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Planning panel recommends adding 9.75 acres, Holly Springs access to Mount Bethel campus while DOT reviews traffic revisions
Summary
Commissioners recommended approval to the Board of Commissioners for adding roughly 9.75 acres to Mount Bethel Christian Academy and for a new Holly Springs right‑in/right‑out access, subject to DOT traffic refinements, stormwater and master‑plan clarifications; commissioners did not finalize the proposed long‑term 1,100‑student cap at this meeting.
The Cobb County Planning Commission on Dec. 2 recommended that the Board of Commissioners approve adding about 9.75 acres to Mount Bethel Christian Academy’s existing campus, and authorized a school‑maintained access road to Holly Springs Road, subject to final DOT review of traffic modeling and standard plan‑review details.
Mount Bethel’s attorney explained the 9.75‑acre addition would consolidate the campus and allow a planned entrance off Holly Springs to disperse morning drop‑off traffic away from the congested Post Oak Tripp/Holly Springs intersection. The school currently enrolls about 705 students across its lower, middle and upper school programs; the applicant described 1,100 students as a long‑range maximum the campus infrastructure (as approved in a December 2024 master plan) could ultimately accommodate. Commissioners declined to make a primary recommendation on that long‑range enrollment cap at this hearing.
Cobb DOT staff said the school’s traffic consultant had submitted an updated traffic report that remains under review and requires model calibration and signal‑timing alignment; DOT asked the applicant to commit to right‑in/right‑out access geometry, a deceleration taper and a raised median extension to prevent unsafe left turns. Stormwater staff requested that detention/best‑management practice locations be refined so that the system meets current county standards and does not encroach on stream buffers.
Several neighborhood groups and more than 70 residents submitted written comments or spoke in opposition, citing current congestion at the Post Oak Tripp/Holly Springs intersection, concern that future traffic and student runs will use neighborhood streets, and requests for an updated consolidated master site plan that shows parking, drop‑off circulation and landscape buffers. The East Cobb Civic Association asked the school to submit an updated master site plan that explicitly shows the added acreage and the infrastructure required for any increase in student population.
Planning commissioners voted to recommend approval of the acreage addition and the Holly Springs access subject to the applicant’s stipulations (which incorporate prior SLUP conditions) and to Cobb DOT’s outstanding technical comments; the motion excluded a recommendation on a 1,100‑student enrollment cap and asked that DOT and the applicant finalize the updated traffic memo for public record before the Board of Commissioners review.
