The Cobb Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to hold a request by Mt. Bethel Christian Academy to change its site plan for athletic facilities at its North campus.
The private school’s application for revisions to a special land-use permit will wait to be heard in February, when zoning cases resume in Cobb County.
Northeast Cobb commissioner JoAnn Birrell said in making the motion for the delay that the site plan changes weren’t complete, and what had been formally submitted was received only last week.
In addition, nearby residents and the East Cobb Civic Association objected to what was proposed.
“In light of all that, I would rather that we hold this,” said Birrell, and the vote was a unanimous 5-0.
Birrell had previously met with county zoning staff and Mt. Bethel Christian leaders about the changes before the school hired noted Cobb zoning attorney Kevin Moore.
“We asked that they provide a complete site plan,” Birrell said. “I didn’t receive anything until Dec. 15, after 5 p.m.”
Mt. Bethel Christian Academy has operated a high school campus on 33 acres on Post Oak Tritt Road since 2014; the site plan approved with a special land-use permit (SLUP) permitted athletic facilities on the northern side of the property, but any changes must come back before commissioners.
Mt. Bethel Christian had proposed building a sports stadium on the North campus in 2019 but withdrew the application after community opposition surfaced.
Moore reminded commissioners during Tuesday’s hearing of the approved uses in that SLUP, and reiterated that it also included no field lighting.
The proposed changes would remove a track previously approved around the field, relocate a field house and add 39 parking spaces for a total of 121.
Richard Grome, president of the East Cobb Civic Association, said the Mt. Bethel site plan presented by Moore “is not showing the complete picture.”
He noted that the ECCA met with Moore on Dec. 2, received the new site plan on Dec. 9, and then a new stipulation letter on Dec. 15.
In addition to concerns over the impact of two retaining walls close to homeowners adjacent to the field, the proposals don’t include elevations for the athletic facility.
“They need to know what this raised concrete stadium will look like from their yards,” he said.
Some of those property owners, who live on Alberta Drive in the Holly Springs subdivision, had planned to be in attendance at the zoning hearing, but were not due to COVID-19 concerns.
One of them, Leonard Jacobs, told East Cobb News prior to the hearing that the athletic field “will be part of my back yard. I can watch them from my dining room table.”
He said the process has been rushed, and residents had only six days between meeting with Moore and the hearing date.
He said that he wanted to “correct the impression” that the school “is trying to mitigate the nuisance they have created on a property too small and poorly located for the stated purpose.”
Related posts:
- Mt. Bethel Christian Academy seeks changes for athletic facilities
- Cobb commissioners approve East Cobb Church rezoning
- Cobb commissioners approve Sprayberry Crossing rezoning
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