The Cobb County School District has announced a proposed site for a new Smyrna elementary school that would become a central piece of the redevelopment of the former Belmont Hills shopping center.
The school district has identified property between Ward Street and Atlanta Road, immediately north end east of Campbell High School. The property serves the district and the community’s needs as a convenient location for the new school approved by voters in 2008 as part of the school capital projects program funded by a Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.
The new school would open in the fall of 2013. The 18-acre site is contiguous to both the Belmont Hills redevelopment area and the back entrance of Campbell High School, and is less than one mile from the downtown Smyrna Market Village.
As part of the school construction project, the school district has offered to purchase the Smyrna Commons apartment complex that was recently acquired by the City of Smyrna’s Downtown Area Development Corporation (SDADC). The apartment complex would become vacant once all leases run their full course and expire by early 2012.
The SDADC had purchased the complex as part of right-of-way acquisition for construction of a future Atlanta Road-Ward Street connector that is part of the Cobb County’s 2011 SPLOST referendum. The 7.5-acre parcel to be obtained by the school district would border the new road and will be converted to playing fields and open space that could be used by the new elementary school as well as Campbell High School, and also could be made available for community use after school hours (see Parcel 3 on the above map).
Parcel 1 noted above is owned by Halpern Enterprises, developer of the Belmont redevelopment project and Parcel 2 is residential rental property that the owner has agreed to sell.
“This is an excellent proposal that would seem to serve the entire community well,” said Tim Stultz, a member of the Cobb County Board of Education who represents the Smyrna area. “I am looking forward to opening a new, state-of-the-art school that will fit perfectly with the eventual redevelopment of the area. We hope, in fact, that a school of this quality will help spur redevelopment sooner than it may otherwise occur. I am also proud of the fact that we are partnering with the City of Smyrna to help improve the area. This new school and the entire development will benefit this community for decades to come.”
The school board will vote on the proposed $7.8 million land acquisition at its regular meeting on Thursday, February 17, 2011. At the same time, the board will consider hiring an architect to design the new school. The school district anticipates an architectural design that will integrate well with the Belmont Hills redevelopment project, much like the integration of government, retail and private buildings that formed the successful Village Green project and spurred Smyrna’s initial revitalization 20 years ago.
[where: 30080]