One word came up repeatedly during a controversial vote to rename a Sandy Springs street to match the corporate headquarters being built there: “compromise.”
Despite broad opposition, the City Council voted Tuesday to rename a chunk of Barfield Road, where Mercedes-Benz's future U.S. headquarters campus will be located, to Mercedes-Benz Drive.
The approval was lauded by supporters and council members as a compromise because it will apply to a smaller portion of the road than was originally requested.
The German auto giant wanted the entire stretch between Mount Vernon and Abernathy roads to adopt the new name, but Councilman Gabriel Sterling proposed the change only apply to about 300 feet directly in front of the headquarters.
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Some residents, Barfield descendants and the Atlanta temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint, which is located on the road, opposed the initial request to rename the entire block.
The temple, which broke ground in 1981, sent Mercedes a letter in January 2016 arguing that there was "no legitimate business purpose" for the renaming, and that "commercialization and branding" was being forced upon the Atlanta temple. Church leaders also noted that other corporate headquarters, including Home Depot on Paces Ferry Road and Cox Enterprises — which owns the AJC — on Peachtree Dunwoody Road, had not renamed public streets.
Descendants of the road’s namesake, William Monroe Barfield, a farmer who lived on the land, also challenged the name change.
“If it were Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, or road, would it be able to be changed?,” his great-great-granddaughter, Natalie Barfield, asked council members at the packed meeting.
Now under the compromise plan, the newly-approved road name will not require an address change for any residence or business on Barfield.
Barfield, a realtor from Gainesville, later said she was "disappointed, but not devastated" with the outcome.
Mercedes-Benz is “very pleased” the decision, a spokeswoman said.
Tom Mahaffey, Sandy Springs Perimeter Chamber president and CEO, said the renaming would provide a “global identity.”
“Can you imagine Mercedes employees traveling around the world, and when asked, ‘Where do you live, or where do you work,’ (they say) Mercedes Drive, Sandy Springs, Georgia?” he said.
Before the vote was cast, Councilman Tibby DeJulio used that comment to bring up “a very sensitive point” for him.
“Is Mercedes-Benz going to be located in Sandy Springs, Georgia?” DeJulio asked a Mercedes-Benz representative. “Or is Mercedes-Benz going to be located in Atlanta, Georgia?”
People in the room laughed and applauded.
The representative said his intention is to tell people he works in Sandy Springs.
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