MARIETTA - City residents will likely have to maintain their grass and weeds at a height of no more than 12 inches, rather than the current requirement of two feet. The City Council's Judicial/Legislative Committee voted to approve the change Wednesday, and also decided there should be more study done on a proposed odor ordinance for Marietta.

Councilman Anthony Coleman asked committee members Philip Goldstein, Van Pearlberg and Jim King to lower the grass and weed height to 12 inches.

"People will really take advantage of city government when they know that they can let their grass grow up to 24 inches in the city of Marietta," Coleman said. "This allows us to vigorously enforce our code like we should be enforcing it."

The city allows weeds and grass to grow to 24 inches in height before code enforcement issues a warning. The limit is 12 inches in Kennesaw and Cobb County, 8 inches in the cities of Powder Springs and Austell, and 10 inches in the city of Roswell.

The full Marietta City Council will take a final vote on the subject at its Sept. 15 council meeting.

The committee also debated the need to regulate foul smelling odors in the city, ultimately directing staff to bring back more information on that subject at its Sept. 29 committee meeting.

The subject of odor regulation was placed on Wednesday's committee agenda by Pearlberg, who received a complaint about a foul stench wafting from Republic Services Inc.'s waste transfer station on Marble Mill Road.

The complaint, he said, came from Terri Fabrizio, a constituent living on Park Manor Terrace off Kennesaw Avenue, who has previously complained to the council about the level of noise from some of the businesses on Marble Mill Road.

"It's basically a quality of life issue," Pearlberg said.

Coleman, who supports efforts to curtail unpleasant odors, said he's been receiving complaints about the smell of the waste transfer station from residents in the Kennesaw Battle subdivision for years.

Staff suggested one way to regulate odor was to purchase a portable device that measures smell known as the Nasal Ranger, a ma-chine that can be bought for $1,475 or rented at $590 a month.

But King said after doing his own research on the subject, he had concerns that a citation from that kind of device would be defensible in court.

Instead, King advised hiring for a brief time a specialist who was trained in the subject, a certified industrial hygienist. King also advised staff to speak with Republic Services Inc's staff, asking them if there was anything they could do to cut down on the stench.

In other business, Mayor Steve Tumlin asked the council to consider voting at its Sept. 15 meeting on a resolution, asking the Cobb Board of Commissioners to place another county-wide, five-year SPLOST for transportation and infrastructure improvements on the March 15, 2011, ballot.

State law gives the county two dates in which to hold a SPLOST election, March and November. Because revenues from SPLOSTs are collected six months after the vote, a March vote would ensure there is a continuous stream of revenue once the current five-year SPLOST ends and the 2011 SPLOST kicks in. A November vote would result in six months with no SPLOST funding.

The council's Public Works Committee, composed of King, Annette Lewis and Grif Chalfant, voted 3-0 to add Tumlin's resolution request to the Sept. 15 meeting agenda.