilions and there is going to
(09:19):
be an overlook at the Chattahoochie, but not any kind
of a you know, developed entry into the Chattahoochie like
you see at Jones Ridge Park. So at the end
of the day people have to look at it. There's
a lot going on there, but it is going to
be a pass remain a passive park. There's not programming
(09:42):
out there. There's not soccer fields or pickleball courts or
basketball or mountain biking was another one. They were like,
no mountain biking. And so the day not everybody thought
it was perfect. I'll just end with and everybody thought
it was perfect. There were some people who still think
that there should be less of a certain thing, or
some others who are like, oh I would have liked
(10:03):
to have seen more, you know, won't get into each
the eaches. But overall, the county did listen and got
something that I think is a doable one and the
park will be better off forward. It don't have new bathrooms,
it'll have resurface parking. The chapel will be renovated. I mean,
you know, there's some things about it that'll make it good.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Chapel will stay there, will be renovated. The bathrooms at
the front, I imagine will be renovated or whatever.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Oh yeah, yeah, it'll be new bathrooms.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Will there be bathrooms any I know at one point
there was going to be additional bathrooms somewhere else.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Yeah, there's a smaller one down close to the river itself.
Speaker 2 (10:44):
Okay, and the pavilions. Isn't that one already or is it?
Speaker 3 (10:48):
There's a massive one that was it covered a full
court basketball court. That's the current one. That one goes away,
and there's going to be three smaller ones.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
When you combine the three, I think it might be
a little bit more total covered pavilion space, but not
a lot you know, with you know, a lot more
and you know, again, the county listened in it, and
you know, it kept refinding it. So it's a well
thought out plan and the county you know, Parks and
rec Department did a good job on it. The consultants
(11:20):
that they used did a really good job. There's a
lot of Oh and maybe another important point people don't
oftentimes think about this, but there's gonna be some forestry
activities in there, because you've got groves of trees that
are not growing healthy, or you've got them too close
or the mixes and good and there's a couple of
(11:41):
places where you've got some disease and they're gonna end
up going through and having you know, you know, they've
had some arborous involved in that, and you know, so
it's well thought out and you know, it's moving through
the process.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Okay, cool, We're going to have I guess a map
and some information that we can share with this podcast
with listeners and stuff.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Yeah, it's just too big of a file and there's
too much going on. So i'll you know, Rico, You'll
get the link and you can share it with the
readers and they can go through it. I again, remember
there's two final step still. Recreational Authority Board has got
to prove it and then the County Commission approves it,
and then the construction of this will be multiple years
(12:29):
in the making. It's not there's not going to be
seven million dump to it right away. You've got prep work,
you got the forestry stuff, you got some wildlife preservation
activities and erosion you know work that's going to be
done first. Yeah. So it's going to be a number
of years in the making. But I think the end product,
(12:50):
given the diverse interest in this is a pretty good one.
And maybe the final point would be I don't think
you're going to see that in and of it itself.
It's going to attract a lot of people, which was
a concern to our local residents and a concern to
mayor council.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Sure, and that makes sense. I mean, they might not
even spend the full seven million because there won't be
seven million dollars of improvement going in, right, But certainly,
I know people were saying they didn't want to see,
you know, active ball fields or pick a ball like
you said, I mean those none of that will.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Be Yeah, there's no programming, so you're not going to
have large groups of people coming for a pick a
ball tournament or a baseball game or a soccer game.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
So even though the county doesn't like the word passive
park to a degree, it will be somewhat of a
passive park if you look at it that way, I guess.
But certainly the trails will be maintained. I don't, like
you said, it won't be as much. They wanted to
pave over quite a bit, I think at so now
it's not as much.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Maybe it's correct significantly less. So there's there's there's paved
handicap accessible. You will be able to get closer to
the river, you know, on on improved you know, paved path.
But there's want not as much.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
As right I mean, I mean that's necessary, right because
we should allow everyone to have access, so it should
be ADA compliant and stuff. All right, So I'll have
all that on on the website once this podcast goes out.
So this way, you all whoever wants to, you know,
click through it. You can say exactly what it is
(14:30):
and then yeah, so it sounds like you all did
a great job. I can't wait to see what's what
you know it's going to turn out over the next
few years.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
Yeah, and council and christ was also on the Citizen
Advisory Committee and did a good job representing the city's
interests as well. He was one of the original on
the original. Yes, he was one that was carried over
from the original, so he actually was on it as
a as one of the original He wasn't on it
as a city council member. He just now happens to
(14:58):
be one. So there were two of us, yeah on there.
But yeah, he also did a good job and you know,
when communicated and Glenn Borman, who led it for the county,
did a good job on trying to meet all these
diverse needs. Again, the committee wasn't of one accord itself.
(15:20):
There was a lot of varying levels of it. So
it's hard when you have a group. There's a lot
of chiefs in there, and you know, a lot of
cooks in that kitchen. It's hard to get everybody. You know.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
This is what compromising is about me. Not everyone could
get everything they want. So and there's no sometimes right
way or wrong way of doing something.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Cool, So let's move on to there's something else that
when I was at the City Council meeting this week
was talking about the median and the outsourcing of the
media and maintenance of the median and the growth of it.
So could you speak to that a little bit.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Yeah, So the median you're referring to is eating on
Ptree Parkway and it's really if you're heading north into
p Stree Parkway from two eighty five, you we all
know that there's a split, and you know to the
right is PIB and to the left is Ptree Parkway
or State Route one forty one. Well, at that split,
(16:20):
it starts with the Paul Duke sign right that gateway sign,
and then now you've got a median all the way
up to the Chattahoochee River where Ptree Corners and John's
Creek meet. Well, that median. Since the city was created,
we have been attempting to maintain it internally to the
(16:42):
city and you know, the my public works employees, and
we've done that because you know, as a city with
no city property tax, we're trying to be as judicious
and cost effective as we can with our resources and
so bidding, you know, having a third party do it,
(17:04):
a company that does this for a living, like landscape companies,
is always the best because that's what they do for
a living. They cost more. And so over the years
we did it, but it started to get harder and
harder for us to stay on top of it. And
that's mainly for two reasons. One is over it is
(17:27):
probably the way it was constructed. And by that I
mean for those who have been on P Street Parkway
which then becomes Medlock Bridge Road up in John's Creek,
but that's stretch of one forty one. If you've been
on the two stretches, Oftentimes people are like, oh, the
Johns Creek median looks a lot better than p Stree Corners,
(17:47):
And I don't disagree as it stands, at least today.
And here's one of the two reasons. One I already
talked about is they outsource it. They have a professional
landscape company that does it for them. They also have
a very healthy city militarate in Johns Creek as well.
Speaker 2 (18:04):
For sure.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
And the second reason is the difference in the way
Georgia Department of Transportation constructed it. If you notice in
John's Creek, the median up there is raised, so they
poured curb and then they raised the whole median to
the level you know about, you know what, eight inches
(18:25):
above the roadway, and they buried the drainage underneath the median.
And the median is crowned in Johns Creek, so when
water hits, it'll roll off into the street and then
into drain inlets on a pipe running down the middle. Well,
when g DOT built our section, do that, except for
(18:50):
you may notice right out about the Wellington Lake Subdivision
entrance that point to the river, which is not that
long of a section. They actually did. At in Pa
Street Corners, we have the raised one, but most of
the median for us is actually done opposite. It's at
great so you've got pavement and then the grass is
(19:11):
at the same level. And then the meeting itself is
actually angled in and it's really a long ditch, a
grass ditch is really what it is. And so we
don't have the same opportunity to maintain that John's Creek
does because we have edging. You know, when grass is
(19:32):
at even with the road, you don't have a nice
even edge like John's Creek does with the curb. So
now you've got edge more because if not, grass starts
to grow into the road and that looks bad. Drainage
into the middle, I mean, John's Creek's landscape company doesn't
really only even have to worry about if it just rained,
(19:54):
they can still mow because the water has run off
and into the pie underneath ours is sitting there waiting
to slowly drain down the road. And just little things
like that make maintenance harder to do a little bit
more costly and when and then the final reason, so
(20:17):
we've been falling behind a little bit, falling behind, and
then we put in the gateway sign at the Medlock
Bridge East Jones Bridge, you know intersection that added a
final location that's really call it part of the median section,
and it just made us realize we just need to
(20:39):
we need to look at this. So we went ahead
and wrote a bid and we bid it out and
we're going to have and council approved Tuesday night us
to outsource the whole thing. And that means from the
Paul Duke Sign, including the Paul Duke Sign area all
the way up to the Chattahoochee, to include the new
(21:00):
gateway sign right there by Ingles you know East Show's Bridge, Midlocke,
and the maintenance of it, the edging. They're going to
actually do landscaping, like they're going to end up there's
some sections that have too many shrubs, some sections that
maybe we need to add some more, so they're going
to actually be involved in that part in addition to mowing, edging,
(21:22):
litter removal, to a point where during grass cracking season,
all In was saying, the company that's doing this is
going to have personnel on our section of Median all
five days of the week. There's enough work that they're
going to actually have an individual or individual's plural who
are just doing median work in patreet corners. So you're
(21:45):
going to find that, you know, we have we still
have a little bit of a disadvantage of not having
it raised.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Yeah, and you're not changing you're not changing that that stane.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
Oh that would be millions of dollars. And the final
one for those who are and that you're going to
see believe really it's well, Monday's labor day, so September
second should be when they start that. Oh okay, and
so you'll start seeing a difference. I would say give
them a month because they've got some catch up on
(22:17):
edging or whatever, but you're going to see a noticeable difference.
One final thing that we are going to fight is
if you're ever in John's Creek and you're wanting to
make a turn when the median is raised, you can't
cut a corner because to cut a corner would mean
(22:37):
you jump up on the curb and then you fall
back down right. And we have sections in which people
do cut corners and it ends up taking wheels over
top of the brass and it creates kind of some
less harder to maintain areas that are in site. Just
(23:00):
take for instance, if you're on East Jones Bridge coming
from Simpson Wood Park and you come out and you
hit one forty one and you want to turn north
into Johns Creek the left turn lane. If you are
on the inside of the lane, you can cut across
the median and people do and it's created a pothole.
You can't grow grass in it, can't. We still got
(23:24):
to address that. Or the other one is is like
if you wanted to turn on the East Jones Bridge
heading north or coming from the south, and you want
to get in that turn lane because when the protective
green arrow goes, you want to be there so that
you may be able to make you know, get flushed. Well,
(23:45):
if cars are backed up and you got that like
one car, we've always been there. That's just enough that
you can't quite get around them so you can get
to the turn lane. People will cut into the median,
oh yeah, to get on there, and that also creates
potholes and you can't grow grass.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
All Peatree Parkway by Peatree Corner Circle when you're let's
see people making you know, instead of making the full
left turn, they're making such a U turn.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
Right, so yeah, and so that you know, so we're
gonna still struggle with that. We're looking at ways we
might be able to do some things to prevent from happening.
But that's like kind of the final ten percent what
you're going to see, and and so it's just we're
going to finally have the median that the city deserves
and and so. But you know, well say it's it's
(24:36):
not a inexpensive endeavor.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Yeah, I'm sure it costs money. Everything costs money, all right,
So let's let's also bull apoint a couple of things
before we get into the East Jones Bridge, which I
want to talk about also, But just so them people
are aware, contested election.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
No, right, corners do not have the three members of
city Council that were for election. Nobody call fed to run.
So officially, as of four o'clock yesterday, we will not
have an election because there's no opponents who qualified to run.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
So that was four o'clock yesterday being Wednesday, the twenty
seventh for those listening. So no qualifying means no one
needs to go to city Hall in November. But there
will be East Blost on the ballot, so go to
your normal polling place for that, right.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
Yeah, the county polling places that you normally go to
Fork County or you know state in national elections, those
polling precincts are going to be open because there is
some there's East Blosters on the ballot, so that's going
to be renewed. The penny that goes to Gwenett County
Public School System, which I would encourage people, you know,
(25:46):
that is one where it's been something we've all been
paying on for a long time. So it does go
to a lot, you know, making sure that our school
system has the proper facilities and equipment, which whether you
have kids in school or not, our home values, the
quality of our communities do have you know, an association
(26:09):
with how good our schools are. So you know, you
can't quite just say, oh, I don't care my kids
aren't in school there anymore. I mean, we do want
to have a good public school you know system, so
it is something that will be on the ballot, and
you know, I do I do think much like just
splost which you know we use, is it's a you know,
(26:30):
it's a good it's also good and that it's sales tax,
so it's not just born on the shoulders of us
who live here. Anybody visiting. If they go to a restaurant,
a gas station, a rust shop, they pay sales tax.
They also are contributing to our improvements. So that's always
the beauty of sales taxes. It's not just like property tax,
(26:51):
where it's you and I, you know that live here
having to pay for it. So I've always been a
favor of these because I think it's you know, it
helps deframe the cost, and it and it's and and
it's also restricted. You can't use it for whatever you want. Great,
got to go to capital projects in public and school
safety and all that.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah. There's also a third phase water Side that just
started too, I think, which is off East Jones Bridge.
Anyone that knows that used to be the five serve
property years ago was changed over to water Side. So
that third phase is also additional apartments down Holmes cottages.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Well, there's no apartments there. It's all yeah, no, no, no,
all equity. It's either like cottages, stacked flats, town homes.
It's a mix of a lot of different but all equity. Yeah. There,
there's essentially three phases. Well maybe anybody's been there. They
you can see they started the front and they're working backwards.
(27:51):
So this is the very back part of the property
up against the Chattahoochee back behind Simpson Elementary, you know,
kind of just to the north of Jones Bridge Park.
So this is a section that nobody could ever actually
see unless you go into the property. So it's the
very back third of the property.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
And this is the final I think this is the
final stage.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
It is. This final stage does have some property reserved
for by the zoning condition for an institutional user like
memory care, assisted living type of thing, so that would
be in this final phase. We don't the construction of
Phase three has the property set aside, but right now
(28:41):
the developer, a Providence Group, does not have an institutional
partner yet, so there's not construction of that that started,
but there has been the roads have been put in
for the remaining equity products. One final thing I'll say
about it is based on how the market was and
(29:02):
how they sold and the demand and all that. But
it was originally zoned they could have put as many
as nine hundred and sixteen units in there. It will
probably max out at four hundred and fifty. Wow, that'll
be the total amount of units that will be there.
And so a lot less traffic than there could have
(29:26):
been based on you know, how things played out. So
that's good. And again it's an equity product and it's
a gated community and so the roads in there are
not you know, it's not something the city's got to
add to its resurfacing inventory. So you know, it's a
pretty good I mean, it's we're overall happy with the development,
(29:48):
and it's providing you know, active adults and opportunity to
you know, to buy something that's less maintenance heavy than
if you own your own stamp detached home.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Oh, definitely good looking property over there, and like you said,
a lot less than what was approved as far as
unit's go. So that's cool. So let's talk a bit
about about some of the changes going on at East
Jones Bridge towards where CBS is. Do you want to
bring up a map that we looked at.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Yeah, so it's gonna be a change that.
Speaker 2 (30:28):
God knows, I would take that that trip across from
Ingles straight into the Forum North parking lot sometimes and
you you hat to be careful doing that actually.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
And can you see what I'm showing now?
Speaker 2 (30:42):
Yeah, I'm seeing it. So yeah, that should be if
you're if you're watching this on video YouTube, Facebook, you'll
see it. If not, what I'll do is I'll make
sure that we have a copy of this on the
on the website that you come here.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
Yeah, yeah, I'll send you this when I send you
the Simpson would one. So can you see my cursor
pretty well?
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Yeah, So you're hovering over for so the people will
know where it is. Is East Johnes Bridge where the CVS.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Yep, here's CBS right so the bridge coming into one
This would be the new Rome building. This is the
north end of the forum. Ingles is about right here,
and seeing here on.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
The map, the trivey coming out of Ingles onto East
John's Bridge is a reference point for us right now.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Yeah, so you know, and now all of the brown
here is showing where you're going to have lane improvements
or restriping. So couple of significant changes here. One might
be for those who are ever in the area of
Ingles and the north end of the forum, you'll know
(31:50):
that there's a ingress egress point coming out of Ingles
and CVS right here and then right across the street
but not lined up directly is when it's about right
here is where the forum North's entrance, And the reason
it's not a four way intersection is because we can't
(32:12):
well what one, We could not ever signalize this because
it's too close to a signalized intersection here. You can't
make that a four way stop. And so you didn't
want to line it up exactly because then you create
a real intersection, which is why it's offset a little bit.
But that offset always creates confusion. Like you know, Rico,
(32:33):
if you were coming out here and I was coming
out of Forum, I'm looking at you and I'm like,
all right, are you going first? Am I? Who is
right away? You know? And so one way we can
resolve this is we know we can't move the Ingles
entrance because CBS is locked in here and then this
building right here locks it in. So this is that's fixed.
(32:54):
But given that this has some flexibility, we're gonna take
this entrance that's right here, and we're gonna move it
to the edge of the parking lot so you can
still get into the parking lot. When you get in,
you would still you would be directed to come down
the middle again, but you can still enter this just
like before. But by moving it and making it clearly
(33:15):
you know, to where you're not fighting this traffic. A
lot of us who live down East Jones Bridge, we
can make a right and you're not having to look
across the street. If you're making a left out of here,
you know that you've got the you know, all these
people who are already on the travel and have the
right of way. You're making a left. You're not having
to look across the street to see. And maybe a
(33:38):
final of value is by moving this entrance here from here,
we're all we're gonna be able to increase the length
of the left turned stacking lanes farther back than they are.
So if anybody's ever left it Shone Bridge in the morning,
especially and all the people heading north up into John's
(33:59):
Creek and Forsyth, that left turn can get all the
way back into the straight lane. And so now you
couldn't even get to turning right on one for one
because all those people who are waiting to turn left
and waiting for the signal. We can increase the stack,
and we can put a dedicated slip lane for those
(34:23):
who want to merge onto one forty one, and we
can flush those those cars quick. Won't have to stop
like a four way intersection type of thing, and so
that's allowing that to happen. We're restriping this interset these
lanes here to make them line up. And so the
(34:44):
main improvements are against stacking and slip lane here, separating
these two entrances here and making sure you'll have double
lefts out of all of these. And so this this
will flush this intersect much better.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
And that left turn lane going on to East Shones
Bridge from p Street Parkway going north, So that stack here, yeah,
that'll go further back.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
It looks like right, that's right, you can see they're
red here. It will go further back. And you know
right now, I was talking earlier about how people coming
down here they want to get into that stack so
that they can get flushed when you've got the turns right,
and just so that you know, right now that's just
a single yes, yeah, for you know, right until the
(35:34):
very end. And so now that'll allow more traffic to
get out of the you know, straight and get into
the stack there, so it'll be all double step left turn.
So again a lot of traffic that uses it, but
this will help make it safer. So yeah, that's one
of the projects that we got going on.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Do you know when that will get off the ground.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Yeah, so right now, the final thing we've got, it's
under designed. Right now. G dot's got to acquire some
of the right of way. And of course this is
that crappy ditch that predates the city, but that should
have been that should have been piped a long time ago.
But it is what it is. But yes, we've got
(36:17):
to do it because as you see here, we're taking
a little bit more property here and EOT requires a
clear zone and so it's not affecting CVS, but you
have to go through the legal stuff and there's how
much CVS is going to get for it and how
much the state's going to pay for it, and that
(36:38):
is it. When that is done, I would say, you know,
six months from that, So I mean we're hoping that
maybe spring of you know next year.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
It Okay, that's pretty fast considering.
Speaker 3 (36:57):
That we've been working on it for a while.
Speaker 2 (36:59):
So, yeah, so you had some other charts to show
us too. We were talking about multi show.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Yeah, we were. You and I were talking a little
bit about There was a town hall meeting last night
as well. Councilwoman or Douglas and councilman Alex Wright held
a joint town hall meeting, and as town hall meetings
oftentimes go and rico. You can see the graph right now.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Correct, correct, Yes.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
As you know town hall meetings go the you know
elected body want updated information. And so they were asking
me and my staff for some stuff and there were
two graphs I provided them when people were wanting to
know about you know, you know, housing type, especially as
it relates to apartments. So you know this graph right here.
(37:45):
One of the things is we went back to nineteen
seventy three when the city really, this area it wasn't
a city yet really started to get developed. And that
was as a result the Tech Park Atlanta, so late
sixties and when Tech Park Atlanta started and then over
as it started to become more successful, you know, residential
(38:09):
developers were like, hey, we can build houses near all
these tech companies. And so you had this big you
know this this you know, yeah, this phase of apartment
building and these are all rental units, so this would
be apartments, and you had all this you know, this
(38:29):
crush of them in this short period of time. This
is where you get a lot of like the apartments
on outer p Street corner Circle between hulk Bridge and PIB.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Nineteen eighty seven showed a really huge spike of apartments
a thousand units.
Speaker 3 (38:42):
Yeah, and you know, so these are ones where you know,
you got that and then kind of petered off and
it was just you know, going along. And then the city,
you know, became a city in twenty twelve, and this
would be a good one to show. So in twenty
twelve city was incorporated. This shows the amount of rental
(39:04):
units that were approved in green or denied in red
the city was incorporated. The twenty nineteen would be Courtland
twenty nineteen EIB.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
In twenty nineteen for those that can't see the chart
because they're listening to the audio podcast, is the first
time we see approved multifamily. From twenty twelve to till
twenty nineteen, there was nothing approved like that. Ye, it's
been a long approved correct so multifamily. So twenty nineteen
is Courtland.
Speaker 3 (39:36):
Yeah, and then we skipped the twenty twenty one. In
twenty twenty two and those we had a lot of
a lot of apartment a rush that was kind of
the post COVID you know, hey, you know, housing demand
went up, housing prices got ridiculous. People were like, hey,
(39:56):
I don't always have to go down you know, down
town Atlanta anymore. The company I work at because they
let me work from home, I can maybe move out
to the suburbs and all happening. Yeah, and so this
is where you're gonna get. Like the units that were
like on Technology Parkway South and PIB which you know
(40:18):
is it was a long time vacant office building and
that would have been converted that one came in. You
had to Sun Court, which is right across the street
from Intuitive Surgical, right next to the post office. Right
that was another mixed use that had apartments. In twenty
(40:38):
twenty two is probably the big one there, as you
had the combination of the Forum and across the street
of the Town Center which is now Solace, which is
grand opening is next week. I believe that's where you
got that in twenty twenty two, And of course you
can see in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty four
(41:01):
there's been a lot of denials as well.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
For those that can't see it. In twenty twenty two,
so we had the that was the last spike really
of multi family, and then there was close to six
hundred plus apartments, so six almost six hundred multi family
denied in twenty twenty two. Now, some of that came
back as possible, you know, way less like townhouses or know.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
It did like yeah, Lenar's building one on Engineering and
one for one. They came in at like two hundred
and fifty one apartments. It was denied. We negotiated with
them and they came back with like seventy one townhomes.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
So a lot less and certainly are those townhomes I
even you know, good expensive townhomes of fuel.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
Yes, building the Day Building was another one. They came
in with like two hundred and forty eight apartments denied
work with them coming back with like sixty one town homes.
Speaker 2 (42:02):
So that was twenty two twenty three. There was nothing
either way or no approval still, but over or close
to five inrad units denied at that point as well.
Speaker 3 (42:15):
It'll be like Da Vinci Court that was a denial
during that period. Was a big, high profile project. And
so yeah, I mean and then twenty twenty five. The
only reason I'm even showing a seventy three because that
was actually a longtime extended stay hotel. That was a
(42:35):
huge crime problem, and they asked to convert the rooms
into efficiency apartment units specifically to help out those who
were had you know, a handicap of some sort or
and that's being run through the Gnatt Housing Authority. So
(42:58):
that was a conversion. That's not new. And trust me,
the extended stay hotel issue is not a good situation
for us to have at.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
All, No, for sure. And this one is for those
that don't know. This one is Jimmy Carter Boulevard right.
Speaker 3 (43:15):
Near p I B.
Speaker 2 (43:16):
Yeah, right near PI B. Right, it's there's actually on
that strip is actually two hotels. This is the one
on the right if you're facing it looking west right
right forget what the other one is?
Speaker 3 (43:28):
Yeah by a car wash, right are yeah? I And
so yeah, that's you know, that wasn't new. That's definitely
an improvement with Gwenett Housing Authority regulating it. Now we've
got you know, one throat to choke if you will,
if you know things are not going well. But that
extended stay, I mean, all of them we have. You know,
(43:48):
we have a few like on you know Medlock and
pib which is actually a finger of nor Cross that
you know by the waffle house there those three are
a huge problem and so we'd love to convert more.
But anyway, that was just a show that you know,
you know, councils definitely considering all these on a case
(44:10):
by case basis, and you know there's you know, there's
consideration of the value proposition or lack thereof maybe. So yeah,
it was just as we were talking, thought that would
be interesting to share, and I'll share that with you
as well. Yeah, Christian, Yeah, that that'll help me.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
You know, listen the you know, for those listening, you know,
there's always I've been a resident of piece for corners
of this area since ninety five and so I've been
here through the city lie, through all the arguments to
stop the city hood and all that stuff. And you know, listen,
when Quinnett County was doing rezonings, they were doing a
(44:55):
lot of rezonings to multifamily Quanett County itself, right, and
we had no control over this area at all. I mean,
even with the county commissioner. And you know when they
talk about county commissioner preference or you know, you follow
the lead of the local county commissioner. Sometimes that was good,
you know, sometimes not. It just depends, right, So having
(45:18):
a city now that's all, you know, worried about itself,
you know, and it's its growth is way more important,
I think, And you could see that in that chart,
because I don't know how many times do I have
to hear people say we just have to stop developing
multi family and it's like, but if you look at
what's what's come, it's not as much. Now. Some can argue, well,
(45:40):
that's because there was opposition to it, which is good.
Healthy opposition is good, you know, to these things. You
want healthy opposition, not just a no on everything, because
that's sometimes what it seems like. And i'm editorializing here,
but it seems like there's a no for everything now
in my backyard.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
Not he no way.
Speaker 2 (46:01):
You know, sometimes you have to compromise and sometimes progress
is good. The Forum, without the progress of that development,
would have been seventeen empty stores moving towards a bad development.
Speaker 3 (46:15):
But even just that, going back a little bit before
that reco yes, before the Forum was constructed. Initially, yes
there was it was woods and I've read, you know,
some articles about the resistance to that and people were
just like, oh my god, it's gonna be And then
(46:35):
now you had that and everyone was like, oh, it's awesome.
I have a lot of this stuff that's close by.
I mean, yeah, you have to consider. But then there
are some that you're just like, nope, that that's not
good in any I.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
Think there was yeah, I think there was like twenty
four pages of regular ordinance change for that development.
Speaker 3 (46:55):
Twenty fifth conditions, yes.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
Of stuff that you can't can do. And when I
think when they added the Trader Jones later, which was
a second phase, I think back there there were more
people that didn't want it and stuff, and you know,
and granted, you know, Amberfield butts up to it and
they you know, it affected them more directly, I guess.
(47:19):
But I can't tell you how many people I see
going to Trade of Joe's.
Speaker 3 (47:23):
Oh, if Trader Joe's was leaving, everyone would now be
up in arms. Yes, you know, I mean so, yes,
it's not just not cut and dry. But again, there's
some times where somebody wants to do something you're like,
you know, that doesn't make sense in any universe and
so certainly doesn't make sense here. But anyway, you know,
as we talk about this, we've been talking about it
(47:43):
for years. These are just sometimes revealing to see you know,
this kind of.
Speaker 2 (47:48):
Stuff, and I appreciate you sharing that with us. Yeah,
so we're going to have all that on on the website,
show notes links to all these things, so if you
want to learn a little bit more about what's going on,
they could certainly fine follow those links out. I want
to thank you Brian for being with me for doing
the podcast. Yeah, no, enjoy it. And we haven't done
(48:08):
it for a couple of months, but I've been filling
in with urban podcasts for those that maybe might be
interested in listening to that. We've been I've been interviewing
several police chiefs and others about their local police department
and stuff and standing up to their police force. And
a couple of authors and there some local authors that
(48:29):
live here in Peace for Corners and in the area.
So some good podcasts there, I think, if I can
say that, but I do appreciate you all listening to
peacere Corner's Life. I know that whenever I have Brian on,
you know, people listen because they want to know what's
going on in this city. So glad to be able
to do that and get this going. Thanks Brian, Thanks
(48:50):
for the resource.
Speaker 3 (48:51):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
Sure, so hang in there with me, but everyone else,
I appreciate you being with us.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
Thank you, thanks for listening to Peachtree Corner's Life with
Rico Figliolini. You can listen to the show wherever podcasts
are found, like iHeartRadio, Spotify, and Apple Podcast. Leave us
a review too, it helps others find the show as well.
Don't forget to like our Facebook page and YouTube channel
(49:18):
for notifications of our live simulcast video streams of the show.
Catch our other podcast shows at Living in Peachtreecorners dot com.
In fact, you can listen to our other popular show,
The Capitalist Sage, a twice a month podcast about and
four businesses. The show brings you interviews with business owners,
leaders and subject matter experts find what you need to
(49:41):
meet today's challenges that every business owner faces. Check out
the show at The Capitalistsage dot com.
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