The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners has agreed to spend $12.5 million to buy more than 155 acres for parks in Lawrenceville and Sugar Hill.
Commissioners on Tuesday voted unanimously to spend $2.5 million to buy five parcels totaling 102.4 acres along the Alcovy River east of the Gwinnett County Airport in Lawrenceville to use for a trail network. The board also voted to finalize the purchase of the 53.2-acre E.E. Robinson Park from the City of Sugar Hill.
County Commissioner John Heard, who represents the district where the five parcels are located, said the property is mostly low-lying flood plain in the Progress Center area. The current owner is Rooker Gwinnett LLC.
Heard said the county will use most of the land to build trails that would link to existing Lawrenceville trails that run to nearby Rhodes Jordan Park. Eventually, he said, the trails could link to county trails near Buford and the Mall of Georgia.
Heard said two of the tracts are developable and that the county likely would resell them.
“It’s mostly flood plain, and we can get it for, not quite a song, but pretty close,” he said. “We’re taking advantage of an opportunity.”
On Tuesday commissioners also voted unanimously to buy E.E. Robinson Park for $10 million. Commissioners had originally authorized the purchase in November 2014.
Commission Chairman Charlotte Nash said the sale was put on hold because of a lawsuit that sought to prevent the city from selling it. The lawsuit resulted in a consent order that, among other things, requires Gwinnett County to continue to use the property as a public park for 50 years and requires it to keep the name E.E. Robinson Park.
The money for both purchases will come from a 2009 voter-approved special sales tax for capital projects.
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