A proposal to expand Mt. Bethel Christian Academy to include all grade levels and greatly increase enrollment on its Post Oak Tritt Road campus got its first hearing Tuesday.
The Cobb Planning Commission voted 4-0 to recommend approval of the proposal, which will be considered by Cobb commissioners later this month.
Mt. Bethel Christian has operated a high school campus on Post Oak Tritt Road near Holly Springs Road since 2014 and is making plans to add middle school grades.
But the latest proposal before the county to alter an existing site plan and renew a special land-use permit would also would relocate the school’s K-5 classes there.
The school wants to purchase 9.7 acres of land at the northwest corner of Post Oak Tritt and Holly Springs Road, and add a right-in, right-out access point on Holly Springs.
The Cobb Zoning Division recommended approval of the application, which you can read by clicking here.
But local residents opposed to the request said existing traffic issues would grow worse. Mt. Bethel Christian said its long-term enrollment projections would have 1,100 students, which concerned nearby residents.
The school was started by Mt. Bethel Church in 1998 but became a separate entity in 2021, right before before the church’s departure from the United Methodist Church. Since then, the academy has leased space from the church for Grades K-8 on its grounds on Lower Roswell Road.
In 2023, Mt. Bethel Church decided to terminate the school’s lease by 2028, prompting the academy to find new facilities.
Late last year, Cobb commissioners approved a master plan for the school. But since then, Mt. Bethel Christian has revised the site plan contingent on the special land-use permit renewal and after planning to acquire the 9.7-acre tract from Dodgen Farms, LLC.
That land was sold by John Dodgen in June for $1.393 million, according to Cobb property tax records, and would bring the school’s property to 42 acres, including sports facilities and parking.
On Tuesday, nearby residents said they haven’t been informed of traffic impacts and said a vote should be delayed until a full traffic study can be studied by Cobb DOT.
“Without it, the county cannot properly assess” what those impacts may be, said Mabry Manor resident Neil Dougherty, especially as Cobb DOT is conducting engineering design for Post Oak Tritt-Holly Springs intersectdions improvements.
He said he was speaking on behalf of nearly 75 residents in his community, which is located across Holly Springs Road from the Dodgen property.
Another Mabry Manor resident, Heather Tolley-Bauer, said that “dropping a regional school in a neighborhood area” is “going to impact us for decades.”
Kevin Moore, Mt. Bethel Christian’s attorney, responded that “Pope High School was dropped into residential neighborhood with 1,800 students.
“Cobb County [schools] doesn’t have to go through this process. Only private schools have to do this.”
He said Mt. Bethel Christian’s enrollment projections of 1,100 total students is a long-range number, and it’s not arbitrary. The school currently has a total enrollment of around 700 students.
Moore added that the school “doesn’t have to go there,” meaning to get to 1,100 students, only that that figure would be an enrollment cap.
Richard Grome of the East Cobb Civic Association said a new master plan should be redone and approved again by the county, and said the enrollment projections are “premature” until more detailed traffic information can be evaluated.
But Moore said “the master plan stays as the master plan.”
In her motion recommend approval, Planning Commission member Deborah Dance of District 3 in East Cobb didn’t include a recommendation for a master plan update, saying that’s something that appointed body hasn’t delved into.
Cobb commissioners will hear the Mt. Bethel Christian application on Dec. 17.
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