Gwinnett County Can Be Business Friendly
As Well As Homeowner Friendly

By Mike Beaudreau

All of us in Gwinnett County should be proud of the environment that we have created for ourselves. Our county has some of the best schools in Georgia, thousands of acres of parkland and greenspace, a well-equipped healthcare delivery system, a thriving arts and entertainment community, and a transportation and services infrastructure that is up to date.

Our success is reflected not only in the triple-A bond rating the county enjoys, but also by the ever-growing number of new residents and businesses that want to call Gwinnett County home.

As one of Gwinnett’s newest commissioners, I feel a great responsibility towards keeping the county the attractive place that it is now. I appreciate all the work that was done by previous administrations, and I am beginning to understand some of the issues they faced, and the decisions they made. The county’s population has doubled since 1990. Over the next five years, over 100,000 new residents will come to live here. The county commission will need to act wisely in order to provide a balance between the needs of a growing population, an attractive business climate, and the quality of life we now enjoy.

We must continue to have an environment that is friendly to both homeowners and businesses. People come to Gwinnett because they like the way of life the county offers, and because of the many high quality jobs here. Businesses come to Gwinnett because of its location, and because the county has a high quality workforce.

For homeowners, this means offering a place to live with a low crime rate, high quality housing, and a tax rate that does not overwhelm them. For businesses, this means providing an environment where they can easily be reached by employees and customers, and one where they are not overwhelmed by stifling regulations and bureaucracy.

In the past, the county’s abundant undeveloped land made it relatively easy to encourage the expansion of our residential and business base. Now, with much of the county’s land area having been claimed, and with a growing desire to preserve our remaining undeveloped land, we need to make sure that the development choices we make are the right ones.

Before allowing new growth in relatively undeveloped areas of the county, we should make sure that appropriate water, sewer, and highway infrastructure is in place to handle the demands the new development will bring. In the case of residential development, we should make sure that there will be enough capacity in our schools to accommodate the expected number of new students.

As growth in the county has expanded north and east, some of the older areas in the south and west have become run down. The area along US 78 in my district threatens to become like Memorial Drive in DeKalb County. Many of the stores in the Gwinnett Place Mall area have moved to newer locations further out I-85, leaving empty storefronts. And, some of our older residential areas are becoming run down, with residents rightly concerned about gang and drug-related activity.

County government can play a strong role in encouraging the preservation and redevelopment of these older parts of the county. In residential areas, we need to increase the enforcement of zoning codes to prevent neighborhoods from becoming eyesores. We need to provide a strong police presence so that gang members and criminals feel unwelcome. And, we need to think about things like additional park areas and sewer systems that were not a concern when these neighborhoods were originally constructed.

For the older commercial areas of the county, we need to offer an environment where developers feel it is worthwhile to redevelop, rather than to take the easy way out by developing new land. While I am not sold on providing special tax incentives or benefits to businesses that develop or move into blighted areas, I believe we should do what we can to remove roadblocks to redevelopment. By setting appropriate zoning standards for these areas and by simplifying the process developers have to go through before getting their construction permits, we can make redevelopment projects more attractive to business.

Making our county a better place is a joint responsibility of its residents, the business community, and the county’s government. Yet, many people feel that they have a limited voice in how Gwinnett is run. I am committed to listening to both businesses and homeowners, and welcome their input into the decisions that the county commission will make that will affect their lives.

I have started to hold regular office hours on the second Saturday of every month, from 10 AM until 2 PM at my office at the Justice and Administration Center. I encourage anyone who has an idea for making Gwinnett a better place to live to come and talk to me. No appointment is necessary; I’ll see everyone first-come first served.

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