Marietta mayor vetoes Powers Ferry Road apartment project

Apartments proposed Powers Ferry Kroger site

Despite pleas from the developer and nearby community members Wednesday night, Marietta Mayor Steve “Thunder” Tumlin vetoed a proposed apartment complex at Powers Ferry Road and Delk Road.

The Marietta City Council voted 5-2 to approve the 322-unit on the site of a Kroger store that will be moving later this year.

There was no opposition from the public, and the Marietta Planning Commission had voted 7-0 to recommend approval in March.

But Tumlin, who has been vocal recently about too many apartments being proposed in the city, as well as their density, immediately vetoed the approval.

City council member Joseph Goldstein, whose Ward 7 includes the site, then made a motion to override the veto, which needed five votes.

But his colleague Grif Chalfant, who voted for the rezoning, then joined council members Johnny Walker and Andy Walker, who had voted against the application, in voting against overriding the veto.

Developer WC Acquisitions LLC of Atlanta had proposed the five-story luxury apartment building, a six-story parking deck and 6,000 square feet of retail space on 4.7 acres.

Kroger is vacating a 42-year-old building later this year to occupy a new superstore up the street at the MarketPlace Terrell Mill.

William Casaday, the applicant, told council members Wednesday that the site has no future for commercial and retail use. He sought a change from a commercial zoning category to mixed use, and noted a glut of supermarkets and low demand for retail.

He said the mixed-use development would generate a third of the traffic of the Kroger, and that it would luxury units with numerous amenities, with rents starting at $1,800 a month.

Patti Rice, of the Powers Ferry Corridor Alliance, urged approval, saying the development “has the potential to set a very high bar and to positively influence the quality of future development” in the area.

She said she feared that if the development wasn’t approved, the site “could be a blight and detrimental to the surrounding community.”

Don Barth of the nearby Cloverdale Heights neighborhood in the city of Marietta, said he shops often in the Powers Ferry corridor and the apartment building would be an asset.

“A lot of professionals are living in apartments for a reason,” he said. “It’s not something bad. What would be bad would be to let this property go to blight.

“We want to attract professionals to this area. This is the gateway going into East Cobb.”

But the council didn’t discuss the case before the vote.

Later in the meeting, the council approved a six-month moratorium on apartment building, with only Goldstein opposed.

The freeze does not apply to the Powers Ferry application and others that have been filed.

That includes a proposed mixed-use development including apartments at the former site of Harry’s Farmers Market at Roswell Road and Powers Ferry Road.

Apartments also have been proposed near the Marietta Square on land that doesn’t need rezoning and that is opposed by Tumlin, but must be approved by a city historic review board.

But I do agree with you that we’d always had to add email in the past, but to be honest I was happy for what seemed like a new, streamlined version 😉 That’s why now I wondered if there might have been a problem, a technical glitch.
On the thread I replied to, another couple readers had posted as well –I just cannot find the thread now–one reader asked the question “why not make it condos”? While another was more supportive of the apartments and felt there is too much emphasis on single family dwellings.

One reader posted Tumlin is ‘out of touch’ which prompted me to reply and I actually saved my comment on April 13 2023 my computer. I’ve pasted it here:
“Bravo to Mayor Steve Tumlin! Those that say he is the one out of touch should think again. He is courageous and visionary in taking a stand against this opportunistic trend of quick turn profits for developers on the back of a hollowing out of communities, setting a slow decline in motion for too many communities. Marietta has historically thrived because of it’s long history of “invested” residents—-property owners– those with skin in the game are the backbone of quality resources like great schools, beautiful parks, growing retail and top notch fire and safety that benefit ALL Marietta citizens across the entire economic stratum. It’s important we keep our ratio of owners to renters squarely trending on the OWNERSHIP side–so we can generate healthy and fairly distributed tax revenues that continue to foster our vitality. A growing–not shrinking –population of ownership, should be the perpetual aspiration for our city. Of course, we need a mix that includes quality rentals for those without the means, or perhaps lifestyle desire, to buy–but Marietta already has a large inventory of existing and newly renovated rental units –and an absolute boom of brand new, high end, bells & whistles, rental units all across the city. Very happy to see a leader like Mayor Tomlin that understands that logical principle over trendy popularity is what will safeguard the wellbeing of our beautiful city for years to come.”

We haven’t taken down any comments for this or any other post nor made any changes to the procedures to leave a comment.

Why have the comments, including mine–from yesterday about this story been wiped?

Additionally, why are you now requiring name and email as a condition to add a comment on this particular story about Steve Tumlin’s wise veto to halt the (75% one-bedroom units) apartment complex at the site where the old Kroger is being torn down on Powers Ferry?

As of yesterday, comments were encouraged without the intrusion of these name and email fields. (I see this is not the case for your other news stories, where readers can easily post comments without sharing name and email)

Why were my comments removed? They were honest, clearly stated and inoffensive—and they were in support of the Mayor’s wise veto.

Is there a problem?