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Committee tables zoning appeal for Assembly Academy at 2025 West Church Road after traffic, stormwater and neighbor concerns
Summary
Cheltenham's Building & Zoning Committee voted to table the Assembly Academy zoning appeal to next month after commissioners and neighbors pressed the applicant for more detailed traffic studies, stormwater plans and evidence of adequate community outreach.
Cheltenham's Building & Zoning Committee voted on Aug. 10 to table a zoning appeal for the Assembly Academy site at 2025 West Church Road after commissioners and residents raised concerns about parking, driveway widening and stormwater management.
"It's important that in that process, we protect the character of the neighborhoods," Commissioner Lewis said during questioning, urging a close look at the cumulative impact of the five variances the applicant requested. The committee agreed to delay a decision to allow the applicant to return with more complete traffic, stormwater and neighbor-notification information.
The applicant, represented by land-use attorney Matthew McHugh, summarized the proposal as a campus improvement package that includes a roughly 13,443-square-foot gym addition, replacement of athletic fields, a two-story parking structure of about 94 spaces and a driveway widening from 18 to 24 feet. McHugh told the committee the parking structure would increase on-site spaces to 178 and that the package is intended to reduce on-street parking during large events.
McHugh said the school would provide more detailed landscaping, grading and stormwater plans at the land-development stage and was willing to continue community engagement: "we're happy to, postpone, you know, the zone here in a month, come back before this committee, in advance of that and provide some additional detail," he said.
Neighbors who spoke during the public comment period questioned whether prior agreements that provided off-site parking (referenced in a 1999 arrangement) remain valid and pressed for concrete stormwater solutions. "I don't know what they're talking about that they're going to, you know, provide underground storage," one neighbor said, describing observed runoff on Royal Avenue.
The committee's motion to table was made so the applicant could return next month with traffic-engineer findings, a fuller stormwater plan and clearer evidence of neighbor outreach. The applicant agreed to return; no final vote on the variances was taken.
The item will return to the committee next month with the additional documentation requested by commissioners.
