Victory! MUST MINISTRIES WITHDRAWS APPEAL OF V-2017-22

MUST MINISTRIES WITHDRAWS APPEAL OF V-2017-22 Garvis Sams Esq. attorney for MUST Ministries, sent a letter to Rusty Roth, Director of Development Services for Marietta, yesterday afternoon 10/05, withdrawing the MUST Ministries Appeal of Variance 2017-22 to Marietta City Council. Previously the appeal was scheduled for Oct 11th and MUST submitted a request that it be tabled until Nov. 8th. The Community was opposed to further postponement of the appeal since the process had already spanned 5 months. The reason given for the request to table until November 8th was to modify the daily lunch program. The community realized this was not going to be a substantive solution to the problems caused by the unsheltered homeless, who are MUST's Outreach Clients. MUST apparently realized that approval of the appeal may have been in question and withdrew the case. MUST has several options but an appeal to Superior Court is not now one of them. MUST was awarded a $1,000,000.00 grant tied to 1260 Cobb Parkway by Community Development Block Grants last year, to be paid out over 4 years. That grant could perhaps be modified to another property or for construction if MUST chose to request it. MUST also has ample space at 55 Elizabeth Church to build a new shelter. If MUST decides to buy 1260 Cobb Parkway, the lack of a Variance to permit a Shelter within less than 750' of residentially zoned property will limit their ability to expand at that location. Whatever the outcome, the community may still have to contend with problems caused by the proximity of unsheltered homeless to neighborhoods. That was not going to change even if the Variance had been approved but it was likely to have intensified since MUST had planned to nearly double in capacity. We believe that the neighborhoods will now be more proactive and better able to work together with the city and county to address a range of issues. We hope that MUST can find a way to continue their dual mission as an Emergency Shelter and provider of Street Outreach to unsheltered homeless in a way that does not continue to create problems for the residential community.