Alpharetta to Hear Amana Academy's Request to Move to Windward

UPDATED 6 a.m., Dec. 17: Alpharetta City Council will consider on Monday, Dec. 19 if there is a compelling reason to let Amana Academy to relocate its school into a property within the Windward Master Plan area, something not currently allowed.

Another public charter school, Fulton Science Academy, asked the city to defer a public hearing on its request for impact fee and building permit fee waivers. That should shorten the meeting by quite a bit for those waiting on the Amana Academy hearing.

If you want to get a seat for Monday's hearing, you'd better get to pretty early, at least by 6 p.m. An overflow crowd is expected and since the city fire marshal has set a limit on how many people can occupy council chambers, rules have been adopted.

First, those coming to the meeting just for the Amana Academy public hearing will have to wait to get inside the room so those participating in the earlier hearings can have a chance to voice their opinions on those requests. Tickets will be issued on a first come, first served basis for the Amana Academy hearing. Once the first items are heard, the room will be cleared and those with tickets will be allowed into the council chambers. Any overflow crowd will be sent to the Eagle Gym next door, which will have an audio connection to the meeting.

Read the full list of the agenda, schedule and rules for Monday night.

during a hearing held by the Alpharetta Planning Commission in August. At the school's request, .

Windward homeowners and others in the area also said traffic would get worse, as most of the approximately 500 students would get to school by carpool. Alpharetta Traffic Engineer Eric Graves said the morning drive might be a bit heavier, but the afternoon drive would not get worse because the school lets out well before the rush hour.

Although the Windward Business Association board voted to support the move into a vacant commercial building on Edison Drive, at least one property owner spoke against it. Jackson, Oakes, Shaw, the owner of the Windward Oaks building that houses and a branch, sent a representative to the Planning Commission who said establishing a school might not affect The Metropolitan Club, which would see its liquor license "grandfathered in." But any other restaurant wanting to locate on that site would be prohibited because it would be too close to the school under city laws.

The Planning Commission couldn't agree on the rezoning request, so it was passed along to City Council without a recommendation

Fulton Science Academy Gets Its Building Fees' Hearing Deferred

had been on the agenda. However, Alpharetta Assistant City Administrator James Drinkard announced on Friday that the school asked for its public hearing to be deferred.

"The item will be placed on a January 2012 agenda," Drinkard said in the updated agenda for the Dec. 19 meeting.

wants a waiver of impact fees and 10 percent reduction of building permit fees for the construction of its new campus on Fanfare Way, which is between Westside Parkway and GA 400 near Encore Parkway.

City staff recommends denying this request.

Fulton Science Academy Waiver Request