On May 3, the City of Peachtree Corners put in place a moratorium on development in the central business district.

“One of the reasons that led to that is we were starting to see, from the marketplace, a lot of properties in our central business district come online for sale,” said Community Development Director Shaun Adams during the Peachtree Corners Life podcast with Southwest Gwinnett magazine publisher Rico Figliolini.

“[Developers] were looking to redevelop sites in a way that didn’t necessarily align with what we felt our long-term vision of the central business district was. And when you look at the central business district, it’s a big piece of all of our office parks, including Tech Park and some of our retail nodes.”

Adams added that having one policy that covered the entire area was broader than what the city wanted.

“We pressed pause,” he said, “and started working on a small area plan.”

The planning commission made recommendations on November 12, and the city council voted unanimously to adopt it on December 17.

Key points and concerns

The city’s small area plan focuses on the central business district. Key points included:

• A daytime population of nearly 20,000 versus 2,400 residents — highlighting commuter traffic.
• An asset inventory identified high vacancy and underutilized spaces.
• Seven sub-areas were outlined: district hub, district infill, targeted infill, commercial core, Town Center gateway, flex office and suburban transition.
• Concerns were raised about high-density development in the Town Center gateway area, citing traffic volume and safety issues.

Throughout the process, there were focus groups with brokers and office owners in the central business district. The final plan emphasizes the need for granular development guidelines and community feedback.

“We had a public engagement meeting. I’ve had some one-on-one conversations with members of the public who have reached out to me as well and provided feedback,” said Adams. “As a byproduct of that, we had a couple of themes that came out of those engagement sessions that spoke to more placemaking opportunities or amenitizing the Tech Park/central business district area, taking it from an eight-hour day to a sixteen-hour day type of thought process, [adding] more gathering space where we could and a better mix of housing stock within the area.”

The asset assessment

The city did an “asset inventory” looking at every commercial building in the central business district.

“We did a market analysis as well, to determine how they were from a condition standpoint, what their occupancy rates were, what’s on the market, what’s not [and] what properties have more underutilized space or parking than others,” said Adams.

“And as a byproduct of that, we’ve … set out these seven sub-areas — which is probably the biggest change in the small area plan — within the sub-district that allows us to get a little more granular and look at each of these areas and say, okay, what may make sense from a redevelopment standpoint or development standpoint in one area may not make sense in another.”

As an addendum to the 2045 comprehensive plan, the changes go into effect immediately.

“It is a policy document. It’s not a law document,” said Adams. “The comprehensive plan is meant to guide our 10-to-20-year vision of how we see the city progressing.”

The new plan

“One of the sections that is in the central business district, I didn’t even realize, was the G section [at the] intersection of Peachtree Corners Circle and West Jones Bridge Road and Crooked Creek,” said Figliolini. “I didn’t even realize that was in the central business district area.”

Adams and Figliolini went through the map.

“I think the reason why [this area is] included is because they are mostly institutional uses, which tend to lean on the commercial side versus everything around it being residential,” said Adams.

He explained that the previous policy was too broad for the entire area.

“We identified and understood that what may be appropriate along 141 and sub-area A probably isn’t appropriate in G. And so, we wanted to try to carve that out for a couple of reasons,” he said. “One is for the community to understand that we recognize there’s a difference in what might be able to go there, but also for developers to know that, while it’s in the central business district, athletic fields probably aren’t the place for an intense development.”

That’s why area G has been singled out, Adams added.

“It will maintain its existing institutional character with the schools and the churches and the YMCA there to the extent that if it were to be redeveloped in the future, it needs to take on the low-intensity residential character of all the residential around it,” he said. “And so, if anything, it should act more like … Amberfield and Peachtree Station and everything that’s right by it and less like [the] central business district.”

Retail and entertainment

The darkened areas of the map — The Forum, Town Center and Dick’s Sporting Goods on the south end, along with the Chick-fil-A — are really the retail entertainment sections.

“It really isn’t the same as the rest of the central business district, which is office focused,” said Adams.

He added that Town Center and The Forum are either in the process of or already built out. There’s not a lot of potential for change.

With updates coming to the comprehensive plan about every five years, Adams added that development will evolve with the city’s needs.

“To me, the biggest change is what the sub-areas are allowing us to do, other than stating that we’ve got a couple of zoning districts in the works as a byproduct of this, so that we can fully implement the plan,” said Adams.

“We do have two applications in for December [for the] planning commission, but they’re not really specific to these changes. So, we haven’t had that rush — even though the moratorium ended on November 3 — of people coming in.”

He added, “It’ll be interesting, as people maybe flip their heads out of the sand after the holidays in January and start to kick tires again, to kind of see the reaction of the development community the first couple of times they come in on some of these properties and talk with us about it.”

To read the Central Business District Small Area Study, click here.