BUSINESS & ECONOMIC DEV.
FACTBOOK 2021 73
The ARC’s Livable Centers Initiative is supporting a study
of Bells Ferry Road, one of the district’s major corridors.
Findings should result in recommendations that will further
the initiative’s goal of promoting alternatives to driving.
“The study will also formulate concepts for roadway
design, streetscape, trail connections for efficient and safe
movement of pedestrians, bicycles and vehicles in, through
and around the corridor,” read the district’s call for consultants
to assist on the study.
Other news is just on the horizon. An update to the district’s
master plan and completion of the Chastain Road
Corridor Study — which considered smart technology in
roads and creative placemaking — will culminate with the
unveiling of a number of projects.
Meanwhile, the district’s nonprofit partner, the Town Center
Community Alliance, “is developing several initiatives …
to enhance green space,” Styf said, and will soon unveil “new
features and displays along the Noonday Creek Trail and in
our greenspaces.”
MARIETTA
The Gateway Marietta CID’s primary boundaries are Delk
Road and Franklin Gateway, running north all the way up
Franklin Gateway to South Marietta Parkway.
The Gateway Marietta CID was formed in 2014 to charge
commercial property owners within its boundaries an extra
5 mills, and use that money to beautify the area and enhance
its safety.
In 2019, the district estimated its tax take to be almost
$400,000 based on the district’s $77.8 million in assessed
property value.
This year, the district announced it would study “Creative
placemaking and CID signage” to create a program that
will “encourage efficient and safe movement of pedestrians,
bicycles and vehicles in, through and around the Gateway
Marietta activity center.”
And in November, the CID began landscaping and beautification
worth about $120,000 on two main roads in Marietta,
which it completed early this year.
The work was done simultaneously on a 0.2-mile stretch of
South Marietta Parkway between Interstate 75 and Franklin
Gateway, as well as the 0.4-mile stretch of Delk Road between
Franklin Gateway and I-75.
Both interchanges, separated by five miles along I-75, are
in the area of focus for the district.
Launched in 2014, the CID nearly three years later became
home to Major League Soccer team Atlanta United FC’s
state-of-the-art, $60 million facility on Franklin near Interstate
75 that serves as the team’s headquarters and practice
facility. The 33-acre site, which the city of Marietta is leasing
to the soccer club, consists of the team’s 30,000-square-foot
headquarters building and six soccer fields.