Marietta Mayor Steve Tumlin announced during his first State of the City speech to the Kiwanis Club of Marietta February 18 that the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) has awarded Marietta $3 million to fund streetscape and traffic improvements on Franklin Road between Twinbrooks Drive and Wood Glen Apartments at 875 Franklin Road. The work will beautify one of the major corridors coming into Marietta, improve traffic flow, help reduce accidents and improve pedestrian safety with sidewalks, lighting and landscaped medians. The ARC received more than 40 grant applications, and Marietta received the second-highest grant award out of 17 given.
The streetscape enhancements would encourage redevelopment in the area and support business owners and residents who want to go in and put more money into their properties, city manager Bill Bruton said. "They would see the city doing the same."
"Construction on the project will begin in the latter part of 2012, since the city has just received the funding," city engineer Jim Wilgus said.
The project is funded by a grant awarded through the livable centers initiative (LCI) program, which the ARC established in 2000 to encourage quality design in downtown areas or urban centers, Bruton said. "A lot of the grant money the ARC is able to give communities for projects comes from the federal government to state government."
In order to participate and have access to the grant money, the city had to be an LCI community and had to go through a competitive process, Bruton said. "Marietta was selected by selected by the ARC and had to do a planning study of the city, which shows how we can improve the city through quality design and traffic enhancements."
In 2000, Marietta was one of the first 10 communities selected by the ARC to participate in the first round of the program, Bruton said. "The city's first planning study was called Envision Marietta and involved people from all over the community, trying to figure out what the downtown core should be like and included master plans for the downtown area and what we would do," he said. "A lot of what we're doing on Roswell Street and some of what is going forward on Powder Springs Street came from that plan, including zoning changes that we've done."
The ARC approved the plan, which allowed the city to apply for the grant money. "Over a two-year period, we were able to receive $3 million for improvements on Roswell Street," Bruton said.
"While we were finishing up with that project, as far as planning and applying for the grant, we looked at the Franklin Road/Delk Road area and created a Franklin Road/Delk corridor master plan, which was also approved by the ARC," Bruton said. "This plan laid out how the Franklin Road/Delk Road area would function and look and was an effort to spur redevelopment in that area of town." The ARC approved the plan, which allowed the city to be able to apply for funding for the area, he said.
The city is also eligible for future ARC
transportation funding when it becomes available for Powder Springs Street and Atlanta Road.
In addition to the ARC grant, the city is also implementing transportation improvements on the north and south ends of Franklin Road
funded by the 2005 special purpose local option sales tax voters approved for transportation enhancements.
An efficient transportation system, which places a high premium on the quality of life of Marietta's citizens; creating landscaped boulevards and gateways; encouraging redevelopment with a mixture of uses, while strengthening viable neighborhoods and commercial areas; continuing quality zoning and development that will benefit generations to come; and working with the Marietta Housing Authority, Cobb Housing Inc. and other agencies to redevelop and revitalize the Franklin Road, Roswell Street, Allgood and Powder Springs Road corridors as well as other areas of Marietta are goals City Council established as part of its vision statement.
For more information, call Marietta's Public Works Department at 770-794-5650.