Politics & Government

In Their Own Words: Jim Gilvin, Candidate for Alpharetta City Council

Gilvin faces Cheryl Oakes for the Post 4 City Council seat.

Editor's Note: Alpharetta-Milton Patch is posting comments regarding issues discussed at the Kimball Bridge Coalition Candidate's Forum held Oct. 9 at .

Jim Gilvin said he's been doing the work of a City Council member for years, but without the clout of an elected official he hasn't been able to accomplish everything he'd like to do to help Alpharetta.

He said the first times the city center project was presented by the city, he had the courage to tell City Council he had questions about what was planned. A better plan is on the table now, and he supports it, Gilvin said.

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He's also voiced his opinion to encourage the expansion of Webb Bridge Park in the years he's spente attending council meetings.

Gilvin said the other candidates at the forum are a bunch of great guys, but "not a single one of them has more experience than I have working on issues on Alpharetta's quality of life," something he said he's been working on for more than a decade–"since Kimball Bridge being a two-lane road withotu a fire station."

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Gilvin said the future of Alpharetta's vision need to be oen that tempers growth that the city can live with. A lot of the development approved in the past few years has the potential to change the complexion of Alpharetta, he said.

He opposes the proposed 2030 Comprehensive Land Use Plan.

"It's a bad plan. If you want Alpharetta to lose what makes Alpharetta special, if you want Alpharetta to look like Sandy Springs, it's a great plan," he said.

He claims the plan propses taking mixed use development all the way along North Point Parkway, Haynes Bridge Road and back down Hwy. 9 to Wills Park.

"That's thousands and thousands of condos, apartments," Givlin said.

The impact on schools residential property values and more constructions will create more problems than it will ever answer," he said.

Gilvin said he does support the City Center plan for downtown Alpharetta as a better choice for taxpapyers and the downtown community. But he has two concern.

His first concern is the parking deck. Gilvin said he knows plenty of parking is needed for people to go downtown, but he's not sure now is the time to spend $9 million on it. He'd rather see if that money could be spent to possibly incentivize getting a technical college at Milton Center, the old Milton High site.

And he's still concerned about the traffic, saying the new traffic route proposed might not work.

He recommends passive parks and the greenway tieing in to Forsyth's greenway. Gilvin said it's a beautiful asset that ties into Roswell and could do the same in south Forsyth, running all the way up to Sawnee Mountain.

While the city has a great parks and recreation department, Gilvin said it only has two square fields, limiting the amount of space for soccer and lacrosse. He thinks the city can work with other communities, if they build spaces Alpharetta lacks, and the city can share some of its fields. But he warns Alpharetta would have to be careful, as it has already been "burned dealing with Johns Creek in the past."

He doesn't support the T-SPLOST (regional transportation sales tax) being proposed, calling it a bad idea with current economic condition.

Alpharetta should tell the state to stop adding high density elements when it hasn't provided the infrastructure to support the development in the past 20 years, Gilvin said.


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