Marietta City Council Agenda Work Session – May 12, 2025
Marietta City Council Agenda Work Session – May 12, 2025
The Marietta City Council held an agenda work session on Monday, May 12, 2025, at 5:15 PM in the Council Chamber. The meeting included the BLW (Board of Lights and Water) report, reappointments to various boards, discussion of several development proposals, bond schedule amendments, and the addition of new agenda items. Most items were approved to be moved to the Wednesday, May 14, 2025, regular council meeting, many on the consent agenda.
Consent Calendar
- Minutes of April 7, 2025, Agenda Work Session: Approved 5-0.
- Board of Zoning Appeals Appointment – Ward 3: Reappointment of Mark Maloney for a 3-year term (expiring May 14, 2028). Moved to consent agenda.
- Historic Board of Review – Ward 2: Reappointment of David Freedman for a 2-year term (expiring May 13, 2027). Moved to consent agenda.
- Historic Board of Review – Ward 5: Reappointment of Jesse D. Bonner, Jr. for a 2-year term (expiring May 14, 2027). Moved to consent agenda.
- Historic Preservation Commission – Ward 4: Reappointment of Jim Trimble for a 3-year term (expiring May 14, 2028). Moved to consent agenda. Vote: 6-0.
- Preliminary Plat – Highvale: Approval of a 23 single-family detached home subdivision on 11.5 acres at Colston and Breckinridge Roads (zoned R-2). City Attorney Douglas Haynie disclosed he lives across the street. Staff reported all outstanding issues resolved. Moved to consent agenda.
- Amendment of Order of Bond Schedule: An ordinance amending bond amounts related to prohibited use of private property (Ordinance 10-4-035), setting a $500 bond as requested by Judge Burt. Moved to consent agenda despite Council Member Goldstein’s opposition (vote 5-1). Goldstein later withdrew objection for consent.
- 1016 Whitlock Avenue – Special Land Use Permit: Request for continued use as a church (Living Waters Ministries) on a property with nonconforming conditions. Moved to consent agenda.
- 1810 Williams Drive – Gas Station/Convenience Store: On applicant’s request, tabled to a future month. Moved to consent agenda.
- Added Items:
- Acceptance of 2024 Miag year-end settlement of $2,235,824 to be credited to the next Miag bill and authorization for the mayor to sign. Motion carried 6-0. Placed on consent.
- Proclamation honoring Marietta High School Girls Track and Field State Championship. Added to Wednesday’s agenda under proclamations. Placed on consent.
- Various other items: Advertisements, special meeting minutes, etc., all placed on consent without objection.
Discussion Items
- BLW Report: Council Member Richardson reported on the May 12 BLW meeting. Topics included:
- Proclamation for Water Professionals and Drinking Water Week (May 12-18).
- Apprentices ranked 1-3 overall; linemen thanked for service.
- Financial review: For March, BLW was 1.1% over budget for total project and 23% under for supplementals; year-to-date 1% under budget for total costs, 12% under for supplementals. Gas price ~$4/mmBTU; spot market ~$3.75. Off-system sales declined significantly; supplemental reserves at $28.5 million.
- Budget and Rates Committee: No electric rate increase; pass-through rates increased 2.5% for water and 3.5% for sewer. BLW budget approved at ~$174 million.
- Chairman’s Report: Miag adopted policy for high electric users to fund capital; discussion of supplemental budget complexities. Year-end settlement credited $2.2 million.
- Detailed Plan – Kennesaw Battle Townhomes: 20-unit townhome subdivision at Tower and James Streets. Updated materials addressed tree plan and passive amenity. Outstanding issues: missing side/rear elevations, sidewalks on interior streets not shown, privacy screening and lighting for tennis court unclear, and a sewer line under tennis court needing relocation. Tower Street access involves Cobb County for easement and eventual transfer to city. Moved to Wednesday’s agenda, but not placed on consent due to unresolved questions. Council Member Morris requested final details before Wednesday.
- Bond Schedule Amendment Discussion: Council Member Goldstein questioned the $500 bond amount, expressing concern it may be high for first offenses against homeless individuals. Staff relayed Judge Burt’s rationale that denying private property use warrants that amount.
- Variance Requests (presented for information, not voted):
- Waterman Avenue (486, 490, 494) and 160 South Ave: Gravel driveway variance for single-family homes; also zero-foot side setback for outdoor fireplace at 486 Waterman.
- 1912 Lower Roswell Road (Malone’s Automotive): Seven variances to redevelop an aging gas station into an auto repair shop, including operating within 200 feet of residentially zoned property (Cobb County homes), reducing landscape buffer from 40 ft to zero, and reducing rear setback from 75 ft to 48 ft.
- Roswell Street/Washington Avenue (Prestwick Landholdings): Three variances for a 4-story, 70-unit affordable senior multifamily complex with 3,000 sq ft commercial component. Variances seek less than 20% floor area for commercial, residential on ground floor, and 100% renter-occupied (vs. 5% owner-occupied). Partnership with Marietta Housing Authority. Discussion included federal Fair Housing Act exception for 55+ housing; senior-oriented commercial (medical, etc.) expected.
Key Outcomes
- All reappointments and most development items approved to move forward to the Wednesday, May 14, 2025, regular council meeting, with the Kennesaw Battle detailed plan moved but not placed on consent due to remaining issues.
- Bond schedule amendment advanced to Wednesday; Council Member Goldstein voted against but did not block consent.
- Miag year-end settlement accepted and credited ($2,235,824); mayor authorized to sign.
- 1810 Williams Drive tabled at applicant’s request.
- Proclamation for girls track state champions added to Wednesday’s agenda.
- Motion to enter executive session for property acquisition was approved (vote not tallied, but all present favored).
- Consent agenda for Wednesday will include nearly all items except the Kennesaw Battle detailed plan and possibly the bond schedule (if Goldstein’s objection stands; he later withdrew objection, so likely consent).
Meeting Transcript
Order, please. The first item is uh April the 7th. Agenda work session minutes. Any addition, deletions or motion? Make a motion to approve. Second. All those in favor, please raise your right hand. Motion carries 5-0. Mr. Richardson, the BLW report, please, ma'am. All right, so the BLW meeting was held today, and we started off the regular part with a pledge of allegiance and invocation. Then we went to some presentations, and the mayor presented a proclamation in recognition of water professionals and drinking water week, declaring that May actually it's 12th, May 12th through May 18th is water professionals and drinking water week. Our apprentices were the top three, they were one through three. I think we had the fourth best overall time. So our linemen always thank alignment, whether it's thank alignment week or not. If you got power coming to your house, thank alignment. So if you see alignment, thank them. Now we didn't have Mr. Shalfont here, but if you have our book with the water report is in there, and you can take a look at that. And if you have any questions, I'm sure we can address them. Next with BLW financials. Okay, normally I would have the PowerPoint, but um Stephanie's um a little preoccupied, so I'm gonna go through it and you can um somewhat follow along on um your booklet. So for the month of March, we have the MIAG versus the actuals. We are 1.1% over budget for our total project and 20 almost 23 percent under budget for our supplementals for our total power. Um that puts us at just 4.5% over budget. Year to date, we are one percent under budget for uh total prop uh total project expected revenues and I'm sorry, total costs and our supplementals we are 12 percent under compared to me ag budget. Taking a taking a look at the MEE BLW versus our internal budget, we are two percent under for a project and 30 percent 36 percent under for supplemental for the month of March, however, year to date we are um on target um almost exactly for total project and supplemental, we are up slightly um by 8.4 percent, and that goes back to that February um event that had us a little bit higher in our supplementals than anticipated. Taking a look at the 2025 gas price comparison, the month of March pretty much uh stagnant with February right at four dollars per megawatt mmBTU. We are projected to be above budget for the remainder of the year, and we will continue to look at those on a monthly basis. Uh very similar um with spot market, we dipped below the budget in the month of February. We are back above the budget for the month of March, coming in at about 3.75 um mm BTU uh megawatt hour, I'm sorry, and then we are above budget for the remainder of the year for the projection. Taking a look at the um plant operations. We are at the middle of the month, we were running about 46.99 cents for this particular hour. Um, and this was on April 9th. Operations uh were pretty stagnant, no major um events happened over the month. For the unit operations, however, we did have an outage for Wandsley 9. It was a forced outage due to a gas leak. It was for a short period of time because it's during our slow season, there wasn't much impact on the power costs. Yeah. Please. Um I noticed the use of the coal plant there. Was that because of the outage for Wandsley 9 that they went into the coal unit for that month? Yes. So there were they had a commitment. We had a couple of I think three times during the month where we had a large request for load, and that forced us into the coal plant, and you're correct. In this particular instance, it had to do with the fact that Wandsley 9 was out. Okay. During During April, we didn't have too much use of the coal plant, hopefully. No. Okay.
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