Mayor Preston: No Regrets on Mosque Decision

Mayor Diana Preston told the Gwinnett Daily Post that she is leaving office with no regrets about how she handled the rezoning application by the mosque Dar-E-Abbas.

"I just felt like I treated them as I would have wanted to be treated if I was in their shoes," she said, according to the newspaper. "I'm probably naive but I just put that in my mind, 'If it was the First Baptist Church, what would I do?'"

Preston is looking forward to finishing some projects at home and spending more time with her family after leaving office at the end of the month, she told Patch recently.

Her biggest achievement as mayor, she told the GDP, was helping form the Community Improvement District along Highway 29. She also set in motion projects for the city including a new city hall and library, the report noted, and was the only mayor to come to an agreement with the county on the long-disputed services delivery agreement.

After serving 22 years in city office -- 18 on the city council and four as mayor -- Preston was defeated in the November mayoral election by Johnny Crist, the only council member to oppose the mosque's revised application,