How Peachtree Corners is Using Advanced Cameras, Drones, AI and Next-Gen Policing Tools, Plus More

In this episode, we delve into the challenges faced by Peachtree Corners in addressing the rising incidence of vandalism in its Town Center and how the city is working to enhance community safety. Join Rico Figliolini and City Manager Brian Johnson, as they discuss the proactive measures being taken, such as the deployment of marshals, the implementation of advanced surveillance cameras with AI technology, and the focus on prevention and education. Discover how Peachtree Corners is using technology and community involvement to create a vibrant and secure environment for its residents and visitors. Don’t miss this insightful conversation on enhancing community safety in Peachtree Corners.

Plus, they discussed Peachtree Corners Town Center improvements (town green, dog park and fitness trail), Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners‘ Criterium Road Race coming in April, and the planned roundabout on the Trader Joe’s side of the Forum.

Timestamp:
00:00:00 – Intro
00:04:09 – Addressing Vandalism and Crime with AI Surveillance
00:07:57 – Protecting the Community: Addressing Minor Offenses and Ensuring Safety
00:10:18 – The Use of Facial Recognition Technology in City Surveillance
00:14:50 – Ensuring Child Safety at the Town Green Playground
00:20:03 – Enhancing Safety with Surveillance Cameras and Technology
00:24:40 – The Unbelievable Work of the Marshals
00:27:36 – Exciting Updates and Events in Our Town
00:30:40 – The Ultimate Fitness Event: Bike Races, Running Races and More
00:35:29 – Improving Intersections for Safer Driving, East Jones Bridge and Peachtree Corner Circle
00:38:21 – Developments & Traffic Safety Measures in Progress
00:41:15 – Creating Affordable Housing Options in Peachtree Corners
00:43:07 – Closing

Podcast Transcript

Rico Figliolini 0:00:01

Hi, everyone. This is Rico Figliolini, host of Peachtree Corners Life, and a series of podcasts, including this one, Prime Lunchtime with the City Manager. Hey, Brian, thanks for joining us.

Brian Johnson 0:00:11

Thanks for having me, Rico.

Rico Figliolini 0:00:13

Yeah, it’s always good to talk through what the city’s doing, things, upcoming development and all sorts of stuff. So let’s get right into the thick of it. That’s the first thing I want to talk about, because the marshals have been working at it for a month now. I think it’s been. It’s January, so about a month, maybe, although longer than that, because some of the stuff started before that.

Brian Johnson 0:00:38

Right?

Rico Figliolini 0:00:40

And I had a podcast recently with Edward Restrepo, the chief marshal. So you all should listen to that one. That was a pretty good podcast, if I could say that. But they’ve been here. They explained some of the technology they’re using at a recent southwest Gwinnett chamber meeting, and now I understand they’re actually in the midst of taking care of something that’s been going on now for a little while, vandalism, both at town center and some other places. So maybe you could fill us in a little bit about what’s going on.

Brian Johnson 0:01:15

So, you know, as a reminder, the marshals were brought in to know a force multiplier. In addition to Gwinnett County PD, which is still the primary law enforcement agency for the know us residents. We pay a millage rate to Gwinnett county to pay for that police protection here, so they’re still our primary police department, but the marshals are a supplement to, you know, it’s allowing us to focus their efforts on things that may be harder for Gwinnett county to respond to, whether it’s based on call volume or personnel constraints, or even, in some cases, the amount of importance they put on certain things. Organizationally, the west precinct commander still does report to a police chief who works out of an office way up north of Lawrenceville. So sometimes what’s important to the residents of this city don’t always correspond to the same level of importance. Know some of them. Now, that’s fine. But anyway, so the marshals, we bring them in to do that, and we have had something come up of late that did kind of meet this definition of an additional asset being used to focus on something that’s more important to us, and that is our town center and the vandalism that we have seen of late. If you think about all the work. Being done there and the commitment, financial. Commitment we’ve made to the town center, we have created a location that’s a gathering place for the community. So on one hand, it’s definitely working. The amount of playground equipment we have. Out there, we’re getting ready to finish what is really a world class obstacle course. We’ve got the grass in the town center or on the town green itself being redone so that it can handle rain. Better than it did. And it can also be greener and not have patches where we were struggling with last time before. We’ve got a dog park going in. We’ve got lots of shade structure. We’re doing all these things that invite people. That’s all great. But when you do that and you have lots of people, not every one. Of those people are good actors, right? And we have some bad actors. And we have had a lot of vandalism of late, tagging, graffiti, some cases just wanting destruction of property. Just like, somebody who felt like it was cool to go into the bathroom and rip out of the wall, the partitions in between the toilets.

Rico Figliolini 0:04:41

It’s amazing. Yes, it’s just amazing. Just to think of the thought process and anger they must have in something to go do that. Just ridiculous.

Brian Johnson 0:04:53

I mean, the fire pit we have out there is constantly being jacked with. People think it’s fun to put stuff into the flames. I mean, it’s just never, you know. As you can imagine, again, based on, like, say, call volume or the level of crime that Gwinnett county police officers are dealing with, graffiti and other stuff are not always as high a priority. However, from our standpoint, we think it. Is in the context of what we. Don’t want to have, is our town center develop a reputation for being a place where it’s kind of the wild west for these type of people who think it’s okay to do, to tag. And so we put our marshals on it, and as I have expected them to do, they went in, assessed the. Situation, and came back with some technology. Options for us to use to be an added tool at their use, we have put in additional cameras that have unique capabilities, including, again, cameras that can send messages to our marshals. If people are in the view of the camera for a certain amount of time or there are certain numbers of. People in the camera, these cameras are. Able to identify whether something is a person or a vehicle.

Rico Figliolini 0:06:34

Is that using a little bit of AI technology?

Brian Johnson 0:06:37

It is. And so we have AI being used to do that. And a good example might be the stairwells in the parking deck. Stairwells are infamous for, especially kids doing things, because it’s a combined space that doesn’t have a long view from afar for other people to see them doing something. And so we put cameras in there, and those cameras have AI, and they’ll end up sending messages when it’s essentially taking activity of people in the stairwell, that they’re there longer than you would. Normally see them in there, and then. It’ll send a message. And then our marshals can look at their phone or their computer and assess whether or not it’s somebody who stopped and they’re tying their shoe, or they can actually.

Rico Figliolini 0:07:33

Because they can actually see a live video feed from their stay. Well, yes.

Brian Johnson 0:07:38

When they get the message, then immediately that’s the live feed of the camera. And then some of these cameras we have in there have speakers on them, and so then they’ll be able to talk through and say, hey, I see what you’re doing. You need to move on. You need to do whatever. So that’s just one example of some of the things that we’re doing to help out. It is complicated when we have caught kids tagging or destroying property because they’re minors. So when it comes to prosecuting them, there’s a different process for minors. We’re not, particularly in cases where it’s the first time for a kid having done something, we’re not wanting to ruin any kid’s career or anything. We’re more worried about a, prevention or. B, at least putting to a degree. The fear of God into a kid who did it the first time, telling. Them that, look, you’re not able to. Go out there and do things without people seeing you like you think. And if you get caught doing this. Again, then the city may end up pursuing a charge of some sort. Trying to work with the parents, bringing the parents in and showing them evidence of what their kid’s doing and saying, hey. Do you want your kid to be banned from going to the town center? Which is another thing that we can do. And if they go back, they would actually be trespassing. So again, we’re using tools to help.

Rico Figliolini 0:09:24

But there’s no facial recognition right now as far as being able to keep. That in the database to say, because. That was the thing. I think at some of the concert venues, they were doing facial recognition to make sure to keep out bad players. Which is not a bad thing. But obviously, some people think that’s a. Bad thing to do, that we have not.

Brian Johnson 0:09:49

That can be a common. Function that is used at certain event venues. You’re right. We’ve talked about it before, where people walking past a certain point, the cameras taking facial recognition and comparing it against people who have warrants out for their arrest and doing it that way. We have not deployed that technology. I have not wanted to get into the cross that threshold or get into personally identifiable information being stored on city servers. So we have not deployed those functions, despite the fact that really facial recognition software and technology is not particularly innovative anymore. So most cameras have the ability to. Have that function on there. It’s just a matter of software that gets certain points on a base and then compares it back to a database that has the same things. So it’s not particularly cutting edge technology anymore. It’s just not used wholesale because of the sensitivity of facial recognition information.

Rico Figliolini 0:11:05

I mean, all these camera systems and stuff, everything’s evolving and changing. I just saw something on love and alive that just came across this morning. About ring now saying that if video. Wants to be had by police, they actually have to serve a warrant now for the video to be released. Now, I don’t know how that works. Me owning ring. If they’re saying that because I’m using it through their system, it’s on their. Cloud, that disrupts the access unless you have a warrant. There wasn’t too much. Eleven live didn’t cover too much detail on that.

Brian Johnson 0:11:49

But I believe it’s still like our connect PTC program, which is the one where you register your cameras. I do believe that if you voluntarily. Give permission for police to pull feed. From your camera, or merely just say, I have a camera, and if there’s ever a crime in the area, and you think that my camera feed might help you, here’s how to contact me, and then you can contact me and ask for. And I believe both of those will still supersede the need for a warrant. Because you voluntarily given police department permission.

Rico Figliolini 0:12:30

Correct. I think that’s where that was going, that if the individual homeowner didn’t want to do it, it cannot be forced unless you provide a search warrant or warrant on it. But that just shows how technology as advanced as we’re getting, the police, the. Marshals were sharing with us a few things as well, technology wise, that are. Being used or going to be used or being tested right now. Like bola wraps. Taser ten versus the normal taser that has two prongs. The taser ten has ten because as they were explaining, and as anyone can imagine, two wires being hit into perpetrator. May not hit the right way. So you’re going to need several shots. And that’s why the taser ten will give you up to ten shots to be able to get that connection. And electrification, that’s needed.

Brian Johnson 0:13:22

Yeah, you could be wearing a thick coat or body armor or whatever, and the leads don’t actually get into your skin. On the town center stuff, on the. Vandalism stuff, God forbid we have to. Do use that, but we’re wanting to do is capture crimes being committed. Oftentimes it’s pretty easy for us to get a name to a face, because. A lot of times we just have to ask around and people who have. Kids that age, or they know themselves or they coached them or whatever, then you’re like, oh, I know that kid. We’ve had one where it was a kid that I coached many years ago. And I saw it, I knew who the kid was most of the time. The people who are there doing it are people who live in our community. That’s the sad part.

Rico Figliolini 0:14:26

I was going to ask you that.

Brian Johnson 0:14:28

It’s also sad that there’s not more self policing. I wish that there were more adults out there that were policing the actions of their own kids or others. We have kids wandering off. A parent will have a kid that’s. Like two years old, they’ll take them. Out to the town green, and then the parent sits down and they’re talking or looking on their phone, and then the kid wanders off and they’re on playground equipment that are beyond their abilities. But the parent thinks that it’s a. Babysitter and they just let the playground become the babysitter. And then you run into problem where a kid falls and they shouldn’t have been there first place.

Rico Figliolini 0:15:11

Yeah, you’re right. People don’t take responsibility like that. Instead, I see it every day when I go out. It’s unbelievable. And in certain places you really want to keep your eye on your child. Because people can get abducted. It happens every day in the city metro area of Atlanta.

Brian Johnson 0:15:35

And even the fence, the wooden fence that’s going around where the fitness or. Obstacles were in the woodline there, that. Is being done because we needed to secure those stations away from kids wandering in without the parents would just let them wander in there and then get on stuff that again was beyond their ability. So our insurance company said, you’ve got to contain that. So now when the towers go in. Because since it’s in the woodline, we decided to make the fence look more like a frontier fort. So we’ve got the little fort towers. Going in on the corners, and once. That happens, you will only be able to get into it. At two locations and you’ll have to walk through a point in which there’s a lot of signage saying if you’re not of a certain age or haven’t signed a waiver, you’re not to be in here at all. Now, that won’t mean that people won’t sneak in there. It’s not going to be gated. You don’t have to have access or anything. But if somebody ignores it and goes in there and gets hurt, we can’t.

Rico Figliolini 0:16:51

Be blamed because you have a disclaimer right there that’s so sad that people have that you have to do that. That’s like plastic. Don’t put it over your head because you’ll suffocate. The warnings that on just plastic coverings to pillowcases and other product that it needs that because no one’s intelligent to know that you put the bag over your head, you might suffocate. So your five year old goes on something, maybe he’s climbing up and all of a sudden it’s 15ft up because maybe he’s that good on a rope and then falls, God forbid. Yeah, you are right.

Brian Johnson 0:17:29

That would happen. They sprain their ankle or break it. And the parents like the city, you’re at fault. And we’re kind of like, no, we’re not. Yes, but anyway, that’s why we’re doing that. But regardless, at the end of the day, here’s the deal. We created the town center, the town green area, to be a gathering place. It is. We continue to put resources in there to make it so. And we’ll deal with the people that are out there in the way that we are. But you could argue it’s a good problem to have. It does show that the town center has become a place where people want. To go hang out for sure.

Rico Figliolini 0:18:18

I mean, these concerts that pull in 4000 people, like you said, playground equipment.

Brian Johnson 0:18:24

I mean, we’re going to have the ability to have the tot lot for really small kids that’s going in right now. Then you’ve got kind of the middle range older kid playground and then certain age, you could go into the obstacle course there. You got all that kind of stuff. The town green. Even in a normal day or evening that doesn’t have programmed stuff going on, it’s a great place to hang out. There’s lots of tables, chairs, shaded areas to sit and hang out. And then the dog park will be. Done in about a month and you’ll. Be able to take your dog there. There’s a small dog and large dog lot. And then we’re going to have the bone bar.

Rico Figliolini 0:19:10

Okay, so that’s still going. That’s going to be in concession.

Brian Johnson 0:19:14

We will have something to wear. Not sure what hours or days it will operate, but at some point somebody will operate something that if your dog is at the dog park, you can. Get a beverage while you’re there and. Not even have to leave the confines of the dog park. You can just go right up to the bone bar inside the fenced area of the dog park.

Rico Figliolini 0:19:37

It’s going to be a busy place. I mean, once the apartment complex behind Chase and HW, they’re broken ground, they’re working there also. That’s going to be within a year. I guess they’ll probably be pretty much. Up and talk about cameras and stuff. That’ll probably be camera-ed up also. I think as these things get built out. Right. There’s going to be more cameras in the system that the marshals can use. To keep us all safe, right?

Brian Johnson 0:20:11

Absolutely. And also patrolling as soon as the construction is done, we’ve got a police golf cart that they can ride around necessary. We also have a police ebike for. The off duty police officer or marshal. To be using to make their rounds. And then the substation there has the ability to pull up any camera anywhere on the facility. So even when they’re not walking around kind of showing the flag, they can still have their eyes on all this stuff. And so we have to use technology to help us and be an additional resource, and we will. But hopefully the word starts to get out that if you’re going to get. Into some delinquent activities, don’t do it. There because we will have video of you doing it. And we will use that video.

Rico Figliolini 0:21:15

And not just there. I mean, Prestrepa was talking about, there’s. Mailbox break ins that happen in some of the apartment complexes. And there’s certain times of year that it happens. And some returning players, because it’s their business, this is what they do. This is how they make a living. So it’s not just they’re doing it one time, they’re doing it maybe at several locations. And he talked to us about how. The system of cameras has helped them find sometimes perpetrators within 8 hours or 24 hours, depending on what it is. What the crime was, where it might. Have taken weeks before, and you might not have been able to find who it was.

Brian Johnson 0:21:58

Even like we had the Carnegie jewelry store got robbed.

Rico Figliolini 0:22:03

Yes.

Brian Johnson 0:22:03

Not too long ago. Our marshals identified the car within an hour of it happening. And then they were able to trace the car down to an apartment complex in Atlanta. And by talking to having detectives do some work in the apartment area, we’re able to identify the people who were in the car. And so it’s because of the license plate recognition cameras and our inter service cooperation with other jurisdictions and their camera systems allow us to do this. And as a result, we’ve solved a lot of the bigger, more notorious crimes that we’ve had happen here because of those cameras.

Rico Figliolini 0:22:55

The technology, the cameras, the detective work that these guys are doing, though, too, because it takes critical thinking to go through some of this. And I can see the passion that they have when they talk about what they do and the technology they’re using. About being able to trace a criminal. And finding out certain things. There was one where I think two. Criminals, it was two of them looked. Like there were women robbing a postal. Part of at an apartment complex. By the way, this particular complex decided to put cameras in, I guess, because too many things were happening there. And they were able to find out that essentially they went at women and. They were wearing disguises. Even with those disguises, they were able to find them.

Brian Johnson 0:23:43

Well, using the Carnegie jewelry robbery as. An example, we had a camera that caught them. They were walking away from the camera, so we didn’t have a video of their face.

Rico Figliolini 0:24:00

Right.

Brian Johnson 0:24:01

But we caught them walking away and then getting into the car. Know, we got the car. But one of our deputy marshals, Henry Mesa, was watching the video of them walking away, and he noticed that one. Of the guys walking gate was a. Little bit abnormal in that he didn’t seem to swing one of his arms the same way how they swing.

Rico Figliolini 0:24:30

That’s right.

Brian Johnson 0:24:31

And it occurred to him that that. Guy may have hurt his arm, may have been in a sling of some sort. But again, we only saw them walking. Away, so it was only to their back. And so he put in the be on the lookout that there may be somebody that has an injured, I believe it was right arm. And sure enough, when the detectives went to that apartment complex, identified the guys that were in there, and they apprehended. Them, one of them just had recently. Had surgery on an arm and it. Had been in a cast.

Rico Figliolini 0:25:08

See, that’s what I mean.

Brian Johnson 0:25:10

It’s just unbelievable how these guys can. Take video and really look into aspects of it and pull out unique things that can be. What is the determining factor of it being that person?

Rico Figliolini 0:25:26

I mean, just listening to Restrepo and then seeing the presentation they did at Southwest Gwinnett chamber and talking about social media. And know gangsters like to post their stuff, too, apparently because they want to show, they want to fan out the money, the guns, the car, in fact, two cars. I think in the particular case that. They were able to track down the person because of some of the cars that were in the pictures even so, they’re using everything, because today. You can use everything, and you should use everything you can.

Brian Johnson 0:26:00

And makes our marshals unique is because. They are not the primary law enforcement agency. They are not getting dispatched by 911. To calls, so they’re not distracted with. Those kind of things. Know, Gwinnett is where Gwinnett could have somebody working on a case, something, and then a call comes in, and they’ve got to stop what they’re doing, and they’ve got to go and respond to it. Marshals don’t have that. So Chief Restrepo is able to focus their efforts on what’s important to us and to really fill those gaps in. So they’ve been an unbelievable resource, even to date, and they’ve only been really. Up and running with the policies that. I needed to have in place to. Kind of cut them loose. They’ve only been had, really the first of the year, period of time. They have been instrumental in solving a number of crimes.

Rico Figliolini 0:27:06

The more they do, the better it is, because mostly all of these criminals. Have come, I shouldn’t say all of them. A lot of them have come from like, Clayton county or Atlanta. They’re not even local players. Correct.

Brian Johnson 0:27:20

There is not a know. The vandalism of the town center might be an example where there’s local. But the major crime, violent crime being committed here are not Peachtree corners residents. They are criminal elements coming from parts outside the city, coming to the city because that they know that we have people with resources that make it to where it is interest to the criminal element.

Rico Figliolini 0:27:48

Yeah. Easy targets for them. Yeah. All right. Why don’t we talk? We’ll keep it short on some of. These things coming up, but I just. Want to go through it a little bit. One is we know the dog park will be ready. Sounds like within a month. The closing off of the fitness trail. It’s almost done. Just have to put up the towers, I guess. And so by the end of April.

Brian Johnson 0:28:18

March, I guess all the town center. Stuff, the town green, turf replacement, drainage and turf replacement, the tot lot, the obstacle course fencing, and the dog park, will all be done by the end of March. Excuse me, because may is our first concert. All of this stuff needs to be done beforehand and we want the turf to at least have a month of nobody walking on it so it gets set. But all of this will be done by the end of April, and the town green will be wide open at that point. We’ll start our summer concert series.

Rico Figliolini 0:29:04

Cool. Yeah. And I hear it’s going to be a big one. Leading off, we got a good one.

Brian Johnson 0:29:09

We got a really good mix of types of music, some actual bands, some cover bands of big names. It’s going to be a fun season.

Rico Figliolini 0:29:22

It’s going to be great. I think every year more things are. Coming, more things are being added. So all good. Like the Criterion road race, curiosity labs annual. Started last year. Had a really good start. Did rain that night. I think it was Wednesday that day. But still had almost 300 people. Had a good turnout. This year it’s going to be April 28th, I think. Is it Saturday? So it’s going to be right at the tail end of speed week. Or is it beginning of speed week?

Brian Johnson 0:29:54

The middle of speed week. Yeah.

Rico Figliolini 0:30:04

That’s a Sunday. The 28th.

Brian Johnson 0:30:06

It’s a Sunday. Yeah, it’s April 28th.

Rico Figliolini 0:30:08

Right.

Brian Johnson 0:30:09

It’s a Sunday. Now, there’s a couple of differences. It’ll start at ten. It’ll probably be over around eight. But not only are we having the bike races of different skill classes, everything from amateur all the way up to pro, we’re actually going to do a professional invitational road race, meaning a running race. We’re going to do.

Rico Figliolini 0:30:37

Really?

Brian Johnson 0:30:38

Yes, we’re going to do a mile road run. It’s going to be a tough one because it’s an uphill course, essentially, but we’re going to have that. So for runners out there, you’re going to be able to do that. If you’re not a cyclist, but you’re a runner, we’ll have a road race, and we’re also bringing in a bunch of kids. Stuff like bouncy houses, those things. So for parents who want to bring their kids out and if they’re too young to necessarily sit and watch all of the race, there’s going to be some things for kids. And then we’ll have food trucks out here. Then we’ll have lots of different vendors that are in the space of exercise at some level. We’ll have everything from bike manufacturers, maybe shoe companies for running those kind of. Things, all the way down to some. Of the recovery type of things like cryotherapy and spa treatments and everything. Definitely some technology within the vulnerable road user space. Again, it’s a curiosity lab event, so we want to make sure we highlight the technology that’s out there to help both runners and cyclists be safer. So it’s going to be a great event.

Rico Figliolini 0:32:08

Yeah, it sounds like it. Way more than last year. A lot more stuff happening. The other thing is, I think Atlanta Sci-Fi Film Festival is coming back later in the year. I heard about that. So that’s cool. That’s the second year running that’ll be coming. The city is working on developing a new app to be able to. That’s a flexible app that the city could grow into. Do you want to spend a few minutes just telling us what’s going to be in that app, at least at the beginning? What are you looking at doing with it?

Brian Johnson 0:32:41

I think we all know that oftentimes the first and maybe even many cases, the primary vehicle you use to get to a website or to do something is through your phone. So if you want people to find that way to get to, say, your website or to get you information is user friendly, you got to have a very good app. Our app has limitations that are preventing us from doing some of the things that we want to be able to do. And so we’re right now talking to some companies to make sure that we have kind of the wireframe that is the bones of an app. We need one that’s much more robust for us to be able to do everything from geofencing to where we can push notifications to somebody as soon as they hit our city limits to the. Ability to push us more pictures. If somebody sees something out in the community and they want to report it, we want them to be able to post many pictures and videos and send it directly to us if they see something happening. We want there to be more interaction with our marshals through the app. We want weather to be able to come through it. We want Waze and Google Maps to be able to come through it. We have a lot of different things that we want to use. So that Peachtree corners stakeholder, whether they. Live or work or play here, could download the app. And within the app you have a one stop shop for everything.

Rico Figliolini 0:34:25

Cool. And they should be able to even. Maybe at some point check permits or. Maybe house permits maybe. Or pay for things on there.

Brian Johnson 0:34:34

Yes, absolutely.

Rico Figliolini 0:34:37

Good. The other thing is that there’s development. Going on, as always in any city. That’s growing and traffic has to be attended to. I know that the Medlock Bridge Road. 141 intersection where CVS is, I think that looks like that’s all pretty much done over there.

Brian Johnson 0:34:58

Well, no, that’s Bush Road and Medlock.

Rico Figliolini 0:35:00

Bush Road. That’s what I meant, Bush Road.

Brian Johnson 0:35:02

Now, we do have the intersection improvement at Medlock. East Jones Bridge. In 141 right, we have an additional turn lane onto East Jones Bridge heading south or right turn. We have a deeper stacking on East Jones Bridge for the left turns. And then we’re going to end up on the southbound side of 141. Coming out of Johns Creek, when you. Hit just past Wellington Lake, there starts. To be a lot of, call it deceleration turn lane into, like, suburban medical Ingalls, the forum. We’re taking all those and making it a through lane. So when you hit Wellington Lake heading. South just past it, you will ultimately have three lanes of travel all the way up over the hill until you hit Peachtree corner circle.

Rico Figliolini 0:36:06

Right.

Brian Johnson 0:36:06

The purpose of that is to try to flush cars through that busy stretch faster because that’s where it can get backed up. And so that’s happening. We’re working with GDOT and we’re in right of way acquisition right now of some additional right of way. So that’ll help those intersections.

Rico Figliolini 0:36:30

And along that way at Peachtree Corner Circle. Now, when you make a right by what’s going to be opening soon, the renewed QT. Brand new building, brand new. Everything brand new there. So when you make a right turn. Eventually it’s being designed now, I guess. And design, you said, is the roundabout. That’s going to be by the trader Joe’s entrance of the forum.

Brian Johnson 0:36:56

That’s correct. And so, you know, right now, if you come out of the forum there at Trader Joe’s and you want to turn left, it’s not a particularly. And so we’re going to do is put a roundabout. So if you want to turn left, you’re technically turning right and then just going right into a circle and then coming out on there. So that’ll make it much safer for everybody there. So there’ll be one going in there.

Rico Figliolini 0:37:26

Right. So that’s coming. I wondered about that because at some. Point when I heard it originally, I was like, why? It’s only 400 feet or yards, I guess, feet from the intersection. But does make sense because I’ve sat. There sometimes wondering why people are playing chicken, see if they can make that left turn before a car comes down. And God knows I’ve seen at least, at least one, if not two accidents. A year right over there, because someone. Decided they had to make a left. When they should have just waited.

Brian Johnson 0:38:01

So this will make it to where. Technically nobody’s making a left. Well, they’re actually just entering directly into a roundabout and they just go around it. That’s how they make their left.

Rico Figliolini 0:38:16

Yeah.

Brian Johnson 0:38:16

Those are the kind of things that should move traffic through more consistently and safely than it currently is.

Rico Figliolini 0:38:24

Cool. So that is coming into play. Obviously, at another time, we’ll talk about this better. But obviously there’s more developments. Developers wanting to apply for more developments, more apartments. I know that there’s one that’s being looked at off, I think, Da Vinci court, maybe. That could be 200 plus units. There’s some other ones being looked at. I think I just saw in the agenda this past. I don’t know if that was the first read or second read. 75 townhouses. Yeah.

Brian Johnson 0:39:03

That’s off of engineering, Engineering drive. Right. Nine plus acres.

Rico Figliolini 0:39:09

And they’re looking to put 75 units there. Right.

Brian Johnson 0:39:13

But, Rico, that’s an important. I’m glad you bring that up. That’s a great example of what mayor and council are doing in that parcel, which is basically at the corner of 141 in engineering, on the west side of the road, across from the liquor store.

Rico Figliolini 0:39:32

Correct.

Brian Johnson 0:39:34

It’s one parcel in, so you can’t really see it from 141 because there’s trees right there, and then there’s an open surface parking lot, literally at the corner. It’s the very next lot. But anyway, they came before mayor and. Council last year with a product that had apartments, and city council denied that, and then they came back and worked. With staff, and now they’re coming back with an equity product and less density. It went from like 150 or 75. Apartment units and got denied. And then they came back and they’ve got about 75 townhome units. So mayor and council are still. While we may have a lot of these coming in front of us, they by no means are like, oh, sure, sounds good.

Rico Figliolini 0:40:33

No.

Brian Johnson 0:40:34

Very strategic in location use type of. Housing unit, all that kind of stuff. So we’ll have more of these to follow. It’s the way things go. But we’ll be very dutiful in our assessment of each and every one on. A case by case basis.

Rico Figliolini 0:40:57

Good to see that. Good to see. Yeah. I’ve even heard maybe possible condos versus. Apartments, which would be, I think, better. Right. Equity owned is always better.

Brian Johnson 0:41:08

Yeah. You want to have diverse housing stock, but you don’t want to have too. Much of any one thing. And that goes for apartments. That even goes for single family detached residential. Not everybody can afford houses in Peachtree Corners right now or wants to do it so you have to be careful. Though, about what type of housing units you allow to go where. And that’s the challenge.

Rico Figliolini 0:41:36

Yeah, we’ve discussed that before, even affordable housing. We talked a little bit about that, that the city, the council, planning department. Are looking at affordable housing programs. We’re truly affordable how that would work. Yeah.

Brian Johnson 0:41:51

And when we say affordable, we’re just talking about putting some mechanism in there. That takes an equity product and doesn’t. Allow the market to just jack the prices way up. It’s kind of capped to a point where it makes it affordable for somebody who wants to own, just like maybe. Some of the people in the education. Profession or public safety, police and fire. Those are ones that, unfortunately, those professions don’t necessarily make a ton of money, but great to have more of them be able to live in the city. And so that’s our focus as we’re assessing what our options are, for sure.

Rico Figliolini 0:42:36

I mean, living an hour away from somewhere is always a difficult part for. Them, their family and those they serve. We’ve been close to 40 minutes. Appreciate the time, Brian, that you give me every month to talk about these things.

Brian Johnson 0:42:52

Absolutely.

Rico Figliolini 0:42:54

This is always a good conversation. There’s always stuff I don’t know. I mean, it’s good to do this. And to meet you all at different. Times also, and having city council people sometimes on these podcasts also talking about what they’re seeing and doing. You all just had the swearing in. Too, this past Tuesday. I think we did.

Brian Johnson 0:43:16

We had four council members sworn in. Most notable is we have our first african american female council member, Laura Douglas, who was sworn in. And so. We have a new council member. She took Lori Christopher’s old seat after Lori retired. And so we’re excited about bringing her on board. And then we had three other incumbents that ran and they got sworn in. So back to the business of the people, definitely.

Rico Figliolini 0:43:55

Thank you, Brian. I appreciate you being with us and talking through this stuff. Everyone, thank you for joining us. Till next time, Peachtree Corners Life. Visit us at LivingInPeachtreeCorners.com the website, to find out more information on a regular basis. And pick up the latest issue of Peachtree Corners magazine and Southwest Gwinnett magazine. We’re actually working on the next issue. International Foods and Flavors is the cover story for our next issue of Peachtree Corners magazine. You would be surprised maybe, about the different types of food and venues we have here, from west african to cuban. To venezuelan to just a ton of different type of variety of restaurants and foods here. So check it out and appreciate you being with us. Bye.