MARIETTA - The message from the crowd of about 35 residents who turned out for a town hall meeting at City Hall on Thursday was they oppose the closure of Brumby Street for the purpose of using it as a walking/biking trail.

Cobb County and the cities of Marietta and Smyrna are at work on a multi-use trail spanning about 13 miles from Kennesaw Mountain to the Chattahoochee River at a cost of roughly $1 million a mile. Most of the trail is scheduled for completion in the next three to five years, county engineer David Jackson said.

Councilman Van Pearlberg called a town hall meeting on Thursday to ask residents their thoughts about running part of the trail down Brumby Street, which would result in closing that street to vehicular traffic.

Brumby Street is about 780 feet long, with Campbell Hill Street at one end and Church Street at the other.

The city has two options. The paved trail could travel along Campbell Hill Street to Brumby, then run next to the Brumby Lofts parking lot, behind two historic homes that front Church Street, thus leaving Brumby Street open to cars. But that option would impact historic trees, defined as trees more than 50 years old. The federal government, which is funding most of the project, wants to avoid cutting them down or risk having their root systems damaged, Pearlberg said.

The other option would close Brumby Street to cars and have the trail flow down the road into a cul-de-sac before turning to run alongside Church Street

Janice Hoover, a technical writer who lives on Roselane Street and opposes closing Brumby Street, said the problem is that as nearby WellStar Kennestone Hospital continues to add more employees, patients and visitors, the city is closing the entrances and exits to the neighborhood. The city has already closed the Roselane Street railroad crossover and Campbell Hill Street. And now it's considering closing Brumby Street.

"Closing one more street dumps more traffic onto Sessions and Church," she said.

Hoover asked if the trail was really necessary.

"It's run into problems all along the way," Hoover said. "It just seems like we're trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. I know the funds are there and the idea has a lot of appeal, but it's running into roadblocks every single time. I think it's a boondoggle, I really do."

Lee Carlisle, who runs a folk art gallery on Campbell Hill and Sessions streets, said the trail would take a 12-foot swath of his property, something he's opposed to.

"Here we have a 50-year tree that has property rights and I don't," he said. "You're going to take my property for this trail, you're going to take my neighbor's property for this trail, but that tree has a say so. I want to know how come vegetation has more rights than my family does when it comes to property rights."

Patti Pearlberg, wife of Van Pearlberg, asked if federal funding was dictating where the trail goes. Public Works Director Dan Conn said in some instances it was.

"If that's the case tell me why are we letting federal dollars dictate what is best for our community?" she asked.

Some sections of the trail have already been completed, such as the 1.5-mile section from Kennesaw Mountain Visitor's Center to Tower Road and the 0.4-mile section on Tower Road from Kennesaw Avenue to Roselane Street, Conn said.

Other sections that have been built include: Atlanta Road and West Atlanta Street just north of Austell Road to Atlanta and Windy Hill roads; Spring Road and Village Parkway to Spring and Campbell roads; and the pedestrian bridge over I-285 past the CCT Cumberland Transfer Center to the intersection of Cumberland Boulevard and Cobb Parkway, Jackson said.

In the Marietta city limits, the three-mile, $3.7 million section from Tower Road at Roselane Street to West Atlanta Road at South Cobb Drive has yet to be built. The city is paying 20 percent of that cost with SPLOST funds, and the federal government is funding the rest.

The city's portion of the trail, which will be 10 feet wide in most sections and paved in either asphalt or concrete, is expected to be finished sometime in 2014, Conn said.

Jackson said funding for the segment along Cobb Parkway from Cumberland Boulevard to the Chattahoochee National Park may not be secured until after 2014.

Pearlberg said he would alert the council at its Monday work session as to the neighborhood's wishes.