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City residents get chance to weigh in on Reimagine Marietta project

Members of the community had the chance to see plans from the Reimagine Marietta project, a comprehensive planning effort by the city of Marietta. (Photo by Douglass Huxley)

MARIETTA — The city of Marietta held an open house event Wednesday to gather public input on its Reimagine Marietta comprehensive planning project.

Wendy Moller, owner of Compass Point, planning and project manager for the consulting side for Reimagine Marietta, said the event showcased the major elements of the draft plan, which aims to ensure the right policies and regulations are in place to achieve the desired vision for Marietta’s future.

“In discussions, (City Council) realized we really need to have a vision for what we want the community to look like and how we want development to happen, to help us figure out what are the right regulations for using that,” Moller said.

She said the open house highlighted the plan’s themes and goals, future land use recommendations and short-term implementation strategies. Moller said the comprehensive plan is intended to provide an “umbrella policy” to guide decisions around community, neighborhoods, housing and business growth.

Some of the key proposals include:

* Coordinating with recent planning efforts like the Enrich Marietta and Connected Marietta initiatives

* Mapping out future land use categories to direct redevelopment and preservation in different areas.

* Identifying critical short-term projects, such as enhanced property maintenance, that the city can begin working on.

Moller said while the plan considers Marietta’s floodplain areas, there are no major flood prevention infrastructure projects currently proposed. Instead, she said the focus is on mitigation strategies like raising building heights to accommodate floodwaters.

Moller said the feedback received so far at the open house has been very positive, with residents expressing interest in understanding the plan’s policy direction. She said the draft comprehensive plan document will be posted online in the coming days, and the public will have about a month to provide additional comments.

To view the plans or make comments visit reimaginemarietta.com.

Moller said the formal adoption process for the Reimagine Marietta plan is scheduled to begin in early 2025, starting with the planning commission and then the city council. She emphasized the plan is designed to be flexible, with an annual review process to adapt to changing community needs and resources.

“The federal government is always adding new grant programs, adding new tools that would be available to the city that we just can’t predict,” Moller said. “So an annual kind of consideration or monitoring, allows the city to make changes based on changing resources.”

Douglass Huxley can be reached at dhuxley@newsandsentinel.com

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