Civil Municipal Magazine Aug 2023

203 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 4, ISSUE 8 SNELLVI LLE , GA . Bender said a new greenway trail now connects downtown with the City-owned T.W. Briscoe Park. The park has a 1.25-mile walking track, and the trail will connect with it. Sanders said Snellville is experiencing significant growth. It has set records over the past three years,regarding residential and commercial permitting. “It has slowed down some,” Sanders relays, “We have a lot of new single-family homes that have provided opportunities for more people to move into the community. We still have one big development that is just now moving dirt out at Summit Chase, which is a big single-family development.” He added that the City has another application for a development that would include about 350 mixed-type homes, just east of town. Image makeover Sanders also spoke of marketing initiatives. “There is no doubt that this has begun to change the face and the direction of Snellville,” he says. “We have almost as much rentable commercial square footage as the Mall of Georgia (in nearby Buford). This has provided a lot more housing options and a lot more walkability. We are becoming a much more walkable, greener community with a much higher quality of life.” According to The Atlanta Journal Constitution,Snellville is moving forward. It’s moving away from the urban blight of abandoned big-box stores and striving instead to revitalize existing retail space, create new such space, and facilitate green space. “We are changing the image and direction of Snellville,” Sanders says. “For the last six or seven years, we’ve added a little pocket park, a neighborhood park less than a mile from the Grove in Oak Road Park. We’ve tried to spur more green space and more quality-of-life activity. It’s exciting to see the changes, and it’s a matter of multi-generational support from the community,” he states. “We have a lot more young people that gravitate to