DREAM Academy may have found the location for its charter school

The DREAM Academy may have found a possible site for its home.

An application for a conditional-use permit to allow the charter elementary school in an existing 1985 Vineville Ave. was filed with the Macon-Bibb County Planning & Zoning Commission. The Scottish Rite Temple is currently on this 4-acre site.

The matter was scheduled to be discussed by the commission Monday, but on June 12 it was deferred by the applicant.

The school’s charter petition was approved in August 2016 by the State Charter Schools Commission of Georgia. This allows it to have a statewide attendance zone for the school, which will have a focus on the arts. It is led by the Otis Redding Foundation, and its chairwoman is Karla Redding-Andrews

It is not clear if anything might change from the original application to the zoning office, but the current staff report calls for the school to add an addition to the existing 36,700-square-foot structure. The addition would accommodate 30-33 classrooms for 592 students. The existing building would be used for an auditorium, lab, office and cafeteria, the staff report said. The school is expected to have 35 to 40 employees and would operate from 8:15 a.m.to 3:30 p.m.

The use of the building would result in a new curb cut along Vineville Avenue, which would require approval of the Georgia Department of Transportation.

“There is no mention in the application about extracurricular activities but no athletic fields or playgrounds are shown on the site plan,” the staff report stated. “The proposed use should not adversely affect the property values in adjacent areas.”

The school initially planned to open in August for kindergarten through sixth grade and would add a grade each year until it served students through the 12th grade. But in January this year the governing board moved the opening to the 2018-19 school year.

Redding-Andrews said at the time that the school was trying to find “the perfect home for the structure and academic component. … We have a number of facilities identified, but we can’t disclose them until a deal has been made.”

Attempts to reach her and the architect for the project were unsuccessful.

Redding-Andrews also said in January that since the school would reach students statewide, that the location needed to be easily accessible to all interstates. The Scottish Rite Temple is several yards from the Hardeman Road entrance and exit ramps to Interstate 75.

Typically when an application is deferred, the applicant determines when it would be put back on the agenda. So it is unknown when, or if, the item would be considered by the commission.

This story was originally published June 25, 2017 at 12:58 PM with the headline "DREAM Academy may have found the location for its charter school."