Gwinnett leaders plan to spend nearly $13 million to build a new park over the next few years near Satellite Boulevard and Beaver Ruin Road.
The county expects to open Beaver Ruin Wetlands Park to the public in early 2024. The 68.5-acre park will feature a playground, wildlife observation tower, trails, boardwalks and small shelters.
Forests and wetlands currently cover the property, most of which the county purchased in 2007. Officials plan to preserve and restore the wetlands, which it expects to complete in 2022. Construction of the park amenities is slated to begin in early 2023.
Local leaders noticed the need for a new park in the Gwinnett Place Mall area nearly two decades ago, according to a county spokesperson. The specifics of the park started to take shape in 2008, which the county later combined with a project to restore the wetlands on the property.
The project will partly be funded with 2017 penny sales tax collections. About $3.6 million will come from the county’s Department of Community Services, while $9.22 million will come from the Water Resources capital improvement budget.
Gwinnett Place Mall, a shell of its former glory and now surrounded by Asian American businesses and residents, is poised to undergo dramatic redevelopment. The county is studying ways to revitalize the dilapidated mall, most of which it purchased for nearly $23 million earlier this year.
Ideas include turning the mall into a transit hub or mixed-use development. Located in the heart of Gwinnett, the mall once served as the county’s unofficial downtown area after opening in the 1980s off Pleasant Hill Road.
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