Marietta City Council Meeting: Capital Projects List and Railroad Crossings Discussion - February 11, 2026
Marietta City Council Meeting: Capital Projects List and Railroad Crossings Discussion - February 11, 2026
This meeting focused on finalizing the city's capital projects list for submission to the county, with council members weighing two funding options—a parks bond option and a grants option—and discussing the complexities and costs of implementing quiet railroad crossings. The council also reviewed tier 1 and tier 2 project lists, with staff providing conservative cost estimates and emphasizing that unexpected revenue overperformance is typically reallocated to existing tier 1 projects rather than new ones.
Discussion Items
- Capital Projects List Options: The council considered two options for the list to be sent to the county. The parks bond option would remove most park projects (except city hall renovations) and rebalance other project accounts, including some transportation project accounts. The grants option retains all projects and relies on grant funding; if grants are not received or are insufficient, the council would decide how to allocate extra funding. Staff clarified that the city always applies for grants regardless of the option chosen.
- Tier 1 and Tier 2 Projects: Staff presented a refined tier 2 list, removing projects that moved to tier 1 (e.g., Atlanta Street and Orange Street) and smaller sidewalk projects that could be funded individually. Council members asked about specific projects, including a stormwater improvement and bike lane project on South Marietta and Roswell Street, and potential quiet railroad crossings for the downtown core.
- Quiet Railroad Crossings: Council members discussed the feasibility of installing quiet crossings. Staff noted that federal regulations require upgrading all crossings within a certain distance if one is quieted, costing an estimated $700,000 to $1 million per crossing, with a seven- to nine-year timeline. The city would also assume full maintenance and liability, contracting with the railroad for repairs. Some council members expressed concern over the cost and time commitment but acknowledged the public desire for reduced horn noise.
- Sidewalk Projects and Other Items: Staff recommended keeping smaller sidewalk projects on the tier 2 list to allow flexibility with individual council member approval and grant funding. Specific projects such as the Waterman sidewalk and improvements to Woodwalk (including a potential new signal at Dial Circle and maintenance) were discussed. Council members requested more specificity on some items, and staff agreed to add maintenance details.
- Procedural Timeline: The council will hold public input meetings in March and April, with a public hearing at the May council meeting and final adoption (including the intergovernmental agreement with the county) at the June council meeting.
Key Outcomes
- Motion to Proceed with Grants Option: A council member moved to proceed with the grants option, and the motion was seconded. Discussion continued, but no formal vote was taken at this meeting; the council will have additional opportunities to amend the list before the final vote in June.
- ADA Language Flexibility: The council agreed to adjust the language for the city hall project from "ADA compliance" to more flexible wording, allowing broader improvements while still signaling a legitimate public purpose.
- Future Advocacy Group: A council member reported that the municipal association is considering forming a civilian advocacy group regarding potential future ballot items, but noted the city cannot advocate as a governmental body.
Meeting Transcript
Oh 2028 launched. I gotta stand that tall up in my office if you exit yet. Thank you. Okay, then never mind. That's at all. Um you should have two sheets um I named them so a little easier to follow this time. So you have parks bond option, the grants option, and then the last page is the tier two list that I narrowed down a little bit because I took off some of the other projects that moved on to tier one, Atlanta Street, and Orange Street, some of those, I took some of those off. Um, some of the smaller sidewalk projects because I think we can get those done uh individual council members approval for whatever board those in and using going. Um funding or doing small things like that, and listed on tier two, I think we still accomplish things if individual council members are okay, so that's reason. Some of those are all um so I'm narrowed also after the discussion on Monday night. This is kind of finalizing the list as it would look on that would go forward to the county, so I'll take a little descriptions now, project descriptions, and I will those down a little bit, so it's not as descriptive as it was Monday night. I don't know, Mr. Water asking some of the questions about that, so I'm narrowing some of those down. So we've got both options before you didn't answer any questions. So we have a question about the trucks being the house. So you're applying for a park on it. If it's on the projects called needs to be an approval. The parks bond option would be uh maybe just discussions with the mayor uh talking about possibly doing a parts on so that was removing all of the parts uh items that we had on there except for the city hall reservations. So that took all of them off of the list and doing some other rebalancing uh some of the project accounts in order to do the overall budget balance, okay. Left everything else on there except maybe just the minor adjustments to some project transportation project account. Everything else in his balance. And grant options green station. So whatever reason we don't pick the green thing, but it's a project with their green money. If if yeah, if we do not get the grants or we don't get the full grant funding, then that would be brought back before this body to return how you would like to move forward if we have extra funding available, and that'll have to be a decision. This body that we have to make to allocate that extra funding. Wouldn't we try to get the grants no matter which option we choose? We always find it very much. We always always want to grants it. So there's not really a grant. No grant option. No, Mr. Golsen got a seat like no stuff. I think I'm just making sure it's gonna see that. I think that would leave the parks projects on the list. The parks the grants from set. It's not saying that if we choose the grants for not doing the parks bond, it's just it provides the options that send if we don't choose the parks bond and have the projects on the list. If we do the parks bond and something happens, it happens because the project's on this parks bond and passes makes it be declared economically feasible with the funding source and those are the parts to be getting a grants option. Just provide more options. And it provides us a backstop just to my question in this. And we decided it would be no county money. What happened to Ireland? That's one of those sidewalk projects. I think we're going to do that. Okay. Right. Okay. So we can't do the funding first. Also, it's still Washington. It's just the point of the north. Then you go all the way down to Rosemary Street.
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