County zoning board recommends denial of Crenshaw expansion

After much discussion by the Orange County Board of Zoning Adjustment, the board voted to recommend denial of the request by The Crenshaw School for a special exception in the A-1 zoning district to allow a K-12 private school for 90 children, including 40 dorms, at its Thursday, April 7, meeting. 

The school is seeking to expand on a 7-acre vacant parcel to build a 43,930-square-foot facility with six buildings including a school building, administration building, student dorm building, cafeteria maintenance shed and clinic. The plans also include paved parking for 100 spaces, a courtyard, open space, playground and a retention pond. 

According to the applicant, the current school offers K-12, but if the plan was to go through, then the elementary students would stay in the current establishment, while the middle- and high-school students would be housed in the new development.  

School founder Brenda Crenshaw said the school meets all county requirements. She also said she has lived in the impacted neighborhood for 11 years and loves it there. 

“It’s beautiful, and we don’t want to change anything; we only want to add to that,” she said. “The kids’ safety is first, and my neighborhood is very important to me.”

RECOMMENDED REJECTION

The comprehensive planning department reviewed the plan and determined the proposal was “generally consistent” with the policies in the comprehensive plan but expressed concerns about compatibility with the Gotha Rural Settlement, the amount of open space versus impervious area, the lack of significant tree canopy and the primary building’s location. 

Staff also noted the area lacked trees, unlike its heavily vegetated surrounding properties, and the development only met the minimum landscaping requirements for the code. 

Because the proposal did not meet all the special-exception criteria in Orange County code, staff stated it recommended denial. However, it said if the BZA did find the applicant had satisfied the criteria necessary for the granting of a special exception, staff then would recommend the approval be subject to the conditions in the staff report. 

As a condition of approval, staff members expressed the need for additional canopy trees to be planted around the campus and in select areas. 

Applicant Amr Gawad addressed the staff’s concerns, starting with the flooding, stating all runoff caused by the project would be retained on-site, with no water being discharged, with the help of the retention pond. 

Gawad explained because the site is 7 acres and the school is requesting six buildings, it meets the rural settlement requirements of one home per acre. Regarding traffic, the county transportation planning division reviewed a traffic study and concluded it did not show any transportation deficiencies. 

Gawad said the dorms not only would serve international students but also could serve locals, contributing to the fact that it would benefit residents in the area. 

Regarding noise, Gawad said the proposed school building had been placed behind two industrial buildings, unrelated to the project, and has agreed to move the one-story administration building, the only one facing Hempel, forward while removing the majority of parking. 

COMMUNITY INPUT

In a community meeting held March 10 at Gotha Middle School, 47 residents raised concerns about drainage, flooding and runoff; environmental issues; traffic; the inappropriateness of dormitories; and the lack of benefit to the residents of the area.

Scott Richmond, a previous member of the BZA, was one of the five members who spoke at the meeting against the plans. Richmond lives in the neighborhood across from where the development is being planned.

Although Richmond helped to approve the first part of Crenshaw School, he said he is not in favor of what the school is planning now.

“I think the community is overwhelmingly opposed to this, that is, the Gotha community that lives in the rural settlement,” he said. 

Nehrling Gardens President Angela Withers agreed, saying the organization is concerned about the proposed new campus which is directly across from the gardens.

She said the community has two existing schools and already experiences major flooding problems from improperly engineered residential and highway development. 

Although Withers said the gardens initially expressed support to Brenda Crenshaw two years ago, from what it understood to be a small expansion of the existing school, its support was conditional upon appropriate storm water retention and mitigation of traffic and environmental impacts. 

She said the plans recently submitted for the zoning exception show a much larger development, including a boarding school with large areas of impervious parking and inadequate storm water retention on the eastern side of the property that slopes toward Lake Nally.

“Its lakes, trees and quiet streets are a haven for birds and wildlife,” Withers said. “Development of a school of this size that does not properly address significant storm water retention issues, and impact of additional lighting, noise and traffic on our residents and wildlife, is simply not appropriate for our small rural settlement.”

Four residents attended the event and spoke in support, including Kamila Lobo, who grew up in the area and said she plans on enrolling her kids at Crenshaw.

Lobo stated she believes the dormitories could actually create a solution when it comes to traffic. 

“Hempel is increasingly a busy street, and I do believe the dorm will decrease the traffic overflow in the street,” she said. “The Crenshaw School has amazing values, and that’s something I do believe the Gotha community wishes to continue, to uphold their amazing credibility, and that is something that I definitely want my family and I to be a part of in the future. So I fully support the expansion. I do believe it’s only going to add to the Gotha community.”

Although board members stated both sides made compelling arguments, the BZA voted to deny the request 4 to 1. 

BACKGROUND

The original Crenshaw school was approved in May 2011 under the tenure of Commissioner Scott Boyd. At the time, an existing church, New Life Worship Center, was proposed to then be used as a school. It has been operating as a school on various sites since 1999. 

Now, The Crenshaw School, currently located at 2342 Hempel Ave., is a private school with about 80 students in the heart of the Gotha community.