Locals offer Gwinnett Place project wish list

Board boils resident feedback down to 18 recommendations.

Hundreds of Gwinnett County residents told a committee advising the redevelopment of Gwinnett Place Mall that they want the area to better support affordable housing, small businesses, job opportunities, social services and cultural events.

That’s according to a document the advisory board recently released synthesizing feedback from meetings, interviews, an open house and comments on the project’s website.

“The mall is the most diverse area in the most diverse county in the state,” said Roman Dakare, the county’s economic development director. “We view that as the strength of Gwinnett Place Mall. That’s something we would like to keep . ... We want to make sure that the mall is developed in a way that’s equitable and inclusive of all of our citizens, and we want to measure our return on investment in a way that takes all of our citizens into account.”

The county is hosting a Reclaim Gwinnett Place Mall block party Saturday from noon to 4 p.m. at the mall, 2100 Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth. Those in attendance will hear feedback on the mall’s future and can provide their own. Food and drinks will be available from partner groups.

Gwinnett County gained control of the dilapidated mall’s redevelopment last year by purchasing 39 acres of the property for $23 million.

More than 100,000 people live in census tracts that are fully or partly within 2 miles of Gwinnett Place, according to an Atlanta Journal-constitution analysis. The tracts’ median household incomes range from about $41,000 to $91,000, but more than half the tracts have median household incomes that fall in the lowest 20% of Gwinnett County.

The mall redevelopment advisory board distilled community feedback into 18 recommendations for the area. Among them were new affordable housing; technical assistance in multiple languages for small business owners; ample green space and accessibility for pedestrians and cyclists; community services, such as affordable child care and youth activities, in multiple languages; and new jobs in growing industries.

The committee also plans to release results soon from an online questionnaire about the future of the mall.

The county is still gathering feedback from area residents and small business owners, Dakare said. The responses will be part of a study on redeveloping Gwinnett Place equitably that the county and HR&A Advisors expect to finish in May or June. The guidelines and advice that come out of the equity plan will then inform an Atlanta Regional Commission study, scheduled to be conducted in the fall, to determine the strategy for revitalizing the mall.