Peachtree Corners City Leaders Engage Residents on Land Use Development

Even though the moratorium on land use development applications within the city of Peachtree Corners expires on November 3, it will be next year before investors have plans before the city council.

“Any rezoning requests must first have a pre-application meeting, which means it wouldn’t be on the planning schedule for at least a month. That means the planning commission could look at it in December, and it wouldn’t come before city council until January at the earliest,” said Community Development Director Shaun Adams.

Adams sat down with publisher Rico Figliolini for a Peachtree Corners Life podcast prior to the city’s October 3 open house where residents and stakeholders were invited to give input on land use issues within the city.

Area plans

“One of the reasons why we’re not extending the moratorium is because I think there’s enough of an idea of the kind of vision for the area that no one’s going to come in at this point in time with a proposal that isn’t trying to align itself with the updated plan,” he said, adding that this is a kind of refresh of plans that were adopted about two years ago.

“The point of this open house was to say, ‘Hey, here are the highlights of what most of you said 18 months to two years ago, what’s changed?’” said Adams.

With Technology Park and surrounding office parks making up the city’s economic engine, plans need to focus on how to stabilize them, enhance them and ensure that the amenities they need remain in place.

“We had a chance to look at it in a small area plan — an asset inventory and condition assessment,” said Adams. “We literally put eyes on every commercial building in the central business district. We took a look at the data … and kind of applied the grade to them to help understand what areas within our office parks are performing better … and where things are a little dilapidated.”

Maintaining citywide perks

“As I’ve heard it, we’re the second largest municipality in the state with a zero millage rate,” Adams continued. “One of the ways we’re able to do that is because we have this great balance between jobs, or daytime population if you will, and our residences or nighttime population. And so, maintaining that balance as best as we can is definitely kind of at the forefront of our minds.”

The ability to sustain a desired quality of life and robust economic growth all without levying property taxes is a point of pride for Peachtree Corners. Maintaining that distinction is part of the careful planning process.

“From an economic development standpoint, one of the things I’ve always looked at is having the jobs is great, but one of the things we need, to be able to support the businesses in our community, is the ability for their work force to live near their job,” said Adams.

“That’s where the housing stock comes in. The right mix of housing stock that supports not only our current residents but also those that are coming to the area by virtue of the businesses that we’re attracting. Because, if we can’t support their workforce or their workforce can’t stay close to work, then ultimately, the business is going to follow the workforce.”

The central business district

The city’s central business district can be defined as Holcomb Bridge Road up State Route 141 to The Forum and Town Center. Within that area, Tech Park, Spalding Triangle, Corners Parkway — those areas up and around SR 141 — are the main focus of the study and moratorium.

“At about four months in, one of the biggest things that we’ve done is an asset inventory. We really took a look at our underutilized spaces, vacancy rates, condition assessments, what approvals or redevelopments have occurred so far, but maybe haven’t come out of the ground yet,” said Adams.

He added that conservation and maintaining the city’s tree canopy and green spaces are also a big part of the study — including trails.

“We have some [trails] that are already in design and underway or built, but we have others proposed,” he said. “But those proposals are largely based off of where we kind of have a path of least resistance through properties or easements. As redevelopments come into play, there could be opportunities to maybe realign the trail so it makes more sense based on what’s coming down in the future.”

“If things go in the right direction, or the timing is right, the city can connect key stretches of trail through Tech Park that could allow people to run from their office to The Forum or wherever to their home,” he added.

Creativity within available space

From a development standpoint, the city is looking to attract diverse businesses, whether it’s suppliers to some of the existing companies, such as Intuitive Surgical, or also life sciences and similar industries.

“We’re certainly wanting to try to attract them in where we can, using Curiosity Lab and what we do there to maintain that technology focus of Tech Park,” said Adams. “We’re hoping that by doing more and maybe even — looking at opportunities for the testing that goes on at Curiosity Lab — thinking about it on a larger scale than a test track or a facility … [we can expand] our opportunities to partner with businesses within the area to test certain technologies, maybe on their property or around it, that type of thing.”

With Georgia Tech already teaching some classes in Peachtree Corners, there may be opportunities to bring in an institution that supports local businesses or [bring in] suppliers or accessory users to some of the larger corporations that are already in the area.

Mixed-use development

Similarly, Adams said that the small area plan itself is going to be focused on “kind of the nodes and maybe what goes [in], generally speaking.”

“We’ve identified gaps in our code to be able to achieve what we’re trying to do,” he added.

While Gwinnett County has a traditional neighborhood development zoning district where you can have a mix of townhomes to three different lot size, single-family detached homes under one development, Peachtree Corners doesn’t have a code that allows for different types of housing under one subdivision or development.

“We’re a redevelopment city,” Adams said. “We don’t have big swaths of green space to be able to develop estate-sized subdivisions on anymore. So how can we be creative about the space that we have, the infill opportunities we have, to put developments on there that attract the buyers that we need?”

Seniors, families and young professionals

One thing the city acknowledges is that there has been a cry for more housing for seniors.

“We’ve heard them say, ‘Look, I want empty-nester-style housing, but I still want to own it,’” said Adams. “So, we want to find that product type for you.”

A similar demand for property types for young professionals and families also exists.

But creating those opportunities at an attainable price point is a conundrum, with certain fixed costs in construction that can’t be controlled.

“One way you can control it is by being creative about setbacks, lot sizes, density and things of that nature,” said Adams. “[We’re] looking for opportunities to allow for that, so we don’t just have a bunch of townhomes coming in.”

For more on land use in Peachtree Corners, visit peachtreecornersga.gov/1406/current-land-use-cases.

Photo credit: Rico Figliolini