DEL.ICIO.USSANDY SPRINGS
Conflict arises as schools expandThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/11/08
Demand for private school education is on the rise. And so are clashes among neighbors in established, desirable suburbs when those schools attempt to expand their campuses.
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 Phil Skinner/pskinner@ajc.com | ||
| Ann Feldman repositions a sign opposing the proposed Epstein School expansion as her 4-year-old twin daughters Abbie (left) and Rachel watch. | ||
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Nowhere is the conflict now more intense than in Sandy Springs, a growing city with young families seeking high-quality schools.
Two well-regarded private schools — the Epstein School and Holy Spirit Preparatory School — have raised hackles this year among some neighbors, for their plans to expand.
At both schools, parents and administrators say they need more space.
Some neighbors, many of whom have lived in the areas for years, say they worry that expansion will result in lost privacy, increased traffic and other unwanted changes.
The applications are dividing neighbors, particularly around the Epstein School, which plans to expand by tearing down several adjacent homes.
"All they want is what they want, and they do not care what the repercussions are in the neighborhood," said Jill Coolik, a homeowner on the affected street. Coolik, who turned down an offer to sell her property to the school, will be surrounded if the campus expands.
Robin Friedrich, who lives in the neighborhood and whose child attends Epstein, is more sympathetic toward the school's desire to grow. "There are some [people] who don't want anything to change in Sandy Springs. They want to capture it in time."
Both expansion projects have drawn standing-room-only crowds to public meetings.
In previous years, conflict played out in other Atlanta communities, including in Buckhead, where Pace Academy wanted to expand its athletic facilities; in Midtown, where the Children's School wanted to grow; and in Roswell, where a private Christian school wanted to expand.
In Sandy Springs, the Epstein School, a Jewish school for children in elementary and middle grades, wants city permission to increase its enrollment from 650 to 850 students, and to build a theater and an early childhood education building. If approved, its landlocked campus on Colewood Way would grow by four acres, to 15 acres.
A few miles away, Holy Spirit Preparatory, a Catholic school for students in pre-kindergarten through high school — and which already has two academic campuses — wants to build an athletic complex on a third site off Long Island Drive.
The project would include an administrative building and a combined football and soccer field. The site is on eight acres of undeveloped land overlooking I-285, but bordered on another side by one of the city's oldest neighborhoods.
The Sandy Springs City Council will start reviewing both plans this month. Holy Spirit is up first, on Aug. 19. Epstein follows in September.
Because both applications affect children and their education, as well as longtime residents and their neighborhoods, some people say the arguments can become overly emotional.
"In every e-mail I send out to the neighborhood, I say we need to be respectful," said Ann Feldman, a neighborhood association president in the neighborhood divided over Epstein's request. "In the end we are all neighbors."
Holy Spirit already has a football field at its upper school in Atlanta but is prohibited from using lighting or from playing organized games at the site. For the past three years, the school's home games were played at Life University in Marietta.
Neighbors fear, among other things, additional noise from games and increased traffic.
Although a new athletic field would provide a venue for home games, the primary use will be on weekday afternoons by elementary- and middle school-aged students, said Gareth Genner, president of Holy Spirit.
The impact of the facility has been distorted by opponents, he said. "The most significant use for the athletic field at the new campus is, in fact, preschoolers through sixth-graders playing soccer," Genner said. "The football use is easy to dramatize."
Epstein, which occupies a former Fulton County public school, needs amenities such as flexible teaching space, said Head of School Stan Beiner, in an e-mailed message. The school is responding to increased interest among parents in enrolling children, he said, which is due in part to Sandy Springs' growing Jewish population.
As a condition for its acquisition of a former public school, Epstein in 1994 agreed to hold its enrollment to 650. Some neighbors say they feel betrayed by the new push to accommodate 850 students.
Beiner responded: "The school is disappointed that some of the neighbors are using that argument as a way to oppose our plan. As many schools do, we have grown and are now asking for permission to raise the cap and add four more acres."
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Comments
By neighbor
Aug 25, 2008 2:08 PM | Link to this
the neighbors are not interested in having lights from an internal 2 lane roadway shining in their windows, nor is it appealing to ANYONE living nearby to have nearly 200 cars standing with their engines on while the cars line up for carpool. By increasing the preschool by 150 students you increase cars by 150 cars. Tell me how that improves anything.
Epstein refuses to open their gates early so that early cars now or after addition will continue to be on the streets. Does anyone care about the neighborhood?
Epstein should be required to fulfill the committments made when they purchased the property Before any consideration is given to expansion.
We are still waiting for them to keep their word from 14 ys ago. How can they set an example of morality for the children they teach when their promises are not kept?
By LIVE AND LET LIVE
Aug 13, 2008 6:40 PM | Link to this
In this day and age, If you want to control land use and development, buy the land yourself. "Inner city" land has great value and great potential to enriching the area. If you want it left undeveloped, you will have to deem it a protected "park" area, not for sale. Everything is for sale today. Once purchased, property should be allowed to be used as buyer intended consistent with zoning. Don't kid yourself, "Neighbors" are all self-seeking. Not taking it personally is the only way to avoid fatal feuding among neighbors. The finger points both ways. Everyone has their property value and lifestyle in mind, in some form. Typically, Developments CAN revitalize crime ridden depressed neighborhoods. Look at the facelift underway at the Prado. Someone approved that. And the the mass of concrete and reduction of trees is actually a big improvement.
Imagine that!
Instead of fighting, why not ask the question "What can the developer provide my community in return?". For example, can they create a park or add sidewalks or a garden/gazebo or make some other reasonable improvements to your community in exchange for your inconveniences. Negotiate! Afterall, Schools are really in business to produce future leaders. Hopefully we still value eduction in this country.
By angie
Aug 13, 2008 5:51 PM | Link to this
While you are on the web, visit another website - stopexpansion.com should be interesting to visit as well - for those who are interested in the truth.... I dare you to look at the pictures that show just a little of the impact this school has had and will continue to have on this neighborhood.
By A
Aug 12, 2008 4:47 PM | Link to this
For those who care to educate themselves as to what actually is being proposed for Epstein, please link here:
http://www.epsteinfacts.org/
A couple of thoughts for the board:
What does the neighborhood get? Look at the plan. It gets cars off the neighborhood streets. I was at Epstein this am for back to school meet and greet. Many of us parents had to park along Colewood Way and into Rivershore Estates, as usual. Why? Because the school has limited parking. The plan calls for a lot more parking on the school property.
What else does the neighborhood get? Stand on Colewood Way at around 3:25 pm and see the line of cars stacked up to pick up the kids. The plan calls for Epstein to build an internal loop road on its property to move all of those cars off of Colewood.
Where did those ideas come from? Among other places, Epstein caring about its impact on the neighborhood (don't believe otherwise -- anyone who knows Stan and the rest of Epstein leadership knows they do care quite a bit about doing what they can to be a good neighbor) as well as feedback from those neighbors who responded to Epstein's multiple requests for feedback and informational meetings.
Parking on the street is a minor annoyance to Epstein parents. You have to walk a little farther to get in, but it is not really a huge issue. I would guess it matters a lot more to the residents in and around the school who are currently forced to put up with the cars parked in front of their homes whenever this is any kind of event. Likewise, it does not make much of a difference to parents sitting in a carpool line if that line is on Colewood or on Epstein's property. It surely matters a lot to anyone who either lives on Colewood or needs to drive on it near carpool time.
Those are two benefits the neighborhoods will not get if the activists are succesful in blocking the plan. If you live in the neighborhood, are unhappy with the way certain of your neighbors have hijacked this discussion on your behalf, and would like to get the improvements the plan provides, please make sure to speak out and be heard. What the activists fail to acknowledge is that Epstein started its plan from a position of compromise. Be smarter than that and recognize the obvious.
And no, I would really hope the school would not consider making those improvements unless it gets the requested enrollment increase to help pay for them. And notwithstanding the loud yelling, traffic impact is something that the school has spent a lot of money looking at and has a plan to minimize impact. City planners and city council know this. The Epstein community knows this. The neighbors who have educated themselves know this. Only those who are determined to stop any change at all costs ignore the basic fact that you can increase enrollment and mitigate the traffic impact at the same time.
Check it out for yourself:
http://www.epsteinfacts.org/
By Truth
Aug 12, 2008 3:11 PM | Link to this
Honor says
If Epstein succeeds with their plans by lying to their neighbors, they will irreparably harm their reputation and the reputation of all students who are associated with the school in the future.
Are you kidding me? Get a life
By Honor
Aug 12, 2008 1:49 PM | Link to this
Stan Beiner is "disappointed" the neighborhood expects the school to honor its commitment to cap enrollment beyond 650. Is it unfair or somehow unreasonable in 2008 to still expect someone to be true to their word? How did we get so far off track as a society? Things change the Epstein parents tell us and apparently the statute of limitations on an Epstein promise is 14 years. The cap you agreed to was at that address and secretly buying neighborhood homes and tearing them down does not change the ehtical requirement to adhere to your commitments.
It seems to me that the opponents of Epstein expansion care more about the future of Epstein than the Epstein parents who dismiss notions of honor and truth. The opponents of Epstein expansion argue that if you send your children to a values-based school, you should reasonably expect that there would be some actual values that underpin the administation of such a school. If Epstein succeeds with their plans by lying to their neighbors, they will irreparably harm their reputation and the reputation of all students who are associated with the school in the future. Commitments to your neighbors can certainly be revisited but unless both sides agree to a change, the commitment must stand. Epstein, you must do the right thing and abide by your promises - do it for the children, do it for your reputation and do it because it is the right thing to do.
By Relax
Aug 12, 2008 9:22 AM | Link to this
Most neighborhoods don't gain anything from schools other than educating our youth. We all deal with inconveniences. Just like when I drive out around my neighborhood and get stuck behind 2 or 3 school buses or I hear the PA and bands from Friday night football games at the nearby high school stadium. It's part of living in a community.
By Mary Ann
Aug 12, 2008 9:17 AM | Link to this
We fought a public HS in our neighborhood....of course we lost as the government's power overrides property owners.
I would of preferred a private school to the huge public school that has 2000k students...band practices....football....basefall....cross country teams running in the street.
Schools should be in office parks not neighborhoods!
By mmlw
Aug 11, 2008 10:30 PM | Link to this
Could someone please explain to me what the neighborhoods gain from the proposed Epstein expansion plan? Don't say traffic because that is a pipe dream - but seriously, I'd like to understand the win for the neighborhoods with this plan.
Thank you.
By opposed to the plan
Aug 11, 2008 9:13 PM | Link to this
oops, that should read 'without fear'
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