From Buford to Senoia, from Covington to Cartersville, metro Atlanta is dotted with an impressive array of charming town centers both historic and recently designed from scratch.
But Johns Creek is putting together plans for a centralized city hub and recreational destination that officials say will stand apart from them all, in terms of scope and project features.
Initiated with early plans in 2018, and approved by Johns Creek City Council as a formalized vision three years later, the north Fulton County city’s Town Center is expected to eventually span 192 acres—or slightly larger than Piedmont Park.
The unanimous rezoning approval for Toro Development Company’s mixed-use Medley project last month is a sign the Town Center vision will start coming to fruition sooner than later, as city officials announced today.
The vision for non-roadway connectivity around the Town Center site. City of Johns Creek/Town Center Plan
Expected to consume about 1/5th of the broader, interconnected Town Center, the 42-acre Medley is envisioned by Johns Creek officials as an important anchor for their leafy city center, with hundreds of housing options—and hundreds of thousands of square feet for restaurants and offices—replacing a defunct State Farm Insurance campus.
According to TDC leaders, Medley will break ground later this year.
Beyond the mixed-use venture, Town Center’s plans call for a tapestry of new public parks and pathways weaving together “quality housing,” restaurants, retail, and offices, per city officials.
The vision for centralized waterfront space as part of the Creekside Park component near Johns Creek's City Hall. City of Johns Creek/Town Center Plan
One unique feature, should the vision pan out, would transform a pond behind today’s City Hall into a community gathering area called Creekside Park. Additions would include trails, new sidewalks, and other transportation upgrades that maximize space along the waterfront, with the goal of setting Johns Creek’s experiential downtown apart from others.
“Excitement abounds in the local community to see the collective vision of the Town Center Plan come to fruition with the approval of Medley and public investment of Creekside Park,” Ben Song, the city’s community development director, said in a prepared statement. “These catalyst projects will help to attract quality restaurants, retailers, and companies to do business in Johns Creek [and] … will set the city apart and provide diversity and vibrancy, hallmarks of Johns Creek, in a single, unified gathering place.”
The broader Town Center goal is to capitalize on strong population and economic growth in Atlanta’s northern suburbs, and officials say the full 192-acre vision could take two decades to build out. But for a primer on where plans stand now, trek up to the gallery.
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