When Mt. Bethel Christian Academy got approval from Cobb commissioners to open a high school campus on Post Oak Tritt Road in 2013, one of the restrictions pertained to the development of an athletic stadium on the back of the 33-acre property.
The special land use permit granted to the school prohibited any field from having lights and permanent seating. Four years after the school opened, Mt. Bethel wants to remove that stipulation in a site plan amendment that’s on the Cobb Board of Commissioners zoning hearing agenda Tuesday.
UPDATED: We understand this case is being delayed until February and are seeking confirmation.
The Mt. Bethel application seeks permission to amend the site plan “to develop a multipurpose field with lighting and permanent seating for a competitive high school.”
The proposal also calls for a reconfiguration of other buildings on the campus to “create a more efficient layout,” with most of the buildings clustered in the interior of the property. The proposed revision also calls for 32 additional parking spaces on campus.
Mt. Bethel isn’t asking to increase an anticipated maximum enrollment of around 450 students (currently 150 students attend grades 9-12). The school currently has a footprint of 230,700 square feet of classroom, activities, recreational and other space.
The proposed site plan revision is shown at the top, and the full agenda item can be found by clicking here. The file also contains details of the 2013 special land use permit process and correspondence.
Nearby residents have been urging their neighbors to write to commissioners in opposition to the stadium. Here’s a letter a resident of the Holly Spring subdivision sent to us:
Mt. Bethel purchased the land, located near the northwest corner of Post Oak Tritt and Holly Springs Road from the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta, which operated a preschool and camps on the site of the former Shirley Blumenthal Park.
In a letter to Cobb Zoning staff from Mt. Bethel’s attorneys dated Nov. 12, the school explained its plans to develop a field that would be used for soccer, lacrosse, track and other high sports competitions. The revised site plan request also includes room for a 9,400-square foot fieldhouse.
Currently Mt. Bethel has high school boys and girls soccer, high school coed track and field and boys and girls lacrosse at the middle school level.
Some Mt. Bethel teams complete at the academy’s 44-acre lower school campus on Lower Roswell Road.
In the letter to Cobb zoning staff, Mt. Bethel attorneys Jim Ney and Ryan Pulley said that their client “does not foresee any harm to come to the neighboring properties and will take great efforts to ensure that the multipurpose field will be a reasonable and a non-injurious addition.”
Mt. Bethel says in the letter it will present details of a light study it is conducting at Tuesday’s meeting, and will maintain all current setbacks and an 85-foot buffer from surrounding properties.
We’ve left word with Mt. Bethel attorneys for more details and will update when we hear back.
Mt. Bethel got approval last year to amend the high school site plan to permit a temporarily modular classroom.
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
