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Commission approves St. Thomas Aquinas columbarium with conditions; neighbors urged limits on lighting and sound
Summary
The commission approved a conditional use to allow a 2,300 sq ft columbarium at St. Thomas Aquinas, limiting the use to the submitted site plan and requiring evergreen buffers; neighbors raised concerns about lighting, sound and permanent footprint limits. The item will go before City Council July 20.
The Alpharetta Planning Commission on July 9 approved a conditional-use request (CU-26-07) from St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church to construct a 2,300-square-foot columbarium on the church campus at 535 Rucker Road. The approval is tied to the submitted site plan and comes with three conditions including limiting the use to a columbarium of the approved size/location/design and installing evergreens where gaps exist along the western property line.
Staff explained that a columbarium is classified in the city’s Unified Development Code as a type of cemetery (niches for cremated remains) and said the structure would be an accessory use to the church. "The columbarium is proposed just on the west side of the building... the proposed columbarium is classified in the city's code as a cemetery," staff said, adding that access would be limited to daylight hours and that the site plan shows no specimen trees would be impacted.
Architect Mike Boland, representing Smith Boland Architects and the Archdiocese of Atlanta, said the feature would be sited to minimize visual impact and match existing materials. On wall height he said the design calls for roughly "8 feet tall" walls but that because of grade the wall would appear roughly "4 and a half to 5 feet tall" from the roadway.
Nearby resident Sarah Bullard, who lives adjacent to the site, urged stronger lighting and noise controls: she asked that lighting be limited to dusk-to-dawn-sensitive, low-voltage ground-level pathway lights, that overhead flood lighting be prohibited and that there be no outdoor amplified sound. "We were really wanting to make sure that any necessary lighting be limited to a dawn to dusk... and then restrict access after those hours," Bullard said. The architect and staff responded that there will be no overhead flood lighting, only minimal pathway or accent lighting, and that the site plan and a condition tying the footprint to the submitted plan will prevent expansion without returning for review.
Commissioners discussed whether to add a specific lighting condition; staff noted the city’s night-sky ordinance applies and said the board could add a more specific condition if desired. A motion to approve the conditional-use request was made, seconded and carried; the item will be forwarded to City Council on July 20.
