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DEL.ICIO.USLocals take control of median beautification
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The state Department of Transportation mowed the medians along Peachtree Parkway twice a year.
For the United Peachtree Corners Civic Association, that didn’t cut it.
“We had weeds up to our knees,” said Gay Shook, one of six directors for the neighborhoods group.
The association didn’t lobby the state DOT or run to the county for help. They simply handled it.
Peachtree Parkway is a four-mile road that runs through unincorporated western Gwinnett to the Chattahoochee River. It’s dotted with pricey subdivisions, several strip malls and stand-alone businesses. Technology Park/Atlanta, the high-tech hub, and the Forum, an upscale mall, are anchors.
Shook, who lives in Peachtree Station, oversaw the beautification project. She collected contact information for all the landlords whose property had linear footage along the parkway itself. They, she thought, would have the most to gain if the grass were mowed and trash picked up weekly.
But would they pay for a landscape company to do it?
Most, it turns out, would.
So in 2004, the association began collecting yearly donations to maintain all 17 medians. It comes to $1.71 per linear foot. Christ the King Lutheran Church contributes $1,410.75 a year; the Forum donates $2,684.70.
Every November, Shook sends out invoices to notify property owners that contributions are due. Most oblige. A few knuckleheads are too blind (or stingy) to see the beauty in weeding, reseeding and fertilizing medians.
“It’s voluntary, and if individuals don’t pay, we mow anyway,” Shook said. “We want the whole four miles to look good. Fortunately, there are enough landowners who do participate, so the project has been able to operate without interruption.”
The civic association needed a “permit to encroach” from the state DOT to assume upkeep of the medians. The county obtained the permit for the association because the association is not a municipality.
Shook credits Rick O’Brien, president of Technology Park/Atlanta and Commissioner Bert Nasuti for helping launch the project. Nasuti, though, sees what I see: concerned citizens, collaborating with government, taking charge of their community’s destiny.
He thinks the civic association’s efforts, in some form or fashion, could be duplicated elsewhere. All it takes are volunteers like Shook.
“What it boils down to is having people willing to step up and put some time into it,” Nasuti said. “They have worked that corridor laboriously.”
If you don’t believe it, go see for yourself. Drive Peachtree Parkway from the split at Peachtree Industrial Boulevard to the Chattahoochee River. Aesthetically, it’s the antithesis of Buford Highway and Jimmy Carter Boulevard. Manicured medians. No pawn shops, auto repair shops or title loan shops. (Peachtree Corners does have a Love Shack. Hey, you can’t win every battle).
Now that the weekly mowing has begun, the civic association doesn’t want to stop. Plans are in the works to plant lantana, rosemary and black-eyed Susans where the parkway intersects with Jaybird Alley. “Government can’t do everything,” Shook said. “People need to step up.”
For more information about the Peachtree Corners beautification project, e-mail Gay Shook at Gay@upcca.com.
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