MARIETTA - Councilman Van Pearlberg will conduct a town hall meeting tonight regarding a proposal to close Brumby Street to vehicular traffic and allow it to be used as part of a walking and bike trail planned from Kennesaw Mountain to the Chattahoochee River.

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

Pearlberg, whose Ward 4 encompasses the area, is opposed to the closure.

If the street were closed to cars, residents in the 167 unit Brumby Lofts would have to exit on Campbell Hill Street and turn right on Sessions Street to access Church Street, further clogging up the roadways, Pearlberg said.

"So it will impact Sessions tremendously," he said.

Pearlberg said the residents he's spoken with who live on Church and Sessions streets oppose closing Brumby Street.

The city has two options. The paved trail could travel along Campbell Hill Street to Brumby Street, 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 risking 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.

The walking and bike trail will ultimately span from Kennesaw Mountain to the Chattahoochee River, with the roughly 3-mile section in Marietta's city limits expected to cost $3.7 million. The city is paying 20 percent of that cost with SPLOST funds, and the federal government is funding the rest, Public Works Director Dan Conn said.

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 open sometime in 2014.

An existing trail begins at the Kennesaw Mountain Visitors Center and ends at Tower Road and Roselane Street.

The plan is to continue the trail along Roselane, turning left on Sessions and right at Campbell Hill Street. Once the route is determined as the trail passes through the Brumby Street area, it will connect with North Marietta Parkway. The trail will continue over the Loop via the pedestrian bridge. Pending CSX approval, it will then run along the railroad right-of-way to South Marietta Parkway, where it will cross at a yet-to-be built pedestrian bridge into Brown Park. Cost of the pedestrian bridge is included in the $3.7 million, Conn said. From Brown Park the trail will head down West Atlanta Street, crossing the bridge at South Cobb Drive and heading toward the Chattahoochee River.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the council chamber of City Hall.