The Sandy Springs City Council, in a 4-3 vote, denied Mount Vernon School’s request to install lights on its Ron Hill Athletic Field at its Jan. 21 meeting.
The city council vote split, 3-3, with council members Jody Reichel, Andy Bauman, and Melody Kelley voting for the amendment for a conditional use permit that would have allowed the lights. Council members Tibby DeJulio, John Paulson, and Melissa Mular voted against the amendment.
Sandy Springs city code states the mayor shall vote in case of a tie vote. Mayor Rusty Paul declared the motion failed after the tied vote.
“That affirmed his vote. [The] mayor did break the tie by voting against,” city spokesperson Carter Long told Rough Draft Atlanta on Wednesday.
The school can bring up the request again in a year.
Reichel, who lives in Mount Vernon Woods, offered a three-part amendment to the proposal to limit the school’s use of lights and amplified sound at the field to 20 nights a year, limited only to official athletic events. Ten of the nights would occur on Fridays. Her third amendment was to allow the school to use lights without amplified sound for 60 nights annually.
“Living less than 1,000 feet from the field, I understand the potential impacts of increased light, noise and activity on nearby homes,” Reichel said.
Mount Vernon School had its attorney, head of school, athletic director and a student speak in favor of adding lights.
The lights would enable the school to add two women’s sports, a girls’ lacrosse team, and a middle school girls’ flag football team, and help keep student-athletes out of the afternoon August heat by moving practices and games to the evening, Mount Vernon School Athletic Director Brad Dehem said.
Chip Collins, the school’s attorney, said the school had not broken promises about the lights. The no-lights agreement was in place for 20 years, and in September the agreement will expire.
Kimberly Oliver, president of Mount Vernon Woods Homeowners Association, said the lights and sporting events extending into evening hours would disrupt residents’ lives, a statement echoed by other speakers.
“The school now asks you to impose these significant adverse impact changes on four protected neighborhoods. Nothing they proposed effectively alleviates the material adverse impact the lights and after-dark noise will have on our communities,” Steve Leeds, president of the Aria West Homeowners Association, said.
Ginger Sottile, the city’s community development director, confirmed that the city development code does not prohibit lights and sound amplification at school athletic fields.
John Snodgrass of Carriage Drive in the Mount Vernon Woods subdivision said he’s lived in the neighborhood for 48 years. He and his wife agreed to give Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church and school leaders a sewer easement that made development of the upper campus possible.
“We granted the easement in exchange for the promise that lights would never be installed on the athletic field,” Snodgrass said.
The couple’s property line is 100 feet from the athletic field, and they can see kids running up and down the field on game days from their sofa, he said.
“I normally vote for kids, schools, and churches. In this case, I have to vote against this. I have to protect what is valuable, as to Sandy Springs, the neighborhoods, the protection of the neighborhoods, the protection of the residents,” council member Tibby DeJulio said.
Council member Andy Bauman said approving the proposal acknowledges the school’s property rights as it strives to respect neighborhood character by minimizing impacts and balancing the broader needs of the community.
The mayor said he hopes the school returns with the request after the required year, and requested that neighborhood residents be a little more flexible.
“You’ve destroyed the trust of your neighbors because they don’t believe that you’re going to live up to the agreements,” Paul told school officials.
City staff had recommended approving the amendment to the conditional user permit to allow the installation of lights on the field. The Sandy Springs Planning Commission voted to recommend the denial of the request.
