Pleasant Hill Road Small Area Study to be Completed in March
In Q3 of 2018, the LCID conducted a small area study of Pleasant Hill Road and Ronald Reagan Parkway near Plaza Las Americas to identify transportation, land use and economic development initiatives that could be pursued in the future.
The study’s final analysis is expected to be complete by March 2019, however initial findings have been identified, including:
- Safe pedestrian passage through Pleasant Hill Road and Ronald Reagan Parkway Interchange
- A park or recreational outlet on Beaver Ruin Creek
- Streetscape improvements on Pleasant Hill Road
- Incorporation of more retail opportunities in Plaza Las Americas
Meet Dr. Jasmine Clark, District 108 Georgia House of Representatives
Atlanta native Dr. Jasmine Clark was recently elected to represent District 108 in Georgia’s House of Representatives. A graduate of Emory University with a doctorate in Microbiology, she currently serves as faculty lecturing Emory University students interested in entering the nursing program.
Dr. Clark began her foray into politics last year with the goal of correcting misinformation and misstated scientific facts. As a result, she served as the director of the March for Science held in Atlanta in April 2policymaking. For the 2018 anniversary of the Women’s March, Dr. Clark participated with other grassroots organizations to share their different causes and learn about running for office.
According to Dr. Clark, once she was “in it,” she realized the importance of using one’s voice to be heard, and she decided to try to be the voice of her community about issues important to them. She recognizes the importance that affordable and reliable transit has for her constituents and by requesting to be on the Legislative Transportation Committee, will continue the work her predecessor, State Representative Clay Cox, established on bringing rapid transit to Gwinnett County. In her role as state representative, she plans to listen, be receptive to her constituents and their ideas around community improvement.
Things Dr. Clark loves about Lilburn? The abundance of parks like Bryson Park, Lilburn Park and Camp Creek Greenway Trail, and the city’s celebration of diversity.
Community Spotlights
The Vasant Panchami Festival not only marks the arrival of spring, but also celebrates the birth of Nishkulanand Swami and Brahmanand Swami, two of Bhagwan Swaminaryan’s parmhansas or holy men. The celebration, which has been held for thousands of years, will take place at BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir on Sunday, February 10 at 3:30 p.m.
Gwinnett Parks & Recreation is hosting a day of positive enrichment with fun activities based on the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., as they celebrate the national holiday.
MLK DAY ON! will take place on Monday, January 21, from 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. at the Lilburn Activity Building. Kids ages 6-13 can make crafts, participate in a service project and meet former Harlem Globetrotter, Hollywood Brown. Participants are encouraged to bring a sack lunch, wear comfortable clothes and athletic-type shoes.
Pre-registration is required by January 17, and the cost is $25/child. Use activity code: LAB41602 at www.gwinnettPARKS.com. Register now and make new friends!
Non-Gwinnett resident fees apply.
Development Surging in Gwinnett County
Gwinnett County is surging with more than $2 billion in new development and construction projects that are currently underway. According to an article in the Atlanta Business Chronicle, there are several factors driving the development surge. One is Gwinnett’s rapidly growing population, while the other is the county’s strategy to bring more transit options to local citizens.
Read more here.
One Man’s Opinion: “Gwinnett Turns 200 at a crossroads,” by Bill Crane
One of Georgia’s oldest counties, Gwinnett County, became 200 years old on December 15, 2018. Looking ahead, as the man whom the county is named for frequently did, it may be time for bold decisions and potentially new directions.
Button Gwinnett, briefly Georgia’s provisional President in 1777, an early speaker of the Georgia state legislature and later signer of the Declaration of Independence, like most Georgians of his time felt that an independent United States might be unthinkable. Great Britain was then the world’s mightiest empire, and the colonies of the Americas were but a fledgling cluster of port cities and plantation towns up and down the eastern seaboard of North America with no organized militia.
But while first serving in a Georgia provincial assembly in Savannah in January of 1776, Gwinnett was selected as a delegate to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, where he was first seated that May. Gwinnett became convinced that American independence was worth the risk and price that would likely be paid, and on July 2, 1776 and again on July 4th, Gwinnett voted in support of the Declaration of Independence. Georgia was considered a remote colony, but all three of its delegates to the Continental Congress became enthusiastic supporters of the declaration and the American Revolution which followed.
During the century that followed, Gwinnett County remained a predominantly rural county, and still later a somewhat remote bedroom community for fast growing Atlanta to its south. By the 1940 census, prior to World War II, the county population remained just under 30,000. Rapid growth defined the post-war decades and approaching the 2020 census, Gwinnett has become Georgia’s second most populous county, now with nearly 1,000,000 residents. Gwinnett is home to Georgia’s largest public school system and one of its highest performing. A strong cluster of municipalities offer differing tastes of Gwinnett life and county pride and its percentage of lifelong residents remains high. A strong technology corridor exists along the county center, and the I-85 corridor is ripe for re-development.
But Gwinnett County is also changing. During the last census, Gwinnett’s population became majority-minority. For decades thousands of Gwinnett workers streamed each morning along interstates, state highways and major thoroughfares into metro Atlanta’s core. But that traffic is now much more two-way, with workers heading in and out, both of the high and low-skill variety. Interstate connectivity along I-85, 985, 316 and U.S. Highway 78 remain almost unmatched in the region, while east/west connectors apart from the Ronald Reagan Parkway are few and far between. And while Gwinnett Transit System and GRTA Xpress buses offer service across Gwinnett to other parts of the metro Atlanta region, route frequency is largely limited to rush hour commutes.
Gwinnett county sites were left on the sidelines recently during competition for the nation’s largest economic development prospect, the Amazon HQ2 search, solely because of lack of direct access to region-wide transit. The Gwinnett County Commission has developed an ambitious transportation plan for the future, but they are leaving the decision on whether or not the county significantly expands and enhances its local transit options to area residents and businesses.
Gwinnett voters previously approved Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) referendums to improve local schools, parks, libraries and other infrastructure. Now they have the opportunity to even more significantly invest in their future through a March 2019 Transportation SPLOST special referendum.
Gwinnett County has reached many milestones with an even brighter future potentially ahead, but to maximize those successes and share the wealth with all levels of the local citizenry, a deeper and more tangible series of connections to the rest of the metro region are needed. A dedicated lane on Ronald Reagan Parkway or the Highway 120 corridor for high occupancy vehicles or bus rapid transit could easily improve and expedite county traffic east and west. Direct rail or light rail access from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport would provide an explosive boost in convention and tourism business at the Gwinnett Convention Center, Infinite Energy Arena and the upcoming Revel development.
In his day, Button Gwinnett, British born and raised, first a modest merchant and later a plantation owner, heard the voices of those afraid of the future, but he also knew that America and its people could not prosper as a subordinate, under the yolk and thumb of a large and sometimes oppressive government. If Button Gwinnett was still around today, I’m pretty sure he would be leading the way to get on board this train. Go Gwinnett.
To have your business or event included in our next CID newsletter please contact Emory Morsberger at 770-409-8100 or email [email protected].
188 individual parcels
$123 million in total value
158 property owners
$300 million is the goal amount to have join the CID
$600,000 annual funds to CID from assessed millage