Marietta council advances downtown dumpster enclosure and parking swap with First Baptist Church

Marietta City Council members on Monday directed staff to move forward with a proposal to build an angled dumpster enclosure at the corner of Root and Hansel streets and to pursue a right-of-way land swap with First Baptist Church that would create additional on-street parking.

The proposal, labeled Option B in staff materials and developed in coordination with church architect Don Dorsey, would replace several roll carts and small on-street dumpsters with a built enclosure similar to the one behind Starbucks. The enclosure is described as a minimum four-stall structure with two dumpsters per stall (double-stacked), providing capacity for up to eight dumpsters and space for one dumpster reserved for the church. Staff said the enclosure would clear sidewalks and two to three current parking spaces on Hansel but, by converting Root Street to angled parking in a one-way configuration, would produce a net gain of about nine parking spaces downtown.

City staff said the church would participate in right-of-way swaps to accommodate the angled parking on church-owned property; preliminary math presented at the meeting estimated the church would owe the city about $14,000 after the swaps were executed. Public works staff said service trucks would be able to access the enclosure from either Church or Root Street, and that the design could be adjusted for northbound or southbound one-way traffic on Root.

Council discussion focused on traffic flow during school drop-off and pick-up near Dodge Street and on enforcement options to limit through traffic during those hours. Staff said signage and enforcement, if adopted, would be coordinated with the police department; officials noted church volunteers also help manage peak traffic during service times.

Councilmember discussion yielded a motion to advance Option B, seconded by another member. The motion carried and council asked staff to negotiate the final terms with the church and return the detailed land-swap and construction agreement for final approval. Council placed the item on consent for the upcoming regular meeting.

The downtown enclosure and parking swap have been discussed with the church and in prior work sessions; staff said this proposal is intended to respond to limited curbside capacity created by new restaurants and other downtown growth and to remove roll carts from sidewalks.

If the project proceeds as outlined, staff will finalize right-of-way documents, a cost allocation for the church, and a detailed construction plan before returning to council for final approval.