Real Estate Report Sponsored section ►►PAGE 20
JC tables leasing amphitheater Wants to give neighbors assurances ►►PAGE 4
College prank no laughing matter Alpharetta man indicted for alleged hate crime ►►PAGE 10
Cougars on prowl
‘Hooch soccer team unbeaten, ranks first ►►PAGE 14
April 2, 2015 | johnscreekherald.com | 75,000 circulation Revue & News, Johns Creek Herald, Milton Herald & Forsyth Herald combined | 50¢ | Volume 19, No. 14
Citizens get peek at city’s future City’s design team to show interactive look of master plan By HATCHER HURD hatcher@appenmediagroup.com
Newtown egg scramble Some 4,000 family members showed up at Newtown Park on a picture-perfect day for an Easter egg hunt. The annual affair provided hours of fun. The hunt itself was measured in minutes. See Page 27 for more. HATCHER HURD/STAFF
JOHNS CREEK, Ga. – They’re back. Urban Design Associates (UDA), the consultants heading up the design team for Johns Creek’s The District, will be back in town the week of April 13 to give residents an idea of how the master plan for the 800-acre project is shaping up. The team will also reconvene its focus groups from the business, residential and arts communities. UDA will set up a design studio in the city, and residents will be invited on two occasions to visit and see the direction the team is taking. Assistant County Manager Eric Taylor, who is the liaison
TAYLOR
between UDA and the city, said the design team is back to share the results of Phase 1 and to begin the design phase of the
process. The district planning process has three phases: 1. The first was the data gathering phase, which the UDA has just completed. It will be reporting on what the team has discovered about The District. 2. Phase 2 – the design phase – will last around
See DISTRICT, Page 6
‘WE’RE COMING!’
Asphalt’s getting hot, JC to start paving streets Council OKs $5.5M to begin first phase of subdivisions By HATCHER HURD hatcher@appenmediagroup.com JOHNS CREEK, Ga. – The Johns Creek City Council took a momentous step March 30 in the short history of Johns Creek. The five members took a unanimous vote, and now for the first time since Ronald Reagan was president, some city subdivision streets will re-
ceive a fresh coat of asphalt. Councilmembers approved a $5.577 million contract with Northwest Georgia Paving to begin the first phase of the city’s subdivision repaving plan. Public Works Director Tom Black said it would be the first coat of asphalt in some subdivisions since the roads were first paved. In 2006, the spanking new city of
Johns Creek inherited a street system from Fulton County that had suffered from years – even decades – of neglect. Indeed, one of the battle cries for a new city out on Ga. 141 was, “Pave the streets.” The first order of business was to get Johns Creek’s main arteries, the state routes, improved. This was done in part because Georgia Department of
Transportation funding was available for those upgrades; but GDOT doesn’t ante up unless the locals put their chips in the pot as well. So the subdivision streets have had to wait. Now armed with more than $5 million, the contracts were put out for a bid. The hitch, however, was that the bids all came in high. Despite the fall in the price of oil (an expensive component of asphalt), new construction
See PAVING, Page 7