Preserving Gwinnett's Future

Citizens ask every day: “Is all of Gwinnett going to be paved over? “

Our answer must be “No!”

Future development is a serious issue which should concern all of us.  For the past three years I have been working to find a way to allow parts of Gwinnett to remain forever undeveloped and preserved for future generations.  One such method is called the ‘Transfer of Development Rights’.   This approach has been used successfully across the country, but not here in Georgia.

Transfer of Development Rights allows a landowner and developer to work together to prevent development of the landowner’s property.  The landowner actually gets paid by the developer NOT to develop his land.  This is a totally voluntary transaction.  Better still, it uses zero taxpayer dollars.

Say a developer wants to develop a property in the Gwinnett Village redevelopment district.  The developer wants a higher density.  Under this program, the developer would find a landowner in the rural portion of the county and purchase and ‘transfer’ that landowner’s rights to develop his property – forever.  The net effect is that one property is redeveloped; and another preserved.

Or perhaps a developer owns two pieces of property or buildings, both in redevelopment areas.  He wants to redevelop one of them into a mixed use project.  The developer could agree to demolish one of the buildings and turn it into a park or greenspace – forever.  For doing so, the developer would be given credit towards redevelopment of the second property.  This is a fantastic win-win scenario for the citizens of Gwinnett County.  Two run-down buildings get demolished and are replaced by a park and a new development. 

This is the type of innovative program Gwinnett needs to keep a bit of the rural flavor that is left in our County and assist in redevelopment at the same time.  Unfortunately, as with any innovative program, there are those in opposition to its use.

Georgia House Bill HB 1160, sponsored by Gwinnett Rep. Len Walker and Rep. Donna Sheldon, would greatly improve and simplify the application of this program so that it may be used effectively here in Gwinnett.   If you are interested in helping to preserve portions of Gwinnett, contact your Senator and ask them to help move HB 1160 forward.  It has been a three year battle to find sponsorship for this bill.  I thank Reps. Walker and Sheldon for their assistance in moving this important piece of legislation forward to help preserve our County.

Comments