St. Martin’s Episcopal School and St. Martin in the Fields Episcopal Church on Jan. 27 voluntarily deferred their application for a special use permit to expand the school and possibly build an addition to the church at a later date.
The DeKalb County Planning Commission voted in favor of the permit Jan. 6, contingent on an agreement between neighbors and the Brookhaven school.
Both parties said they are still working on a contract. The application will go back before the DeKalb County Commission on Feb. 24.
Neighbor Don Meyer said the school could have tried to force the application through Jan. 27, but it would have risked an outright denial.
“I don’t know how likely that is, but it’s possible. Instead of taking the aggressive approach, they decided, ‘Well, let’s not take the risk, and let’s continue to try to negotiate it and get some resolution,’ ” he said.
Linda Taylor, the president of the Oglethorpe Estates Civic Association, said she wasn’t surprised by the deferral. She’s hopeful the two sides will reach an agreement.
“We have another draft,” she said.
School spokeswoman Christina Mimms said the deferral is “very, very temporary.”
“We do have a really good agreement that the neighborhood is happy with and we are fine with,” she said.
St. Martin’s wants to build a two-story middle school building with a 16,500-square-foot footprint and as much as 40,000 square feet of space. The plan does not include more students.