Gwinnett leaders beginning to encourage more density in development forum (Alpharetta: purchase, construction)

[ATLTJL]

I always thought that the biggest hindrance was all the industry around spaghetti junction.

If you go back by Best Friend Road, there is tons of industry there. A few years ago, I think I read that the petroleum for the entire southeast comes through pipelines to spaghetti junction and is distributed from there. It seemed like all that mass use of real estate made it hard for the area to develop.

But I'd love to see it happen. Those junky houses around Pleasantdale Road, and really all along the I-85 corridor, would be great renovation jobs, or just tear them down and build new stuff. There's just SO MUCH to do, and it hasn't even really started.

The I-85 corridor booming would be great. I like the MARTA plan laid out above, especially the Sugarloaf/Satellite stop since that's the one that is closest to me! I would definitely take MARTA to work if I could. I'd have last mile to figure out, but by the time it was built, I'm sure I wouldn't still be employed where I am today, but it will probably be somewhere that would be along MARTA.

[sedimenjerry]

The area around there and Buford Hwy/Jimmy Carter definitely has an industrial feel to it more than a commercial office feel

[afdinatl]

Would it make more sense to just have HRT all the way to Buford instead of having two lines in Gwinnett that run parallel to each other with one line stopping at Gwinnet Place?

[skbl17]

Originally Posted by primaltech

Fourth will be the downtown of Gwinnett. Corner of Pleasant Hill and Satellite area. That entire mall area, which is mostly surface parking lots anyway, should be torn down and replaced with the most massive development ever. 30-40 story office towers, rows of 20-story residential towers, densely packed in with little grid streets, tons of ground level retail, and the whole thing pedestrian oriented. Call it Gwinnett Place. Keep the Pirate's Cove mini-golf place, it's cool. But start from scratch with most of the rest. Lots of towers, visible from the highway. Gwinnett's main business district.

Yeah, about that...

- skbl17

[primaltech]

I'm just saying. If you look at the Gwinnett Place CID from satellite view on Google Maps, it's like... 50 shades of grey. Nothing but large parking lots everywhere. The actual stuff there is only a small% of the land used. It's so grossly inefficient for its potential.

Just demolish most all the shopping strips, and the long-dead shopping mall, and start over. Take out loans or whatever, take the financial hit in the short run, money which the county would easily make back in the long run.

Join MARTA, build a train station there, and go to town with developing it all from scratch, like a massive, mega-Avalon TOD.

With a huge park&ride parking deck. And with MARTA bus routes running up and down Pleasant Hill, Satellite, Steve Reynolds, Old Norcross, Club Drive, Breckinridge, etc. All bringing people who could easily spend all day in the area.

I mean, I have fond memories of this mall from childhood, and look at this scary place now:
https://www.google.com/maps/@33.9628...7i13312!8i6656

Time to start over, Gwinnett Place.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by afdinatl

Would it make more sense to just have HRT all the way to Buford instead of having two lines in Gwinnett that run parallel to each other with one line stopping at Gwinnet Place?

Mostly cost, but also density.

Using the railroad as a guide, it's ~22 Miles to Buford from Doraville. The route to Gwinnett Village is only ~11 Miles. Sure you could build HRT all the way to Buford, but the density really doesn't support the cost of the mode. Whereas the density, and higher possibility for dense development along the route better supports HRT.

Commuter rail makes sense to Buford since commuter rail better serves the less dense areas surrounding the town centers that the existing railroad runs through. It'd be cheaper, and a bit more effective to run commuter rail (possibly as an extension of the Clayton Co. service) up to Buford, using the stations as anchors for down-town TODs with Park-N-Rides at for people driving in from the sub-divisions.

The rights of way are 1.5 miles apart at the nearest (excluding the split down to the I-85 corridor), which is more than enough to have parallel lines.

[sedimenjerry]

Originally Posted by fourthwarden

Mostly cost, but also density.

Using the railroad as a guide, it's ~22 Miles to Buford from Doraville. The route to Gwinnett Village is only ~11 Miles. Sure you could build HRT all the way to Buford, but the density really doesn't support the cost of the mode. Whereas the density, and higher possibility for dense development along the route better supports HRT.

Commuter rail makes sense to Buford since commuter rail better serves the less dense areas surrounding the town centers that the existing railroad runs through. It'd be cheaper, and a bit more effective to run commuter rail (possibly as an extension of the Clayton Co. service) up to Buford, using the stations as anchors for down-town TODs with Park-N-Rides at for people driving in from the sub-divisions.

The rights of way are 1.5 miles apart at the nearest (excluding the split down to the I-85 corridor), which is more than enough to have parallel lines.

I agree. Buford is much better served by commuter rail. For one, the distance like you said. Two, Buford is definitely suburban and isn't going to be very effective for HRT like Gwinnett Place would be.

[afdinatl]

Originally Posted by fourthwarden

Mostly cost, but also density.

Using the railroad as a guide, it's ~22 Miles to Buford from Doraville. The route to Gwinnett Village is only ~11 Miles. Sure you could build HRT all the way to Buford, but the density really doesn't support the cost of the mode. Whereas the density, and higher possibility for dense development along the route better supports HRT.

Commuter rail makes sense to Buford since commuter rail better serves the less dense areas surrounding the town centers that the existing railroad runs through. It'd be cheaper, and a bit more effective to run commuter rail (possibly as an extension of the Clayton Co. service) up to Buford, using the stations as anchors for down-town TODs with Park-N-Rides at for people driving in from the sub-divisions.

The rights of way are 1.5 miles apart at the nearest (excluding the split down to the I-85 corridor), which is more than enough to have parallel lines.

I agree 100%

[primaltech]

Long Island Rail Road-type commuter trains, running through Gwinnett's 2 railroad corridors and most of their historic downtowns, would be so damn sweet. But the Gulch site downtown would need to be a Multi-Modal Passenger Terminal for them to travel to. I'm worried they're going to build a stupid casino or something there.

You could have the stations in the downtowns be non park&rides, and the stations on major roads between them be park&ride's.

[ATLTJL]

But the Gulch site downtown would need to be a Multi-Modal Passenger Terminal for them to travel to. I'm worried they're going to build a stupid casino or something there.

What if they built a train-themed casino with a multi modal passenger terminal that ran below it...or even through it?