Peachtree Corners council approves zoning amendments, driveway rules and asks Gwinnett County for municipal election cost estimate

Peachtree Corners — At its meeting, the City Council approved several second-reading ordinances and administrative items, authorized a consent contract, and adopted a resolution asking Gwinnett County to provide an estimate of the county’s incremental cost to administer the city’s municipal election in November.

The council approved a consent agenda item authorizing the city manager to execute a contract to upgrade the city’s BS&A software and services to a cloud version. The item was moved and seconded, and the mayor called for hands to indicate approval.

On land-use matters, the council approved a second reading amending the driveway spacing and separation rules in Chapter 34 of the city’s land development regulations. Planning staff said the amendment extends existing driveway spacing standards (previously applicable to commercial and industrial uses) to residential parcels so staff can review engineering factors such as traffic conflicts and drainage when a second driveway on a parcel is proposed.

The council also approved a zoning-code amendment to combine the planning commission and the zoning board of appeals into a joint arrangement. Planning staff described the change as a way to address low ZBA activity by allowing planning commission members (expanded from five members and two alternates to a seven-member commission) to serve as the ZBA and to forward appeals of staff interpretations to the city council rather than to a separate ZBA proceeding.

Council approved a new residential stacked townhome zoning district (RSTH) intended to allow “stacked” or back-to-back townhomes as a distinct product type where the city’s existing RTH and RM districts do not capture that configuration. Staff described the district as intended to create more medium-density housing that could be more attainable than standard townhomes in the local market.

Finally, the council adopted a resolution requesting Gwinnett County to provide an estimate of the additional cost the county would incur to administer Peachtree Corners’ municipal election on the same date the county will already hold other statewide elections in November. City staff said the request seeks the county’s incremental cost beyond what it must already spend for its scheduled election; councilmembers noted previous requests in years when the county was not already holding an election produced high cost estimates.

All items described above were approved by voice/hand-raise; the transcript did not record roll-call vote tallies or individual councilmember votes.

First readings were presented for several rezoning requests, including a proposed rezoning of 7.72 acres at 333 Research Court (RZ 2025-001) and an ordinance to set the salaries of the mayor and council; those items were informational only and will return for subsequent readings.

The meeting concluded with council entering executive session to discuss real litigation; the city attorney indicated the executive session would not require a subsequent vote.