Photo above by Rebecca Gaunt

By Rebecca Gaunt

Mableton leaders are objecting to the Cobb County School District’s alleged plans for a 6.9-acre property it owns at 440 Veterans Memorial Highway.

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The $1.1 million property was unanimously approved by the school board for purchase in September 2022, but there has been no public discussion or information released by the district regarding how it will be used.

The district declined to comment Monday on its plans for the parcel.

Last week, Nate Smith, chairman of the Mableton Improvement Coalition (MIC), sent a letter to board members Leroy Tre’ Hutchins and Becky Sayler, whose posts include Mableton schools. A copy was also shared with the Courier.

Sayler told the Courier that the district has no public information that can be shared about plans for the property, but that she and Hutchins have asked the district to open communication with the community on the matter.

According to the letter, 2MNEXT, an engineering firm, began work on the site in August. A manager on the site informed a resident that a school bus parking lot is planned for the property.

Smith wrote:

MIC and the community are opposed to this plan for many reasons. The deviation from established design guidelines for the VMH corridor and the incompatibility with the neighborhood leads the list of concerns. Cobb County’s Comprehensive Plan denotes the southern part of the property as a Neighborhood Activity Center, which should contain businesses supportive of our neighborhoods, not a parking lot which is better suited to an industrial area.The remainder of the property is planned for residential development. Additionally, the bus garage will introduce traffic congestion, air pollutants and other environmental concerns. We are also opposed to another automotive use on Veterans Memorial Highway. The urgency of this request for your support is based on inquiries from citizens and the recent activity at the site. 

To date, no community involvement has occurred nor have information requests about this property been answered. There is an urgent need to engage the Cobb County School Board to better understand their plans for the school bus garage and to express our concerns regarding this development in our community. 

Patricia Auch, the District 4 Mableton City Council member, told the Courier she has not received any information from the school district.

“The main concern I have at this time is that constituents are asking me questions about that parcel that I can’t answer because information from the school district isn’t being shared with the public,” she said.

Becca Ford, an MIC board member and co-chair of the zoning committee, sent the following response to the Courier:

Both the Board and the committee would like to see the land developed as is currently laid out in the Comp Plan… neighborhood supporting retail or commercial use on the front and low density residential in the back. There are a number of single family homes adjacent to this property and an intense, automotive use such as a bus depot is completely inappropriate. Factors such as noise (especially early morning) fumes, environmental concerns will be detrimental to existing homeowners. A few years ago a high density townhome development was proposed for this property and the existing neighbors were thrilled when it was defeated. Imagine how they must feel when they learn what an intense project will take its place – and this time with no community input! 

Additionally, the Comp plan does not support vehicle parking lots in a neighborhood activity center, which is what the front of the property is.

Another issue is the CCSD has not demonstrated how a bus depot in this location provides any benefit to the community. It just uses valuable land that could be part of a consumer oriented redevelopment of VMH, one of the focus areas of the City’s Comp plan which is currently under development.

Ford confirmed that the MIC has received no additional details from the school district since Smith’s Sep. 3 letter.