The Georgia Supreme Court has agreed to take up an appeal of a Cobb County Superior Court ruling giving the WellStar Health System and Johnson Ferry Baptist Church a green light to develop a 65-acre tract of land near Lake Allatoona that opponents contend would pollute drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people.

Lake Allatoona is a major source of drinking water for residents of Cherokee and Cobb counties.

Attorneys said Tuesday that the state Supreme Court decided last Friday to give property owners Teresa Stendahl and Timothy Cannon three weeks to list alleged errors they contend were made by the trial court, which dismissed the suit seeking to block the development.

The two own about 12 acres of residential property adjacent to the land in question.

Johnson Ferry Baptist, a megachurch in east Cobb, filed an application to rezone the property in September 2006. It proposed to develop a portion of the property for a church and other facilities. WellStar, which later joined the rezoning application, proposed to develop part of the property for a small hospital, a diagnostic and testing center, medical offices and other related retail uses.

Cobb County Superior Court Judge Robert Flournoy III said in January he could find no "provable facts" to support claims alleging that building a satellite church by Johnson Ferry and a WellStar hospital on the property would adversely affect the environment or pollute the drinking water.

Johnson Ferry Baptist has an option to buy the property, contingent on approval of the rezoning. Johnson Ferry's satellite church in the area, called Cedarcrest, is expected to grow to up to 4,000 members in coming years, said church business administrator Jerry Maxfield.

WellStar said it would buy 32 of the 65 acres for $6.2 million.

WellStar said a hospital would be built in 10 years, but, in the meantime, the company would construct a diagnostic center, offices for doctors and parking areas.

Stendahl successfully led an effort by homeowners to prevent a Wal-Mart Supercenter in the area two years ago.

Kyle Williams, an attorney for the Atlanta firm of Weissman, Nowack, Curry & Wilco, said no decision has been made as to whether he will ask for oral arguments or simply submit briefs.

"The case is not dead," he said. "We will reargue that the dismissal was incorrect."

John Moore of the Marietta law firm of Moore Ingram Johnson & Steele, which represents WellStar and Johnson Ferry, said the high court could send the case back to the trial court for further hearing, rule the trial court was correct or overturn the ruling to dismiss the litigation.

"We don't think the citizens of that area should be cut out of these zoning decisions," Williams said.

"This has never been about me, the building of a church or a hospital," Stendahl said. "It is about the preservation and protection of citizens' property rights and their drinking water."