Powers Ferry Road communities oppose mixed-use proposals

Residents in two older neighborhoods along the Powers Ferry Road corridor have been organizing for several months to fight mixed-use proposals filed with the City of Marietta.

After several delays, both of those cases are scheduled to go before the Marietta Planning Commission Tuesday night (you can view the agenda here).

Both proposals are on either side of the South Marietta Parkway, on land that’s in the city of Marietta, and both projects would be developed by Macauley Investments, an Atlanta firm that specializes in mixed-use projects.

The Nexus Gardens project we’ve written about before would have apartments, senior living and restaurants on nearly 17 acres, mostly undeveloped and facing Interstate 75. Some of those parcels include 19 single-family homes, as seen above on Meadowbrook Drive, and all of the land is owned by Ruben McMullan, an East Cobb resident, or his related entities.

Sole access to Nexus Gardens would be via Meadowbrook Drive, which is in unincorporated Cobb. That’s one of the major objections, in addition to the density of the project, which calls for two five-story apartment buildings totalling 280 units served by a three-story parking deck, a five-story senior-living building with 160 units, 39 townhomes and restaurants and retail space.

A group called Save Marietta has been created to oppose the project, and includes residents of the Meadowbrook neighborhood that’s partly in the city and also in the county.

McMullan’s real estate interests also include an assemblage of 22 parcels on 30 acres, mostly undeveloped but some with single-family homes, also off Powers Ferry and across the Loop.

That’s being proposed by Nexus Marietta for a 204-unit townhome development called Laurel Park.

Like the Nexus Gardens project, this one also has singular access via a residential street on Crestridge Drive, in the Cloverdale Heights neighborhood.

That’s entirely within the city of Marietta, and a community group has formed to oppose that project.

The full agenda packet for the Marietta Planning Commission meeting, with proposal details, maps and traffic information, can be found here.

The Marietta Planning Commission meeting starts at 6 p.m. Tuesday and will be streamed live on the city’s website.

The Marietta City Council make final decisions on March 10.