Sandy Springs to give Scientology a yes or no

By April Hunt

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Expect a showdown over Scientology Tuesday night in Sandy Springs.

The City Council is scheduled to decide at its meeting whether to rezone an office building at Roswell Road and Glenridge Drive so the church can move from Dunwoody.

More than 500 residents and 16 neighborhood associations have urged the city to deny the request, saying there isn’t enough parking and that the church will add to existing traffic woes.

But there is a new twist that the church hopes will mean it can make the Georgian brick building its new state headquarters.

The church is offering to redesign its plans so that it can convert a basement into a fourth floor, which it says is necessary for worship. The new plans also call for restriping and repaving, to keep the total number of available parking space at the 111 already there.

“The church has gone above and beyond to try to address every legitimate complaint,” said attorney W. Woodson Galloway, who is representing the church. “I definitely think this church has been treated differently than any other church in Sandy Springs.”

In July, the city’s planning commission approved a rezoning but denied the fourth floor so the church could keep the existing parking.

Attorneys for the church and city thought they’d hammered out a deal a month later: In exchange for the fourth floor, the church would limit occupancy at any given time to 283, the maximum allowed under the city’s parking code.

But the planning commission denied that deal last month, refusing to allow the fourth floor be added to the site.

City Council must decide tonight between that nonbinding recommendation and a staff recommendation for approval of the latest deal, which further limits occupancy to 170 people.

Bucking such fierce voter opposition could have political ramifications. Councilman Tibby DeJulio faces a challenger for his seat in the Nov. 3 election. Councilman Doug MacGinnitie is stepping down – to run statewide next year for secretary of state.

And the Sandy Springs Council of Neighborhoods, the largest city’s largest coalition of homeowners, has already compiled a report card criticizing the council’s votes that it characterizes as affecting neighborhoods.

“We have to protect our neighborhoods from an expansion of density like this,” said Patty Burns, who heads the homeowners group at Round Hill Condominiums. “This is a perfect example of trying to save our neighborhoods from being overloaded with parked cars and heavy traffic.”

Residents have insisted their opposition has nothing to do with the 50-year-old religion, which has been controversial for its beliefs and its celebrity adherents.

Burns points out that seven of the eight neighbors to the church site, once a real estate office, are residential.

She said the church’s proposal to use the building every day will wreak havoc on thousands of people trying to get in and out of their homes.

Mayor Eva Galambos said the city will listen to resident concerns as well as the church’s plans with equal care. Galambos would vote on the issue only in the case of a tie on the six-member council.

“We will listen to both sides, to the recommendation of our planning commission and the staff,” Galambos said. “We will listen to everybody.”

Deb Danos, the head of community affairs for the local church, hopes that the city is hearing the sacrifices the church is making. The church serves 100 to 125 different people weekly, though the current Dunwoody site has not had more than 28 people attend the church on any one day.

"People come in on an individual basis and receive counseling on their own," Danos said of the classes and counseling that serve as spiritual study and worship for followers. "It limits our ability to serve more people, but it can be managed. We want to work with the community."