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Business & Tech

PCID Strikes a Chord with Many Dunwoody Residents

Locals say Perimeter Center business district should stick with the current formula for grooming the area

Keep doing what you’re doing to improve the Perimeter Center business district.

That was the message about 30 Dunwoody residents sent Tuesday to the business coalition that oversees the Perimeter business district.

“I think it’s terrific that they’re continuing to do what we do so well in Dunwoody – taking what we have and making it better,” said Bill Grant, a Dunwoody resident for nearly 40 years and owner of a custom home building business.

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The improvements that Grant likes so much were completed with significant assistance from the Perimeter Community Improvement Districts.

The PCIDs have helped with improvements small and large, from placing benches along sidewalks to helping pay for the interchange being built at Hammond Drive and Ga. 400.

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The PCIDs are in the midst of updating their long-range plan for improving mobility in the business district. No specific plans were presented Tuesday. The purpose was to gather public comment.

A final plan is to be presented Feb. 8 at 6 p.m. at a location in Sandy Springs that has not been determined.

The PCIDs have to update the plan in order to stay competitive for funding from the Atlanta Regional Commission. The regional planning agency helps communities become more walkable through its Livable Centers Initiative program.

The comments expressed Tuesday include desires for the business district to have:

  • More small parks;
  • A system of connected trails for cycling and walking and perhaps riding golf carts;
  • Crime-free parking lots.

Over the past decade, the PCIDs have raised and spent $60 million to groom the Perimeter Center area. The money is raised by an additional property tax, of four mills, that commercial property owners agree to pay, according to Donna Mahaffey, chief of external affairs for PCIDs.

A mill is a $1 tax on every $1,000 of assessed property value.

The investment is good for business, said Kurt Hartman, a senior vice president with Hines who oversees the One Ravinia Drive office building. A Hines executive serves on a board that oversees the PCIDs, Hartman said.

“Central Perimeter has had a stigma with traffic and congestion, and they’ve made great strides in mitigating some of that,” Hartman said.

“Some tenants who are looking at the market for the first time don’t see it as the problem it once was,” he said. “You also see people walking from Ravinia over the mall for lunch, which you would not have seen a handful of years ago.”

Bill de St. Aubin managed the Tuesday meeting. He’s a senior principal with the Sizemore Group, an Atlanta-based planning and design firm that has the contract to update the PCIDs 2005 plan.

Bill Robinson, who came with his wife, Barbara Robinson, said the meeting shows the real progress the community has made in the nearly 40 years they have lived in Dunwoody.

“There used to be a fight between the Perimeter Mall businesses and residents who live nearby,” Bill Robinson said.

“But the PCIDs have been a wonderful neighbor,” said Barbara Robinson. “Like this meeting, they ask us for our opinion.”

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