Holcomb-Ga. 400 improvements on way
Roswell spending $2.2M to ease congestions at interchange ►►Page 10
Toxic Charity: Don’t hurt who you help Author says enabling dependency hurts community ►►Page 20
Students prepare Tanzania mission Young people take school supplies and more ►►Page 31
February 19, 2015 | johnscreekherald.com | 75,000 circulation Revue & News, Johns Creek Herald, Milton Herald & Forsyth Herald combined | 50¢ | Volume 19, No. 8
HATCHER HURD/Staff
Johns Creek residents take a close look at the proposed Central Business District and discuss their ideas for how and where a city gathering place should go. Using aerial maps of the 728-acre District, they discuss what they would like to see in it and where.
The journey begins: Residents look at shaping The District By HATCHER HURD hatcher@appenmediagroup.com JOHNS CREEK, Ga. – The process for developing a Downtown Central Business District – The District for short – began last week as a group of experts and consultants headed by Pittsburgh-based Urban Design Associates began to hold meetings with community focus groups to gather ideas and input about what such a district should contain.
Read why the city wants The District, Page 6 One of the biggest questions for most people is what will the 25-acre City Center be like and where will it be. The idea is to have an entertainment-shopping area that will serve both as a gathering place for residents and a place to
bring visitors. It would be “the face” of Johns Creek and that visual cue that would pop into a person’s mind when someone said “Johns Creek.” Urban Design also met with certain focus groups to get more specific ideas. They met with business owners within The District, the Johns Creek Arts and Culture Board and homeowner associations in those areas closest to The District, among others.
W. Thomas Lavash, an urban real estate consultant from WTL +a out of Washington, D.C., said it is his job to do the market analysis. “It’s my job to make the numbers work,” he said. “The market analysis is just the first piece of the puzzle. The second is economic feasibility. We look at property tax revenue, sales tax, new jobs and new companies coming to the city.” Ebix Corporate Vice President Darren Joseph said his
company, an international insurance and e-commerce software and services company, conducted a two-year search after outgrowing their space in Sandy Springs before deciding to come to Technology Park Johns Creek. Joseph said his company is interested in growing and increasing opportunities for expanding workforce opportunities in the city.
See DISTRICT, Page 4