Joseph Hughes’ three children attend a private Christian school that doesn’t have a gym and is operating in temporary buildings.
Their salvation for more space could lie in a 58-acre plot just a quarter-mile from the current Arundel Bay Christian Academy in southern Anne Arundel, where a 72,000-square-foot school will sit in between centuries-old horse farms.
“Being a person of God, I don’t know who would be against a Christian academy in their neighborhood,” said Hughes, who travels 20 miles one way each day from Prince George’s to the elementary and middle school academy.
But members of the nearby Bristol community say the proposed school will add traffic to dangerous roads and hurt local wetland sanctuaries.
“When the school buses come down the roads, you have to stop and let it go by — that’s how much room there is,” said Steve McDonald, who lives next to the proposed site for the academy on Pindell Road.
The Anne Arundel County Council must now decide if it will back the sentiments of the community, or allow the school to develop and settle a federal lawsuit filed by the academy and its parent organization, Riverdale Baptist Church, against the county.
A bill sits before the council that will settle claims of religious discrimination.
The bill will exempt the academy property from the zoning changes and allow the project to move forward.
The zoning changes, approved three years ago, designated the roads historic and scenic, which prohibits large developments from being built.
Councilman Ed Reilly, R-Crofton, who represents the area, introduced one of the zoning changes because the neighborhood’s twisty roads and narrow passes make it dangerous for any type of large-scale development.
Now he supports the new bill.
“I hate to say this, but possible financial losses through a court case trumps everything else,” Reilly said. “We can barely pay for public schools. We shouldn’t spend a dime on a private school.”
A relatively new federal law, called the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, prohibits local governments from using zoning authority to stop the construction of religious establishment.
Reaching Hearts International won a $3.7 million lawsuit and the right to build its facility in Laurel after suing the Prince George’s County Council under that law.
The Prince George’s council denied a water and sewer upgrade for the church for environmental reasons; the Laurel community also opposed the development.
Anne Arundel County Attorney Jonathan Hodgson has asked the council to approve the bill, saying it was in the county’s best interest.
The academy wants to build a 30,000-square-foot school, a 30,000-square-foot gym and a 12,000-square-foot building. It would house 250 students from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade.
Those living near the academy’s proposed site say they oppose the project because the surrounding roads have blind turns, and in some places it is narrow because of trees in the shoulders and steep ravines.
The school also will be a short distance away from the Jug Bay Wetland Sanctuary, and many environmentalists came out in opposition of the project during Monday night’s council meeting.
A vote on the bill could take place Dec. 1.
