Before Starbucks pours into historic downtown Marietta, neighbors insisted on a make-over. After two years of negotiations, a site plan was finally approved. Now a cluster of independent coffee houses said ‘May the best brew win.’

The brewing discussion at Cool Beans hasn’t been regular vs. decaf — it has been about a nearby piece of land.

After two years of neighborhood negotiations, two rejected plans, the Marietta City Council just voted to allow a Starbucks coffee house on the edge of the historic Marietta district.

McWhirter Realty, who owns the land, said this is the compromise pushed by neighbors. The location is set to open at the end of the month.

It means the coffee competition just went up a notch. Already, Cool Beans, across the square, another coffee café, a third down the street, a fourth near the new Starbucks.

Small coffee brewers said they cannot compete on a corporate level with shops like Starbucks, but insist that can, and will, compete on a cup by cup basis.

Those smaller coffee houses are quickly becoming outnumbered. Starbucks has opened 560 new stores since the beginning of 2007.

For decades, Life University has been known as a school that trains chiropractors. Now it wants to look more like a typical college.

Just a few years after regaining accreditation that it had lost amid academic and financial concerns, enrollment is coming back. And the school’s president has big plans for the future.

Life University President Guy Riekeman talks to student Chris Parker in an orthopedic and neurodiagnosis lab.

“You get the feeling that this is a university on the move … that there’s innovation,” said Cathy Trower, a researcher at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education who joined Life’s board of directors in 2005.

Located on 100 verdant acres near the hustle and bustle of Cobb Parkway in Marietta, Life University could soon grow to include a business incubator, international center and underground performing arts center. Administrators also hope to raise money for new student housing, an eight-wing think tank and a 12-mile bike trail.