Gwinnett County’s growth pattern has been familiar for decades: wide roads, separated land uses, and most daily errands done by car. If you’ve ever planned your day around traffic and parking, you already know the rhythm. The County’s 2045 Unified Plan is trying to change the shape of that pattern over time—not by banning driving, but by steering growth into more complete, connected nodes.⁵ Think fewer “drive-to-everything” errands and more places where at least some daily needs are closer together.

Gwinnett’s term for those nodes is “Daily Communities.” The idea is straightforward: plan for places where residents can reach everyday needs—shopping, services, recreation, and housing options—within about a 15‑minute trip, regardless of how they travel. The plan describes 87 Daily Communities countywide.⁵

One of the most watched Daily Communities is Park Place, near the Stone Mountain/Snellville gateway along US‑78 (Stone Mountain Highway). In practice, two things are happening in the same geography:

In August 2024, the Board of Commissioners awarded a contract to Sizemore Group to lead the Park Place Master Plan.² The County framed the work as a “path forward” for redevelopment that considers community input and emphasizes themes like transit-oriented development and housing diversity.²

A master plan is not the same thing as a rezoning case. It’s a document that sets priorities and design direction—then later public actions determine what, if anything, changes on specific parcels. In plain terms, it’s more of a compass than a bulldozer.

Separate from the planning contract, County project materials describe a redevelopment of the long-dormant 1996 Olympic tennis venue site into a regional activity center.¹

Fuqua Development’s published site plan for Mountain Marketplace places the project at Stone Mountain Freeway (US‑78) and W. Park Place Boulevard and depicts a Costco anchor plus a labeled Residential component.⁴

County project materials also describe several headline elements of the redevelopment concept, including:

(AMI is a standard benchmark used to describe household income levels relative to a region; “80% AMI” is often used in housing programs as an affordability threshold.)

In late 2025, Gwinnett’s 2045 Unified Plan received national recognition from the American Planning Association (APA).⁵ Awards don’t guarantee smooth execution, but they do signal that Gwinnett’s overall framework is being treated as a serious model—one that other planners are paying attention to.⁵ No trophy pours concrete or builds a sidewalk, but it does tell you the plan is being taken seriously.

“15‑minute city” can sound like a marketing line—and it has a way of starting arguments before it starts explanations. In Gwinnett, the more concrete change is governance: the County is creating a framework that may show up later in **rezoning arguments, infrastructure priorities, and redevelopment negotiations.**⁵

This matters because it changes the default question.

Park Place sits in a corridor location where multiple interests overlap: it’s a gateway district, it has legacy properties that have been underused, and it has enough traffic and visibility that the County is unlikely to ignore it.

That combination—a master plan process plus a major site redevelopment concept—makes Park Place a useful place to watch for whether the County’s long-term strategy shows up in day‑to‑day decisions.²¹

For agents, the near-term value isn’t forecasting pricing. It’s understanding what may start showing up in buyer conversations and in due diligence:

For investors, Park Place offers signals about process:

A TAD is a redevelopment financing tool that can use future increases in property tax revenue within a defined district to help fund eligible improvements.²

Separately, Fuqua’s site plan highlights why the location is being targeted: it cites 29,140 daily average traffic count on W. Park Place Blvd.⁴

The County has commissioned the Park Place Master Plan and described its goals.² The open question is how consistently future decisions will line up with whatever that plan recommends once finalized.

What to verify next: when the plan is published, look for specific guidance on street connections, pedestrian infrastructure, public space expectations, and any recommended zoning tools.

A Costco-scale anchor can change traffic patterns quickly. The question isn’t whether traffic rises—some increase is common with major retail—but whether access management and nearby improvements keep the district functional.

What to verify next:

Project summaries reference a green space, a multi-use path, and an affordability set-aside.¹ The details that matter most in practice—timing, phasing, enforcement mechanisms, and how affordability is maintained—often live in the approvals and agreements, not the headline summaries.

What to verify next: the final approved site conditions and any recorded agreements related to affordability and public space delivery.

Rowen isn’t only relevant because of what it might become someday. It matters now because early steps—roads, access changes, and public‑facing infrastructure—can change how the area functions even before large buildings arrive. In other words: even when the big buildings are still on the “coming soon” list, the roadway choices show up in your day‑to‑day driving.³⁶

A few practical implications worth keeping in view:

Gwinnett’s 2045 Unified Plan maps the county into “Daily Communities,” aiming to make daily needs reachable within about a 15‑minute trip.⁵ Park Place is one of those areas, and the County has hired a planning team to build a master plan for the district.² In the same area, public project materials and a developer site plan describe the redevelopment of the former Olympic tennis venue site into a Costco-anchored mixed-use project with a residential component and new public-realm features.¹⁴ Together, the plan and the project make Park Place a practical place to watch for how Gwinnett’s long-term strategy shows up in real development decisions.

Because Rowen is phased and multi‑year, some of the most important details are naturally still unclear from public announcements alone. That’s normal for a project with a long runway—and it’s also why it helps to separate what’s confirmed from what’s still evolving:

What’s still unclear is the detailed sequencing after that first building (what comes next, in what order, and on what schedule).⁷

What to verify next: