Politics & Government
Mt. Bethel Plans Get Community Look
The church wants to build a high school on the Shirley Blumenthal Park land on Post Oak Tritt Road.
The development of a parochial high school near a busy East Cobb intersection would yield less traffic than a former preschool on the same site.
And the traffic counts would be less than if a residential neighborhood were built there.
That's what East Cobb residents were told Tuesday night at a packed town hall at the Mountain View Community Center.
The main topic of Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell's meeting was a presentation by Mt. Bethel Christian Academy to purchase the Shirley Blumental Park land on Post Oak Tritt at Holly Springs Road and gradually convert it into a high school.
In order to do that, the school, operated by Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church, needs to be granted a special land use permit.
That request, which goes before the Cobb Planning Commission and the Cobb Board of Commissioners in November, has raised traffic concerns from nearby residents.
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"Do not think Sprayberry or Lassiter," said Ellen Smith, an attorney for Mt. Bethel.
Mt. Bethel is under contract with the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta to purchase the 33.4 acre tract, which school officials have called ideal for their long-desired plans for a high school.
Currently zoned residential, the Blumenthal Park property contains a main building that would be initially expanded to 4,000 square feet, along with a gymnasium to be expanded by 2,000 feel, as well as athletic fields.
Mt. Bethel would phase in the development of the school, adding around 40 students per grade level over four years during the first phase.
A second phase would include anther classroom building, with a maximum enrollment of 625.
"We're small by design," said Jim Callis, the head of school at the Christian Academy, which currently has 513 students from kindergarten through the eighth grade at the church complex on Lower Roswell Road.
But there's no room there to expand to a high school, he said, and the school's search for additional property included the adjacent Mt. Bethel post office.
An August traffic study commissioned by Mt. Bethel (see the attached PDF) indicated that the traffic increase with a high school wouldn't warrant a new signal.
Instead, Mt. Bethel would construct a turn lane, hire a traffic officer and provide carpooling space for 50 vehicles on school grounds.
Mt. Bethel also would provide shuttle bus service from the Post Oak Tritt campus to the existing school on Lower Roswell to further reduce traffic.
Some residents weren't convinced.
"Traffic right now is half a mile long," commented a resident of Stoney Brook Lane, south of Post Oak Tritt, referring to the difficulties getting out of his neighbood during peak hours. "Come on over to my house any morning and it's like a speedway."
Marcus JCC president Steve Cadranel, an East Cobb resident, told the audience that traffic issues were greater when a Jewish preschool was on the Blumenthal Park site.
During the school year, the preschool -- now located at East Cobb synagogue Temple Kol Emeth -- had around 225 students, a number that swelled to more than 400 for a summer day camp.
"If we could have afforded a bus, we could have cut down on traffic dramatically," Cadranel said.
Cobb Community Development director Rob Hosack said traffic would also be greater if the land were built out to its current R-20 limits, which would total around 60 homes.
Other residents were concerned about traffic from extracurricular activities, including sports. Smith said there are no plans to build a stadium for football on the proposed school site.
She said Mt. Bethel will expand a property buffer on the northern border of the land to 85 feet, and will file an amended site plan in time for next month's public action on the special land use permit request.
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