A delegation from the Gwinnett County government will ask the Peachtree Corners city council tonight to reconsider partnering with the county for certain federal grants, in part because the city’s rejection of the federal Urban County program has reduced funding across the county in recent years by at least $1.75 million.
The other 15 cities in Gwinnett have joined the Urban County agreement, meaning they collaborate with the county administration to spend money from three different U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grants. Much of the money goes to infrastructure development, homeownership assistance and homelessness prevention.
“We definitely want to make sure that we’re providing the assistance they need,” said Kirkland Carden, the Gwinnett commissioner whose District 1 includes Peachtree Corners. “Some of these homes need help. They need redevelopment. They need assistance.”
Peachtree Corners is Gwinnett’s largest city, with a population of about 42,000. It is largely affluent but contains low-income neighborhoods between Norcross and the DeKalb County line.
Because Peachtree Corners is excluded from the Urban County agreement, Gwinnett can’t count the city’s population toward its annual funding allocation, according to the county grants division. That has cost the county $1.75 million since 2019 in Community Development Block Grant funding alone, which could have been spent on facilities, public services, economic development and housing countywide, officials said.
Joining the Urban County would give Peachtree Corners access to Community Development Block Grant, HOME Investment Partnerships Program and Emergency Solutions Grants funding through the county. Peachtree Corners now can apply to the state for those funds, City Manager Brian Johnson said.
The city has not participated in Urban County in at least the past six years, Johnson said. The city council decided three years ago not to do the extra administrative work to join because no residents of the two lowest-income census tracts had applied for the grant-funded housing assistance through the county or state, he said.
“It almost came down to, was the juice worth the squeeze?” he said. “The decision was no, it wasn’t.”
The city council this year could change its mind. Since the last vote, the county has improved services that help people apply for the grant funding, which could motivate more to take advantage of it, Johnson said. City officials did not learn until recently that Peachtree Corners’ absence from the Urban County affected funding to other parts of Gwinnett, he said.
“I’m not sure the city is wanting the county to be penalized for not participating in it,” Johnson said.
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