CorinthHills.org

By Jamie Ward
Staff Writer
Gwinnett Daily Post

NORCROSS - Gwinnett voters will be asked in the upcoming primary election whether or not they support a 1-cent sales tax to pay for MARTA rail service in the county. Monday night at the Global Mall, MARTA made its case why residents should vote yes.

“Transit is a vital lifeline almost like blood going through a body,” MARTA Chief Executive Officer Beverly Scott said. “And whatever transit system we have is the facilitator and a part of that community.”

Over the course of the next 90 minutes Scott then laid out why MARTA service made sense for Gwinnett County citing rapid growth, tremendous traffic congestion, significant demographic changes and limited choices already in terms of public transportation options.

Acknowledging the 1990 defeat to bring MARTA to Gwinnett, Scott said the issue deserves revisiting now because of the significant increase in the population and the quality of life that all residents deserve. Since 1990 the county population has increased from approximately 300,000 to 800,000. “And there’s no abatement of growth for the future,” she said, citing MARTA’s projections that the county would contain nearly 1,000,000 residents by 2030.

“People are making the connection between transportation, land use, environment and energy,” she said. “And public transit is the best bet we can make.”

She reiterated further that public transit made sense because of rising energy costs, rising carbon dioxide emissions caused by automobiles and the American economy’s “voracious petroleum consumption” habit.

When Scott passed the baton to the Transit Planning Board’s Cheryl King, King laid out the proposed expansion plan, which she also hoped would be adopted by the county by the end of the year. The plan called for a 25 percent minimum increase in the number of buses and vans over the next three to five years and then an expansion of MARTA’s heavy rail line from Doraville to Norcross with completion coming in five to seven years. Longer term plans following the Norcross expansion called for new light rail service that would connect Norcross with additional centers at Indian Trail and the Gwinnett Place Mall and the Arena at Gwinnett Center. The light rail service would be similar to what the cities of Austin, Texas and Charlotte, N.C. have.

“Light rail service is what this region needs the most,” Scott said.

An additional informational session about bringing service to Gwinnett County will be held tonight at 7 p.m. at the Georgia Gwinnett College Building B Atrium.

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The following actions were taken by the Gwinnett County Planning Commission at their meeting on Tues., June 17, 2008. This is a partial listing edited for our community.

Denied without prejudice: A requested rezoning from office-institutional district to general business district to allow 56,900 square feet of a shopping center and hotel on 4.54 acres east of Dekalb County and south of Stone Mountain Highway. The property is at the 2400 block of West Park Place Boulevard, 2200 block of Rockbridge Road. The applicant and owner is A. Omotayo Idowu, Tucker.

Denied: A requested special-use permit on a 0.87-acre parcel zoned general business district to allow a 7,655-square-foot dog kennel/pet day care facility. The property is located at the 2000 block of Westside Court just off Stone Mountain Highway in the U.S. Highway 78 Overlay district. The applicant is T-P Land, LLC., Grayson and the owner is Donald Bohne, Tucker.

Tabled until Aug. 19: Two requested special-use permits to allow a 120,075-square-foot, four-story, self-storage facility on a 1.08-acre parcel zoned general business district. The property is located at the 5300 block of Stone Mountain Highway and the 1900 block of Rockbridge Road in the U.S. Highway 78 Overlay District. The applicant is Rockbridge Self Storage, LLC., Lawrenceville and the owner is Noorallah Alimohammed, Stone Mountain.

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DEVELOPMENT PERMITS ISSUED - The following are development permits issued by the Gwinnett Planning and Development Department on or before June 6. Development permits allow the developer to clear and grade the land, but it does not give the go-ahead for building the structure. This is a partial listing edited for our community.

Where: 2188 Rockbridge Road, Stone Mountain
What: K Minter Office renovation

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By Christy Smith
Staff Writer
Gwinnett Daily Post

ATLANTA - For a great day outdoors, head to a branch of the Gwinnett County or Piedmont public library this summer and fall. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources has teamed up with Georgia’s public libraries to offer some inexpensive entertainment.

Beginning Monday, everyone who holds a library card at any of Georgia’s public libraries can get free passes to all of the state’s 63 parks and historic areas. Most of Georgia’s state parks charge a $3 parking fee every day except Wednesdays, said Jenny Schmitt, DNR spokeswoman. Some historic sites charge as much as $4.75, she said.

The promotion is part of the Get Outdoors Georgia campaign, sponsored by the DNR. Any Georgian holding a valid library card from any public library system, including the Gwinnett County Public Library System or PINES, can check out a ParkPass folder for up to seven days. Folders include an annual ParkPass, an annual Historic Site pass and the “Guide to Georgia State Parks & Historic Sites” featuring descriptions, photos, directions and a map of all 63 state parks and historic sites.

Each one of Gwinnett County’s 14 library branches has two folders, said Denise Auger, community partnership coordinator.

“They are like books,” she said. “You can check it out for seven days. If it’s not available, you can sign up for it and we will call you when it is ready.”

The passes would encourage Teresa Bega to take her three children to visit Georgia’s state parks.

“I moved here from California five years ago and I haven’t seen any of them,” she said.

Georgia maintains 45 state parks, three historic parks and 15 historic sites from the Appalachian Mountains to the coastal lowlands offering a variety of scenery and recreation, such as mountains, canyons, forests, waterfalls, lakes, swamps, rivers and battlefields. Some popular getaways include Amicalola Falls State Park in Dawsonville, the Dahlonega Gold Museum Historic Site, Etowah Indian Mounds Historic Site in Cartersville, Fort Yargo State Park in Winder, Providence Canyon in Lumpkin, Roosevelt’s Little White House Historic Site in Warm Springs, Skidaway Island State Park and Tallulah Gorge State Park.

For more information, visit www.GetOutdoorsGeorgia.org, which will launch Monday.

The Gwinnett County library system offers a similar program called Key to the Arts that allows patrons to visit the Hudgens Art Museum and the Southeastern Railway Museum free of charge. For more information, visit www.gwinnettpl.org.

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A WORD FROM THE PRESIDENT:
I hope everyone in Corinth Hills is having a great start to summer. Summer is a great time for Corinth Hills. Neighbors will be out in their yards more often, Corinth Hills Yard of the Month sign can be seen in different areas of Corinth Hills, and I will begin a new program for welcoming new neighbors to Corinth Hills this summer. Please read the following newsletter to learn more. Please let me know if there is anything the CHHA board can do for you or Corinth Hills. I would like to mention again, our website. Please visit our website at www.corinthhills.org. It offers a wealth of information about Corinth Hills and the surrounding areas. Our new and improved website is just a good site to bookmark because it has links to other great websites, happenings in the surrounding area, and even the weather, and so, so, much more. Please visit us soon!!!

As always it is my honor and privilege to serve Corinth Hills. Please feel free to contact me anytime with any problems, questions, ideas, or concerns. It is always a delight to serve Corinth Hills. All of my contact information is below. I can now be contacted immediately, anytime through my Comcast e-mail. This will happen soon with the USA mail account as well, so please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you all again for allowing me to serve Corinth Hills!!! Please continue to read the e-mail/online version of the Corinth Hills newsletter below my contact information. Sincerely,

Frances D. Smith
President
Corinth Hills Homeowners Association
Park Place Community Association
5293 Corinth Drive
Stone Mountain, GA. 30087
770-469-4485-home
770-403-7025-cell
franalsmith@comcast.net
franal@usa.com
www.corinthhills.org
www.parkplaceca.org

NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS:
* The CHHA Board has one vacancy-Treasurer. This is a good opportunity for someone to step in and participate in the development of our community. Do not let this title fool you, if you can balance a checkbook, you can do this job. Please contact any of the current board members if you are interested.

* Yard of the Month-The following are our “Yard of the Month” winners in 2008. April: Mr. And Mrs. Ronald Hollingsworth-5294 Corinth Drive and May: Mr. and Mrs. Abraham Galvez-5193 Corinth Drive. Thank you all so much for making Corinth Hills a great place to live and Congratulations!!!

* Along this same note, please remember it is summer and everyone has a yard in Corinth Hills. This means that we have growing grass. Please remember there is a Gwinnett County ordinance about the height of grass. According to the ordinance grass should not be more than one foot high. Frances has already had 6 complaints about grass being too tall this summer. Please, let’s keep our grass below one foot.

* Welcome Initiative-Starting this summer of 2008 Frances will begin a welcome initiative for new neighbors in Corinth Hills. Frances will make a personal visit to our new neighbors. At this visit the new neighbors will be given a folder with a welcome letter, a copy of Gwinnett County Ordinances, contact information for CHHA board members, important phone numbers, surrounding business information, etc. Any questions they may have can be discussed at this time as well.

* Pounds Road Study-Brian Allen, Director of Gwinnett County Department of Transportation, and his staff recently completed the study of the Pounds Road corridor requested by the CHHA Board. Immediate improvements include the installation of two new caution lights, placement of larger stop signs, and new street markings. These changes will be monitored, and other traffic “calming” alternatives will be investigated in the near future. Watch for updates on this one.

Closely related - Debbie Allred, principal of Mountain Park Elementary School, spoke with Commissioner Mike Beaudreau about the Pounds Road study. Mrs. Allred shares many of our concerns, hers specifically relate to the intersection of Brownlee and Pounds. Commissioner Beaudreau asked Brian Allen to include this intersection in his studies.

* Additions: Frances has been in contact with Mrs. Harrell, assistant principal at Mountain Park Elementary, and Brian Allen. We are taking a more serious look at the intersection of Brownlee and Pounds. Mrs. Harrell and Frances have spoken with state officials to see if any action can be taken any more quickly at the above- mentioned intersection. If the SPLOST, Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax passes in the November election, Frances plans on having someone from the Stone Mountain, Gwinnett County area sit on this committee to help with this priority. SPLOST is the one-cent sales tax paid to help community projects, such as libraries, roads, sidewalks, parks, etc.

* New Principal-A new principal for Mountain Park Elementary has been hired. She is Valerie Robinett, currently assistant principal at Ivy Creek Elementary but will be principal at Mountain Park as of June 1, 2008. Mrs. Robinett attended Camp Creek Elementary, Trickum Middle, and Parkview High School. Mrs. Allred will certainly be missed but we welcome Mrs. Robinett to Mountain Park.

PARK PLACE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION, (PPCA):
* PPCA Study-Frances Smith, President of PPCA is continuing to work closely with Mike Beaudreau, County Commissioner, to identify other issues and concerns for future study. PPCA has extended their boundaries from the boundaries of the study that was performed by the Evermore Community Improvement District. PPCA has added a great deal more residential area to their boundaries. With that information we are now trying to determine if this can warrant a new study for PPCA because the results may change now that the boundaries are different. The issues that can be studied are issues such as demographics, income, population, and economic development. This will be a work in progress for many years to come. Please stay tuned for updates along the way.

* Sidewalks-Decorative mast arms and illuminated street signs will be installed at the intersection of Rockbridge Road and East Park Place. Sidewalks will connect with disconnected segments and extend some pieces to increase pedestrian safety. This sidewalk project will cost about $260,000. This money is the one-penny sales tax mentioned earlier in this newsletter, SPLOST. Seven segments will be affected, including sidewalks along West and East Park Place Boulevards from Bermuda Road to Eastford Trace and East Park Place from Pounds Road to East Park Place Boulevard. This will feel more like a true community and will build a sense of place, just as PPCA has been tasked with. Please see the Evermore CID and Corinth Hills website for more information.

* Highway 78-Please continue to patronize the restaurants and all the businesses along Hwy. 78. Because of construction, some businesses expect a significant drop in business-up to 50%. Our patience and continued patronage will help everyone in the long run.

* Other PPCA Projects: PPCA is currently working on 2 zoning issues within the PPCA Boundaries. The first is a rezoning of property at West Park Place Boulevard and Rockbridge Road. PPCA members have met with the developer of this project, Greg Sportsman of Hobgood Construction, several times and have attended several meetings with him. The developers and owner have expressed great interest in finding a solution that would make homeowners happy as well as provide income for the owner of the property. Homeowners have expressed total opposition to re-zoning for commercial use citing many reasons for their opposition. Several ideas have been proposed that have actually increased property values in other areas. There is a similar development in Suwanee now as well as one in Celebration, Florida to what is now being proposed. Websites for these developments are: www.suwaneestation.com and www.celebrationtowncenter.com. Also, an events use building designed like a southern mansion that would host weddings, cooperate events, retreats, etc. with a very small mixed-use area. The building would have codes that restrict outdoor music or festivities. A similar facility is located in Roswell. The website for this mansion is: www.naylorhall.com/about.html. Due to the extent of the proposed changes, the owner plans to have his request denied without prejudice on June 17, 2008 so that he can reapply in 6 months. During this time, the developers and architect have promised to create several drawings based on the ideas above and submit them to homeowners to approve. If the new ideas do not meet with the approval of homeowners within the next few months the owner has stated he will probably sell the property. Zoning #2: This is a proposed self-storage facility located on Rockbridge Road. This would be between Metro Diner and Waffle House. The zoning in this case does not require the zoning itself to be changed, the owner is asking for a SUP, Special Use Permit. The issues he has to address for the SUP is as follows: he wants a climate-controlled facility and he is asking the facility be 4 stories. The planning department is recommending approval with conditions. At the planning commission meeting this was also tabled until June 17, 2008. Frances will be meeting with the attorney and applicant on this case on June 6, 2008.

AROUND THE COUNTY:
* Watering Restrictions-Watering restrictions remain in effect due to the continuing drought. A few of the limits have been eased to allow Gwinnett County Homeowners to water plants by hand and swimming pools to open through September 30, 2008. Residents may water by hand, plants between midnight and 10:00a.m. using the even-odd schedule. Watering is limited to 25 minutes using a standard spray nozzle that turns off when released. No water running on a continual basis is allowed. Please see our website: www.corinthhills.org for more information.

* Solid Waste Plan-Gwinnett County Commissioners approved a solid waste management plan that will affect collection for residents in Gwinnett County. The new contract based system will go into effect in 2009. All residents will be required to participate in garbage and recyclable collection. Weekly pick-ups will include garbage, 35 recyclables, and all large items. Yard waste maybe optional or included in the fee. Residents will have the convenience of paying the service fee once a year. This new plan has the following benefits: More efficient and cost effective services, more recycling opportunities, less traffic, noise, air pollution, and wear and tear on roads, improved service delivery, and most rates are expected to decrease. Garbage and recycling will be mandatory for all homes in Gwinnett County.

* Elections-County Commissioner, Mike Bearudreau is running for re-election this year. He will be in campaigns for both the primary and the general elections. Our State Representative, Clay Cox has no opposition this term. PPCA plans to hold a forum for candidates representing the PPCA area. Please be watching for more news in the future after the primary election. Frances will send information about this forum as more details are obtained.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT OF CHHA!!!!!

Frances D. Smith
May 30, 2008

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DEVELOPMENT PERMIT APPLICATIONS - The following are development permits received by the Gwinnett Planning and Development Department on or before May 23. Developers have submitted plans for these sites but have not received the Planning and Development Department’s authorization to begin clearing the land.

Where: 1100 block Garner Road, Lilburn
What: Garner Creek at Parkview recreation area

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