MARIETTA — After a two-hour debate, the City Council voted to delay a vote on Bridger Properties’ proposed downtown apartment building to January.
The Atlanta-based developer is seeking to build a 122-unit building, five stories at its tallest point, on a 1.25-acre lot downtown off Polk Street.
Two designs for the building were rejected by the city’s Historic Board of Review, first in May and then again last week.
The council was scheduled to vote on the building at its Wednesday meeting. Following a presentation from Bridger, public comment and debate among council members, Councilwoman Cheryl Richardson moved to table the issue for another two months.
Richardson called for the city and developer to “work on compromise and getting to ‘yes.’”
“It is zoned properly to allow an apartment (building), so let’s figure out together what that apartment externally will look like,” Richardson said.
The developer told the council they were open to tabling, and to further discussion and design revisions.
“We’ve been a little frustrated in that we feel like we’re chasing a moving target,” Bridger’s Merritt Lancaster told the council. “To the extent there’s a motion whereby we can find a way to achieve a common goal and get this done, we are open to that.”
Richardson’s motion passed 6-1, with Councilman M. Carlyle Kent opposed. But Mayor Steve “Thunder” Tumlin, who wanted to resolve the issue Wednesday night, vetoed it.
Richardson then moved to override Tumlin’s veto. The override passed 5-2, with council members Andy Morris and Johnny Walker opposed.
The proposal
Bridger first submitted plans for a 135-unit, 84-foot-tall apartment building in March. The property, a surface parking lot, is west of the railroad tracks, south of Polk Street and north of the Marietta Square Market food hall.
The lot is already zoned…
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