Alpine approves charter school plan

ALPINE — After five months of heated arguments and neighborhood disputes, the Alpine City Council voted 4-0 Thursday night to approve a new Main Street site plan for the controversial Mountainville Academy charter school.

The special City Council meeting followed a special Planning Commission meeting at which commissioners specifically compared plans for a proposed two-story building against an ordinance the council approved Tuesday night.

The commissioners voted to forward the plan with a favorable recommendation over the objections of planning commissioner Lincoln Watkins, who vocally opposed the decision.

"I hope this is going to be the end of this," said Planning Commission Chairwoman Jannicke Brewer.

The plan received unanimous approval by the City Council members attending the meeting, including Councilman Thomas Whitchurch, who opted not to abstain after publicly noting his wife is "heavily involved with the school." Councilwoman Kimberly Bryant did not attend.

After approving a "school coordination" ordinance on Tuesday night, thereby lifting a moratorium that had been imposed on the school, the City Council voted to hold Thursday's special meeting intending to consider the proposal for a large two-story building to house the charter school.

U.S. Charter Development, the school's developer, had already broken ground at the site, moving forward with a previously approved site plan involving a campus-style arrangement of five separate one-story buildings. Though school officials preferred constructing one two-story building, Glenn Way, managing partner of U.S. Charter Development, and Rebecca Whitchurch, one of the school's founders, said they could not wait any longer.

"We have coordinated to death in this city, as far as sites go," Way said. "This (two-story) site is something that was brought forward — it's a site that we have worked on for probably six months — and it was turned down several times."

Some changes to the school's design were made to comply with the city's new ordinance, such as requirements for front, side and rear setbacks.

The height of the building is seven inches less than the maximum allowed in the city, and the school has five more parking spaces than were necessary.

A traffic study of the area was conducted in May. While congestion is a potential problem for the area, city planners said most of the anticipated backup would be on the school property, not city streets.

Construction using the new site plan will begin immediately, Way said, but it is unlikely the building will be completed before November. The school will still open in September, but at a temporary location.

Though leaders of the school clashed frequently with residents in other areas in Alpine where the school previously considered building, Rebecca Whitchurch said she hoped those bad feelings would finally come to an end.

"I came here hoping for the best but expecting the worst," Whitchurch said, with tears in her eyes. "I got the best."

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