Merchants want face-lift for Gwinnett highway

By David Wickert

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

One of Gwinnett County’s major commercial thoroughfares may get a face-lift as Lilburn area merchants seek an  improved Lawrenceville Highway to provide better access for customers.

The Gwinnett County Commission voted this month to spend $100,000 in special-purpose sales tax transportation planning money to study improvements on Lawrenceville Highway -- also known as U.S. 29 -- from Rockbridge Road to Ronald Reagan Parkway.

The Lilburn Community Improvement District will pitch in another $20,000 and will oversee the study, which will focus on transportation improvements on the 6-mile stretch of highway but also will examine other ways to redevelop the area.

Ed O’Connor, vice president for leasing at Connolly Realty Services, which owns two shopping centers in the area, said he hopes improvements will make Lawrenceville Highway an appealing destination for area residents.

“It’s going to be a streetscape, giving the area a sense of place, instead of just a highway that people are driving by on,” O’Connor said.

Lawrenceville Highway is a five-lane road that bisects Lilburn. Nearly 42,000 vehicles a day on average travel one busy stretch between Beaver Ruin Road and Pleasant Hill Road.

But some of the highway’s shopping centers are more than 30 years old. Earlier this year local merchants formed the Lilburn Community Improvement District to help revitalize the area. The Lawrenceville Highway study is one of its first initiatives.

Ecos Environmental Design of Atlanta will conduct the study. Gerald McDowell, executive director of the Lilburn CID, said it will produce short- and long-term recommendations for redeveloping the highway area.

One likely focus: finding ways to improve access to businesses along the highway.

“Right now, the only way you can get from one [business] to the next is going back out on Lawrenceville Highway,” he said.

The study also will try to find a major project to stimulate the local economy. McDowell said the study will consider the feasibility of sports, medical, educational or arts developments that could attract more retail stores and restaurants.

The study will begin in September and be finished by February, but several highway improvements already are under way.

Gwinnett is adding turn lanes at the intersection of Lawrenceville Highway and Indian Trail Road/Killian Hill Road. And the state is adding turn lanes to the highway’s intersections with Beaver Ruin and Pleasant Hill roads.

Hanis Omar, who owns a Shell gas station at the corner of Beaver Ruin/Arcado Road and Lawrenceville Highway, said construction at the intersection sometimes has blocked an entrance to the station, and some people don’t realize he’s open.

But he thinks the new turn lanes are needed. “Once it’s done, I feel that it’s going to be good for the highway,” Omar said.

Although the Lilburn CID represents commercial property owners, it plans to seek input from residents, churches and other local groups.

“We all have some idea of what we’d like to see,” O’Connor said. “The study will give us a road map of what the community wants and hopefully get some ideas we haven’t even thought about.”