Cooper City planning board approves expansion of Potential Christian Academy amid traffic and drainage conditions

The Cooper City Planning & Zoning Board on Nov. 3 approved a conditional use, site-plan amendment and plat amendment allowing Potential Christian Academy to expand its campus at 12401 Sterling Road to add ninth through twelfth grades and new classroom space.

The petitions — a conditional use, a site-plan amendment and a plat-note amendment — were approved following staff presentations, a petitioner presentation and a public hearing in which a neighbor raised stormwater and berm erosion concerns. The board recorded at least one dissent citing traffic concerns but carried the motion to approve and then approved the site plan and plat amendment.

Planning staff told the board the property is about 11.23 acres and described the requests as an increase in total student enrollment (noted in the staff presentation as from 412 to 745), addition of grades 9–12 phased in beginning with ninth grade, an increase in the total number of classrooms from 26 to 37 (three new modular buildings providing six new classrooms and five classrooms repurposed within the existing building), and related site circulation and security changes. Staff reported the DRC committee found the site and landscape plans conform to applicable zoning district regulations and recommended approval, with a staff-requested condition that fence/gate approval from the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) be obtained prior to permit issuance rather than being deferred until a certificate of occupancy.

Why it matters: the expansion will add secondary grades and substantially increase enrollment over time, which the board and consultants said requires…