About Sandy Springs reporter. (Sandy Springs, GA) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (May 2, 2019)
10 | Community 4 Facebook.com/TheReporterNewspapers ■ twitter.com/Reporter_News In Holy Spirit expansion debate, talk of agreement, threats of lawsuits Side-by-side comparisons of Holy Spirit Church and Preparatory School's expansion proposals, with last year’s original version at left and the current version at right. SPECIAL SEPTEMBER 2018 APRIL 2019 BY JOHN RUCH johnruch@reporternewspafers.net A massive, marathon meeting about Holy Spirit Catholic Church and Prepa ratory School’s controversial campus expansion plan April 24 was filled with tough questions and hopes of compro mise — all backed by increasingly tough legal pressure from both sides. Some res idents continue to say they might go to court over a 15-year-old legal agreement that could block part of the project, while Holy Spirit revealed that it photographed 170 pro-agreement yard signs with an eye to possibly suing opponents for “defama tion.” Despite such saber-rattling, both sides say there's room to talk about the pro posal - which includes a parking deck, church buildings and relocating the Low er School from its current home else where in Sandy Springs - as it heads to ward a May 7 filing deadline for a use permit at the city of Sandy Springs. The plan would expand the current church and Upper School campus at Mount Paran Road and Northside Drive in Buck- head onto an adjacent Sandy Springs site, with a parking deck, church build ings and a new Lower School relocated from Sandy Springs’ Long Island Drive. The school posts updates to the plan on its website here. But debate among roughly 250 res idents in the nearly four-hour meet ing, held at the church, showed any new agreement has a big gap to bridge, with often emotional arguments pitting qual ity of life against quality of schooling. Many of the dozens of comments were personal anecdotes about the school and the neighborhood rather than address ing specifics of the proposal, though new details about disputed tree loss and traf fic impacts emerged. “I think it’s only logical and reason able to have one location” for both cam puses, said Jinny Keough, a 30-year church parishioner, who wore a “YES” button and - like many other supporters - the school color of green. “We just want people to talk, not yell.” Debbie Guerra, CEO of the Northside/ Chastain/Mt. Paran Neighborhood Pres ervation Association (or NPA), a group formed to negotiate with Holy Spirit, said the plan would “disrupt, on multiple lev els, the tranquility of our protected, sin gle-family neighborhood.” While opponents often praised the church and school, none of them ac knowledged that the plan had been sig nificantly reduced in response to their concerns from a previous version last fall. And no supporter acknowledged any problems with the plan’s neighbor hood impacts or the discarding of the old agreement. One opponent said supporters are clamoring to solve “first-world problems” of inconvenience; one supporter said neighbors are “a bunch of ostriches stick ing their heads in the sand.” Several op ponents suggested that school attendees are mostly outsiders; several supporters said they moved to Sandy Springs specif ically because of Holy Spirit. People who said a religious school should stick to an old promise were dismissed as inflexi ble and obsessed with paperwork; sup porters who said deals should be flexible were said to be setting a bad example for schoolchildren. Opponents’ characteriza tion of the plan as “commercial” or “com mercialization” was viewed an insult ing by several supporters, who noted the school is a nonprofit that, in part, assists underprivileged students. Graduation... Wedding... Hostess... Baby... Jewelry 20% Of( Ceuf> iay\dvr pxcon \yjuu ) gifts, accessories, jewelry & more,^/^ ^ on DISCOUNT LIMITED TO ONE REGULARLY-PRICED ITEM one coupon per person per offer period; expires Jme 8, 2014 Find us in The Shops of Dunwoody 54S2 Chamblee Dunwoody Rd, #27A Tel. 67S-644-S704 Open Tuesday-Friday 10-6, SaturdaylO-5; closed Sunday & Monday Please follow us on facebook & Instagram Can’t Find Your Home in Sandy Springs? Call Me! Keller Williams Really First Atlanta 404-531-5700 www.kwatlanta.com Spring is here! SOLD 770 Edgewater Trail New Listing191 Pine Lake Dr. Under Contract 5750 Riverwood Dr. Best Deal in Sandy Springs! 5825 Riverwood Dr. Call me if you are looking for a house before the house you want is gone! Angle PonSELL ATLANTA TO THE WORLD 404-226-2002 www.isellsandysprings.com
