r/Marietta

AI slop coming to the square

Anyone else see the AI flyer go up in front of the old Eddie’s Trick Shop? If they cannot afford to hire a real artist for their advertisement, then that is pretty scary considering they are opening an arcade for children. And if they simply do not care to hire a real artist, it’s not the type of business I want in my community. I will not be taking my children to Claw Me Crazy, and I suggest you all do the same. Also, Marietta Square had to disable their comments on their Instagram post because it was full of people commenting on the disappointment caused by the AI flyer.

reddit.com
u/SonnyBlueMurphy — 1 day ago
▲ 19 r/Marietta+1 crossposts

Curly hair salons??

Need some curly hair salons that are fairly priced, please! I have been going to the same salon since I was 7 and the place has only ever done walk ins and doesn’t have established hours.

u/Yesi_the_strange — 2 days ago
▲ 239 r/Marietta+1 crossposts

HELP OPPOSE DELK RD DATA CENTER FINAL VOTE 7/8/26

The planning commitee barely voted to advance the data center, 4-3. Thank you to all that showed up in opposition. We have another chance to stop this thing. We show up like last month or with even more people we can and will win. And if we for some reason do not, we start a recall petition for every single councilmember. LETS PULL UP MARIETTA AND BRING THIS THING DOWN ONCE AND FOR ALL. We might even get the other site taken down too.

u/CraizoHD — 4 days ago
▲ 35 r/Marietta+2 crossposts

Our foster Brenda is looking for her forever home!

Hi friends, my name is Brenda, and I think it’s finally time we met properly.

My story starts back in January, when I was found wandering with two other dogs, one bigger than me and one smaller. The little one was clearly running the show, leading our small pack around, but all three of us were friendly with the people who found us.

Being new to the shelter was a lot for me. I was quiet and a little unsure of myself, trying to figure out where I fit in a place that was loud and unfamiliar. By March, time was running short for me, and on March 24th, I landed on the urgent list. I was so relieved when someone finally gave me a chance outside those walls.

That chance didn’t last the way I hoped. After six weeks, I found myself back at the shelter, and I’d lost quite a bit of weight along the way. It wasn’t my favorite chapter.

The good news is, some familiar faces remembered me. Just three days after I came back, two women who’d met me before decided to bring me home and foster me themselves. They’ve spent their time since then helping me feel like myself again, and I’m proud to say I’ve gained all my weight back.

These days, my foster moms say I’m ready to find my forever home and they can’t stop talking about how far I’ve come. Here’s what they want you to know about me:

 Estimated to be 7 years old

 44 pounds, spayed, heartworm negative

 House trained

 Crate trained (it’s my safe space)

 I get along great with other dogs, big and small, and I’m fully part of the family with my foster home’s 13-pound pup after slow introductions

 I hop like a bunny when I’m excited!

 Medium energy, I love long walks than curling up into my “Brenda ball” on the couch

 Tolerates baths well

 I love car rides!

 Not bothered by thunderstorms or vacuums

 Treat motivated and I know sit, down, paw, and leave it

 I do well when left alone in a confined room, I will either sleep or chew on my Kong

 Super snuggler once I get to know you

 I love belly rubs and a good toy

 Very good listener and follows direction well

 Look in the comments for more photos and videos of me!

If you want to meet me, either send my foster mom a Facebook message, or click my link: https://fcasdogs.com/Brenda

If you’ve been waiting for a sign to add a dog to your life, consider this it. I’ve come a long way, and I can’t wait to show you just how good life can be from here!

Brenda is available for adoption through Fulton County Animal Services in Atlanta, GA.

https://preview.redd.it/sm98zhbqu1bh1.png?width=789&format=png&auto=webp&s=393ec71b74c1076f1363bd8cc506445e0827710c

reddit.com
u/Deep_Opportunity8108 — 2 days ago

Gardening classes for adults?

Can anyone recommend gardening classes for beginners? Probably too late in the season! If it is too late - I’d at least like to find something for next year, though. Thank you!

reddit.com
u/Tiny_dancer_89 — 3 days ago

Letter to City Council- Data Center at 1155 Powers Ferry Place approved by planning commission

Last night the rezoning commission voted 4:3 to recommend approving the data center at 1155 Powers Ferry Place. I just sent this letter to city council- CC: Representative Gabriel Sanchez, Representative Mary Frances Williams, & Senator Doc Rhett- and am sharing here for transparency. See my post history to follow along. Feedback encouraged and I hope to see you at the Council meeting on 7/8.

Dear Mayor and City Council,

As you are now aware, the Planning Commission approved Case Z2026-12 — the proposed data center at 1155 Powers Ferry Place — in a 4-3 vote on July 1, 2026. That margin is notable. Nearly half of the Planning Commission voted against a proposal that the City's own staff had already recommended for denial. The July 8th City Council hearing is now the final opportunity for public accountability before a vote with lasting consequences for this community. I am writing to formally outline what I believe must be publicly addressed before that vote takes place.

Since my initial correspondence, I have continued my research and have received substantial feedback from data center industry experts employed at major corporations in the Atlanta area. What I have learned has deepened, not diminished, my concerns. These are not the opinions of uninformed residents. They are the assessments of professionals who work in this industry daily and who reviewed the available application materials with the same conclusion: this application is materially incomplete, and the conditions under which it is being considered are ones that experienced developers exploit when they identify a municipality without adequate protective standards.

The following questions and concerns are drawn directly from the application materials, the Staff Analysis, expert input, and the ongoing community dialogue that has been taking place since June 10th. Each deserves a clear, documented, public answer — not a general assurance, and not a deferral to future permitting stages.

THE STAFF RECOMMENDATION WAS DENIAL — AND THAT HAS NOT CHANGED.

The City's own Department of Development Services concluded that this rezoning request does not align with Marietta's Comprehensive Plan, specifically because data centers operate more like industrial facilities than the commercial and office uses the Regional Activity Center designation is intended to support. The Planning Commission's 4-3 vote did not resolve that finding — it overrode it. The City Council should enter the July 8th hearing prepared to explain, on the record, why overriding staff's recommendation is in the public interest. A bare majority of a planning commission is not a sufficient answer.

CRITICAL ENVIRONMENTAL DATA REMAINS MISSING.

As of the application filing, the following information was listed as "Not Provided":

  • Approximate water usage by proposed use
  • Estimated waste generated by proposed development
  • Wetland presence and compatibility — listed as "Unknown"

Additionally, 2.5% of the property lies within the floodplain associated with Rottenwood Creek, and a floodplain elevation certificate has not yet been required. The closed-loop cooling system cited in the application is described in generic terms with no technical specifications whatsoever. Before a vote, the Council must require that this data be provided, reviewed, and made publicly available. Approving a rezoning with this information still missing is approving a project the City does not yet fully understand.

INFRASTRUCTURE COST ALLOCATION HAS NOT BEEN ANSWERED.

The Marietta Power section of the Data Appendix provides nothing beyond a contact name and phone number. There is no documentation of what special conditions would be required to serve an 18-megawatt facility, no analysis of what load this places on the grid, and no public accounting of how costs that flow from MEAG to MPW as a result of this demand increase would be allocated.

The math here is not abstract. Standard data center facilities typically require $7 million to $12 million per megawatt for grid upgrades. For an 18-megawatt facility, that translates to a projected infrastructure cost of between $126 million and $216 million — costs that MEAG would ultimately impose on MPW. The Council has stated publicly that any future developer would bear all infrastructure and utility costs — not residents. That commitment is meaningless without a documented, enforceable mechanism that explains precisely how it works.

Before the July 8th vote, the Council must publicly answer the following:

  • How will the $126 million to $216 million in projected grid upgrade costs be structured, funded, and guaranteed so that MPW customers do not absorb them through rate increases?
  • What deposit or financial assurance will the developer be required to place — and in what amount — to protect MPW ratepayers if the project stalls, changes hands, or the developer cannot perform?
  • What contractual guardrails exist to prevent MEAG from passing increased costs to MPW as a direct result of the load added by this facility?
  • Are these protections enforceable through the rezoning conditions or a separate development agreement, and will that agreement be made publicly available before the vote?

A general assurance that the developer will "bear all costs" is not a guardrail. It is a statement. Residents deserve the documentation behind it.

THE APPLICANT'S IDENTITY REMAINS REDACTED FROM PUBLIC DOCUMENTS.

The landowner, applicant, and end-user are blacked out throughout the publicly available application materials. Marietta residents are being asked to accept a major development in their community without knowing who is proposing to operate it. This is not a procedural technicality — it is a structural transparency failure, and recent history makes it a material one. The Grind project — the prior data center proposal that consumed significant community attention and Council resources — was backed by a developer who could not secure bank financing. That fact was not disclosed to the public during the Grind process; residents had to uncover it independently. Financial qualification is not a minor detail when a project of this scale is being proposed in a residential and commercial corridor. The Council should not vote on Z2026-12 until the full identity of all parties is disclosed to the public and their financial capacity to complete and sustain the project has been documented and made available for community review.

This brings me to a point that the data center industry itself has recognized. Microsoft — one of the largest data center operators in the world — no longer engages with developers who require non-disclosure agreements that prevent community transparency. Their position is straightforward and grounded in experience: community understanding and genuine buy-in are not optional courtesies. They are material factors in whether a project succeeds long term. A data center that a community does not understand, did not meaningfully participate in approving, and cannot hold accountable is a liability — not an asset. If one of the most sophisticated data center operators on the planet has concluded that NDAs and identity concealment are incompatible with successful community outcomes, Marietta should ask itself why it is entertaining an application that reflects the opposite standard.

THE CITY'S OWN STAFF IDENTIFIES THE NEED FOR A DATA CENTER ORDINANCE.

The Staff Analysis explicitly states that Marietta's zoning ordinance does not define data centers as a separate use, distinguish between large-scale and small-scale facilities, or include standards specific to their equipment or operations, and recommends the City evaluate this "as part of future zoning code updates." Furthermore, the Staff Analysis notes that Cobb County, the City of Atlanta, Athens-Clarke County, and Clayton County have each adopted moratoriums or new zoning standards to address data center impacts. Marietta's own neighbors have recognized this gap. I would ask the Council directly: why has Marietta not followed suit, and what is the timeline for doing so?

THE CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGE MUST BE ACKNOWLEDGED PUBLICLY.

Attorney Parks Huff of Sams, Larkin & Huff, LLP filed a preemptive Constitutional Challenge as part of this application, asserting that denial would constitute an unconstitutional taking of property. This document was filed on the same day as the application itself — May 19, 2026. The legal threat was not a response to resistance. It was the opening move. Residents deserve to understand that this pressure exists, what it means, and whether it is influencing the process. The Council should address this on the record at the July 8th hearing.

THIS APPLICATION WAS NOT TRANSPARENTLY COMMUNICATED TO RESIDENTS.

I found this application by manually clicking through every PDF on the City's agenda page. It does not appear through any standard search of mariettaga.gov. No proactive notification was sent to residents. This is the second consecutive data center proposal for which the community has had to self-discover critical information under time pressure. Whatever the Council decides on July 8th, it must also decide — publicly and on the record — how it will ensure this does not happen again.

THE ECONOMIC CASE HAS NOT BEEN HONESTLY PRESENTED.

The economic case for this rezoning deserves scrutiny grounded in actual numbers, not projections. The property at 1155 Powers Ferry Place currently carries a net taxable value of $6,626,040 and generates approximately $191,408 in annual property tax at current millage rates — roughly $1.97 per square foot of building space. A consumer-facing commercial tenant operating in the same building at standard retail or restaurant performance levels would generate between $2.00 and $3.50 per square foot in property tax alone — $194,760 to $340,830 annually — before a single dollar of sales tax, business licensing revenue, or economic spillover to surrounding businesses is counted. Marietta collects 8% sales tax. An active commercial use on this corridor generates that revenue continuously. A data center generates none of it — ever. It employs, by the applicant's own representation, minimal on-site staff. It produces no foot traffic. It creates no economic multiplier effect for neighboring businesses. And it requires between $126 million and $216 million in grid infrastructure investment that must be accounted for somewhere. The Council should not characterize approval of this application as an economic win for Marietta without presenting a complete, honest, side-by-side comparison of what this site could generate under its existing zoning versus what a data center would actually contribute — net of infrastructure costs, net of foregone sales tax, and net of the opportunity cost of removing an active commercial property from the tax and revenue base it is currently capable of producing.

THE APPLICATION ITSELF DEMONSTRATES THAT MARIETTA IS BEING TARGETED PRECISELY BECAUSE IT LACKS STANDARDS

One of the most revealing aspects of Case Z2026-12 is not what the application contains — it is what it does not contain, and what that absence tells us about how this developer views the City of Marietta as a regulatory environment.

A well-prepared, good-faith rezoning application for an 18-megawatt data center — a facility with continuous power demand equivalent to a small city, adjacent to residential housing and a creek with floodplain concerns — would be expected to include, at minimum: a power demand analysis prepared by a licensed electrical engineer, a full acoustical study conducted at residential property lines under operational load conditions, water consumption estimates at peak capacity, wastewater generation projections, a wetland determination, detailed cooling system specifications prepared by a mechanical engineer, a generator emissions analysis, and a financial qualification package demonstrating the developer's capacity to fund both the project and the required infrastructure improvements.

This application contains none of those things.

What it contains instead is the following:

On power demand: The Marietta Power section of the Data Appendix — the section specifically designated to address electrical requirements — provides a contact name and a phone number. That is the entirety of the response to the question of what special conditions would be involved in serving an 18-megawatt facility. No load analysis. No grid impact assessment. No discussion of MEAG pricing implications. A phone number.

On water usage: "Not provided." This is the applicant's own answer, submitted to the City of Marietta, for a facility that will operate cooling systems continuously, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, on a property that drains to Rottenwood Creek and sits partially within a mapped floodplain.

On wastewater: "Not provided." Same facility. Same creek.

On wetlands: "Unknown." The application acknowledges that wetlands may be present and then offers no determination, no study, and no plan. The question of whether the use is compatible with possible wetland presence is also answered: "Unknown."

On cooling system specifications: The application states that a "closed-loop air-cooled system" will be used. This is a category of technology, not a specification. It tells the City nothing about the actual equipment, the noise profile under load, the heat rejection method, the water consumption, or the mechanical design. Industry experts I consulted described language of this type as characteristic of a sales document, not an engineering submission. The Staff Analysis reached a similar conclusion, noting that "no additional information or specifications were provided to verify how these systems would be designed or operated."

On noise: The applicant states that equipment will be housed in "purpose-built enclosures." No acoustical study was provided. No decibel measurements at residential property lines. No specifications for the enclosures themselves. The Staff Analysis noted that both the chiller yard and the generator yard, as shown in the submitted plans, lack enclosures entirely — directly contradicting the applicant's own representations.

On the identity of the applicant: Fully redacted. The City of Marietta is being asked to rezone a 10.727-acre parcel adjacent to a multi-family residential development for an intensive industrial use, and the entity proposing to operate that facility has not disclosed its identity to the public.

On financial qualification: Nothing. No evidence of secured financing. No committed capital. No performance bond. No escrow. No financial assurance of any kind that the developer can fund the project, let alone the $126 million to $216 million in grid infrastructure upgrades that an 18-megawatt facility would be expected to require from MEAG. This is not an oversight. The Grind project was backed by a developer who could not secure bank financing. That project consumed significant Council and community resources before collapsing. The conditions that made Marietta attractive to Grind have not changed. Filing an incomplete application with a redacted identity and a preemptive legal threat is not the behavior of a developer who expects to be asked hard questions. It is the behavior of a developer who has correctly determined they will not be.

On the constitutional challenge: Rather than address the substantive planning deficiencies in the application, the applicant's attorney filed a preemptive Constitutional Challenge asserting that denial of the rezoning would constitute an unconstitutional taking of property. This document was filed on the same day as the application itself — May 19, 2026. The legal threat was not a response to resistance. It was the opening move. That tells you something important about how this developer views its relationship with the City of Marietta.

What This Pattern Reveals

This is not an application that was prepared to inform. It was prepared to clear a bar — and the bar was set by Marietta's current lack of any data center-specific standards whatsoever.

When a city has no ordinance defining what a data center is, no standards for what an application must contain, no noise thresholds specific to continuous mechanical operation, no grid impact study requirement, no financial qualification threshold, and no requirement that the applicant's identity be disclosed — a developer does not need to provide any of those things. They simply do not include them. The application reflects exactly and only what Marietta's current code requires, which is to say: almost nothing specific to this use.

The City's own Staff Analysis acknowledges this directly, noting that "since Marietta's zoning code does not include specific requirements for data center equipment, noise levels, or screening standards, more detailed information on these items would need to be provided to evaluate the potential impacts on surrounding properties." The staff is telling the Council, in plain language, that they cannot fully evaluate this application because the code does not require the information needed to do so. And yet the application advanced through Planning Commission on a 4-3 vote.

This is precisely the dynamic that experienced developers exploit. Cities without standards are not protected by good intentions — they are protected only by what they require in writing. A developer who files a Constitutional Challenge on day one, redacts their identity from public documents, submits "Not Provided" where engineering data should be, and describes a cooling system in marketing language rather than specifications is not a partner working in good faith with the community. They are a party that has correctly identified a city with no enforceable standards and filed an application calibrated precisely to that absence.

The Grind project followed a similar pattern — a newly incorporated company with fewer than ten employees, a CEO who could not secure bank financing, documentation that experts described as contradictory and incomplete, and a negotiation process conducted under conditions that prevented the community from understanding what was agreed to on their behalf. Grind is gone. But the conditions that made Marietta attractive to Grind have not changed. And the filing of Z2026-12 — a second data center application, with a redacted applicant, missing environmental data, no financial qualification, and a preemptive legal threat — suggests that word has gotten around.

Marietta is a target. Not because it is a bad city — it is not. It is a target because it is a good city that has not yet built the regulatory infrastructure to protect itself from developers whose business model depends on finding municipalities that will approve applications other jurisdictions would not accept. The solution is not to reflexively deny every application. The solution is to build the standards that ensure only serious, qualified, financially sound, and genuinely community-beneficial proposals can clear the bar.

Until those standards exist, the bar is not protecting anyone.

A FINAL NOTE ON INTENT

I want to be unambiguous on one point: I am not against data centers. Data centers are a legitimate and, when done correctly, genuinely beneficial form of development. They can create jobs, generate tax revenue, strengthen digital infrastructure, and — with the right technology and the right developer — be good neighbors to the communities that host them. There are data centers operating across this country that represent exactly that kind of win-win outcome, and Marietta should absolutely be open to being one of those communities.

What I am against is a process that leaves residents holding the bag when it goes wrong. And it does go wrong. Developers acquire approvals, sell the project to a third party, and walk away — leaving the community with a facility it did not fully understand, operated by an entity it never vetted, with infrastructure cost obligations that were promised but never enforced. The original developer is gone. The NDA is still in place. The rate increases arrive anyway. And the residents who were told not to worry are left with no recourse because nothing was ever put in writing in a form that survived the sale.

This is not a hypothetical. It is a documented pattern in municipalities across the country that approved data center projects without adequate standards, financial guardrails, or identity disclosure requirements. Marietta does not have to repeat those mistakes. The questions I am asking — who is the applicant, how will grid costs be covered, what are the environmental impacts, what happens if the project changes hands — are not obstructionist. They are the minimum due diligence that any responsible governing body owes its residents before approving a development of this scale and complexity. Answering them does not kill good projects. It kills bad ones. And that is exactly what they are designed to do.

I AM FORMALLY REQUESTING THE FOLLOWING BEFORE ANY VOTE IS TAKEN ON JULY 8TH:

  1. That the Council table Z2026-12 pending the adoption of a data center-specific ordinance that addresses noise standards, environmental impact requirements, water and power usage documentation, and infrastructure cost responsibility.
  2. That any future data center application require completed environmental and economic impact studies as a condition of consideration — not as an afterthought.
  3. That the Council commit publicly to a timeline for developing a data center ordinance, consistent with the approach taken by Cobb County, Atlanta, Athens-Clarke, and Clayton County.
  4. That residents be notified proactively — not through a non-searchable PDF attachment on an agenda page — of pending applications of this scale and nature, with sufficient lead time to participate meaningfully in the process.
  5. That the City adopt a formal policy requiring full applicant and end-user disclosure on all rezoning applications, and declining to engage with any developer or operator requiring a non-disclosure agreement that withholds material information from the public.

The 4-3 vote at the Planning Commission level, against a staff recommendation of denial, with an applicant whose identity is redacted, with missing environmental data, with no financial qualification, and with no governing ordinance, is not a foundation on which the City Council should move quickly. It is a reason to slow down, demand complete information, and hold a fully transparent public process before casting a vote that cannot be easily undone.

I will be present at the July 8th hearing and will be prepared to speak. I respectfully request that each of the above points be addressed publicly and on the record before any vote is taken.

Respectfully,

LilMissGrits

Marietta Resident Ward 3A & Business Owner Ward 4B

reddit.com
u/Lilmissgrits — 4 days ago
▲ 4 r/Marietta+1 crossposts

Need Pawn Shop Recommendations for Electronics

Hello, I'm in a tight position financially. I'm trying to sell some electronics to get enough money to make it to my next check.

I'm planning to sell a tablet (Surface Pro 7), an old laptop, and a Samsung Galaxy watch 6. I'm a terrible haggler, I just want to get a fair value for the items. Where should I go to sell off these items for the best return?

reddit.com
u/NeoDonn — 4 days ago

police chase?

lot of sirens going up and down s cobb near austell rd and sandtown. there’s always sirens down here but this is a lot and constant. i’m also hearing a supped up car driving along with them. is there a chase going on right now?

reddit.com
u/iamagirlmoregirl — 3 days ago
▲ 2 r/Marietta+1 crossposts

Good healthcare for uninsured

Searching for good health care centers in Cobb County that accept uninsured patients at a reasonable cost.

reddit.com
u/chgo_slim — 5 days ago

Good places to get piercings

Hi! I'm in the general Marietta area and I was wondering if people had any recommendations on great shops and studios to get ear and body piercings done?

reddit.com
u/Smoothlemming — 5 days ago

7/8/26- Data Center Rezoning 1155 Powers Ferry Place

Hi Marietta Reddit,

For those who have been following along, I just sent the below to the Marietta City Council regarding the rezoning for a data center on Powers Ferry Place. For transparency (and yes, even feedback), please read the below. Here is the rezoning application. I encourage you to chime in as well- you can find individual email addresses here. If you are for or opposed to a data center, I truly believe we can agree that transparency is important from our City Council. I hope to see more of you on 7/8!

Dear Mayor and City Council,

First and foremost, thank you to those of you who have responded to my initial correspondence. It is noted and appreciated.

I am writing today to bring to your attention a rezoning application — Case Z2026-12, filed May 19, 2026, for 1155 Powers Ferry Place — which I discovered independently by clicking through each and every rezoning application PDF listed on the agenda web page as it does not come up on mariettaga.gov simply by searching "data center." I did not receive notification of this application, and to my knowledge, no proactive community outreach has been made to inform residents. The Planning Commission hearing is scheduled for July 1, 2026, and the City Council hearing for July 8, 2026. Given the limited time remaining and the significance of this proposal, I believe the community deserves an immediate and transparent accounting of what is being considered.

I want to be direct: discovering a second data center rezoning application through my own initiative — in the middle of an active community conversation about the Grind project and municipal transparency — is deeply concerning. The absence of proactive notification is not a technicality. It is a pattern, and it is exactly the pattern residents flagged at the June 10th meeting.

I have read the full application and the City's own Staff Analysis carefully. Several findings in these documents warrant public attention:

  1. THE CITY'S OWN STAFF RECOMMENDS DENIAL. The Staff Analysis concludes that this rezoning request "does not align with the City's Comprehensive Plan," noting that data centers operate more like industrial facilities than the commercial and office uses envisioned for the Regional Activity Center (RAC) designation at this parcel. The Council should be prepared to explain publicly if it chooses to override its own staff's recommendation.
  2. CRITICAL DATA IS MISSING FROM THE APPLICATION. The Data Appendix lists "Not Provided" for both approximate water usage and estimated waste generated by the proposed development. A floodplain exists on 2.5% of the property, draining to Rottenwood Creek, and the application acknowledges the potential presence of wetlands as "Unknown." The closed-loop cooling system is mentioned but no technical specifications are provided. These are not minor omissions — they are precisely the kind of information that environmental and economic impact studies are designed to surface. The application, as submitted, does not provide the Council or the community with sufficient information to evaluate the project's impact.
  3. THE APPLICANT HAS FILED A CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGE. Included in the application materials is a preemptive Constitutional Challenge filed by attorney Parks Huff of Sams, Larkin & Huff, LLP, asserting that denial of the rezoning would constitute an unconstitutional taking of property. This is a legal tactic worth acknowledging publicly. Residents deserve to understand that this pressure exists and that it should not substitute for a thorough, merit-based evaluation in the public interest.
  4. MARIETTA POWER'S RESPONSE IS SUBSTANTIVELY EMPTY. The Data Appendix section for Marietta Power — Electrical provides only a contact name and phone number, with no detail on what special conditions would be involved in serving an 18-megawatt data center. This is inadequate. Given the ongoing, unresolved community questions about how infrastructure costs from MEAG to MPW would be allocated — and who ultimately bears them — this silence is not acceptable.
  5. THE CITY'S OWN STAFF IDENTIFIES THE NEED FOR A DATA CENTER ORDINANCE. The Staff Analysis explicitly states that Marietta's zoning ordinance does not define data centers as a separate use, distinguish between large-scale and small-scale facilities, or include standards specific to their equipment or operations, and recommends the City evaluate this "as part of future zoning code updates." Furthermore, the Staff Analysis notes that Cobb County, the City of Atlanta, Athens-Clarke County, and Clayton County have each adopted moratoriums or new zoning standards to address data center impacts. Marietta's own neighbors have recognized this gap. I would ask the Council directly: why has Marietta not followed suit, and what is the timeline for doing so?
  6. THE IDENTITY OF THE APPLICANT HAS BEEN REDACTED FROM PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. The landowner, applicant, and end-user identity are blacked out throughout the publicly available application materials. Residents are being asked to evaluate a major development proposal without knowing who is behind it. This is not a minor procedural matter — it is a fundamental transparency failure. The City should not accept, process, or approve rezoning applications for developments of this scale when the applicant's identity is withheld from the public record. Similarly, the City should adopt a clear policy against engaging with any developer or end-user that requires a non-disclosure agreement that prevents the community from understanding who is proposing to operate in their neighborhood and under what terms.

With the Grind project now withdrawn, this is an opportunity to establish clear, enforceable standards before approving any new data center application — standards that address noise, environmental impact, water usage, infrastructure cost allocation, and grid capacity. Approving Z2026-12 without those standards in place would repeat the structural deficiencies of the Grind process.

I am formally requesting the following:

  1. That the Council table Z2026-12 pending the adoption of a data center-specific ordinance that addresses noise standards, environmental impact requirements, water and power usage documentation, and infrastructure cost responsibility.
  2. That any future data center application require completed environmental and economic impact studies as a condition of consideration — not as an afterthought.
  3. That the Council commit publicly to a timeline for developing a data center ordinance, consistent with the approach taken by Cobb County, Atlanta, Athens-Clarke, and Clayton County.
  4. That residents be notified proactively — not through a non-searchable PDF attachment on an agenda page — of pending applications of this scale and nature, with sufficient lead time to participate meaningfully in the process.
  5. That the City adopt a formal policy requiring full applicant and end-user disclosure on all rezoning applications, and declining to engage with any developer or operator requiring a non-disclosure agreement that withholds material information from the public.

I remain neither categorically for nor against data center development in Marietta. What I am firmly against is a process that asks residents to accept decisions made without adequate information, without adequate notice, and without adequate standards. The Council has an opportunity to demonstrate that it learned from the Grind situation. I sincerely hope it takes it.

I was unable to attend the Planning Commission hearing on July 1st; however, I plan to attend the City Council hearing on July 8th and would welcome the opportunity to speak.

Respectfully,

LilMissGrit

Marietta Resident Ward 3A & Business Owner Ward 4B

reddit.com
u/Lilmissgrits — 6 days ago

World cup watch parties in Marietta?

Hi, I am visiting here while the world cup is going on. Where are some places where people gather to watch the games? Primarily Mexico.

Thanks in advance.

reddit.com
u/Classic-Substance259 — 5 days ago

Some good alt barbers/stylest in marietta

Hello ive veen growing out my hair for some years after my last haircut went horrible so im trying to look for someone new to go too. Im wanting to get a mod cut but Im scared a regular barber would mess it up and that a stylest would cost to much. My question is does anyone have recommendations for getting a alternative haircut in marietta thats not to expensive and that youve had experience with and loved?

(Sorry if im rambling this is my first post and I just dont want my hair to look bad for going back to college 😅)

reddit.com
u/Head_Perception_6891 — 6 days ago

Marietta council would benefit from understanding data center planning and moratoriums

This bill was introduced at the house level https://ocasio-cortez.house.gov/media/press-releases/ocasio-cortez-introduces-house-version-ai-data-center-moratorium-act I would love if folks going to chat with our city council at the meeting this week would read up, pass along to their council members, remind them how new all this technology is, how impactful it can be, etc etc.

We can do this Marietta, if we're gonna build data centers eventually lets do it right, lets plan it out extensively, lets minimize the negative impacts as much as possible as smartly as possible!

u/AlltheBent — 7 days ago

Huge Jump in Power Bill???

I use GA Power. Last month was $120.. this month is $250!! There has been no change in usage for me. We are in a condo off Powers Ferry. Anyone else see a massive jump?

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u/KoalityCaleb — 8 days ago

What’s the best way to experience Marietta Square fireworks on July 4th? (2026 edition)

I searched and saw old comments over the years, but looking for any new recommendations based on how crowds and anything else has evolved. What are your recommendations?

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u/urbanstrata — 6 days ago