Looking back at a decade of progress for Gwinnett’s first CID
(Editor’s note: The first director of the Gwinnett Village CID is leaving his post after 10 years to become the city manager of Lawrenceville. He reflects on the decade of progress for this largest CID in the state.—eeb)
By Chuck Warbington | A decade seems like a long time, but in retrospect it feels no more than a blink of an eye. That’s how long the Gwinnett Village Community Investment District (CID) has been working to make southwestern Gwinnett County a better place, and it’s how long I’ve proudly held the position of executive director. The time has come to pass the baton of leadership to the next person, who will no doubt bring fresh ideas and a renewed energy to making a significant, positive impact on this community. As I transition to a new challenge, I have taken time to reflect on the work our CID team has accomplished to date.
Warbington
In 2006, when the CID was formed, the area was in decline, with high crime rates and decreasing property values. This once-bustling center of commerce had suffered from years of neglect and disinvestment.
There were a number of factors that motivated local property owners to push for the formation of a CID, but none greater than the issue of crime. From 2005 through 2015, our community achieved a staggering 77 percent decrease in total targeted crimes even through a nationwide economic downturn. Our largest decrease came with motor vehicle thefts, which dropped 83 percent. Results like this don’t happen by accident, and we certainly couldn’t have achieved them on our own. That success is the result of the tireless efforts of two amazing police departments (Gwinnett County and City of Norcross) and the dedicated leadership of our CID’s board of directors who refuse to rest on the successes and have always pushed me and the CID staff to work for more.
The largest Community Improvement District in Georgia, the Gwinnett Village CID, began 10 years ago with Chuck Warbington as its executive director. Now he moves to the City of Lawrenceville, where today he begins as its city manager. The Gwinnett Village CID was the first in Georgia to fund high-quality intersection beautification, done with low-water vegetation, such as this scene of the Jimmy Carter Boulevard exit of I-85.
It also takes a big picture approach to achieve that level of success. There were some who thought we were crazy when we proposed spending just under $1 million on interchange landscaping along I-85. “How are some trees, shrubs and flowers going to fix our community?” (We were the first CID in the state to undertake landscaping at Interstate intersections.)
As we now can see, it is a tangible indication that communicates area pride and intentionally demonstrates a turning point to the community, both internal and external, that people do care about their community. Now communities are replicating this concept along interstates all over metro Atlanta.
This past year was also the culmination of many years of planning from a mobility standpoint. Many GwinnettForum readers followed along, patiently, as we worked with Gwinnett County to plan, engineer and construct our most impactful project to date; the Jimmy Carter Boulevard and I-85 diverging diamond interchange. We have seen significant improvement on traffic flow in the area since implementation. And as signal timing is finalized this month, we anticipate even less congestion in the area.
None of the success that this area has experienced over the last decade can be attributed to a single person or organization. This community has rebounded because we banded together and collectively worked to make this a better place. I’m proud of our many measured achievements, as well as the more subtle strides we’ve made with regards to perception, ownership, pride, and regional influence.
Still, there is much more work to be done. We have built a solid foundation of partnerships. The CID staff and the executive director will depend on this foundation as they work to write the next chapter. I anticipate great things ahead as the Gwinnett Village CID continues to be a beacon of progress in the years to come.
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