DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Opponents of the future Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, which they call "Cop City," are now looking for intervention from a DeKalb County court.
The facility is set to be built starting in August on a portion of land in the South River Forest.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond, who support the project, announced it had secured a land disturbance permit - essentially a construction permit - in January.
RELATED: DeKalb zoning board votes to deny appeal against Atlanta police training center building permit
An appeal of that permit to the county's zoning board was denied last month. A filing in DeKalb County Superior Court is asking for a review of that decision.
Protesters have occupied the forest in encampments off and on for more than a year, building a movement against the facility that has grown substantially since the law enforcement shooting death of a protester, Manuel Paez Teran, in January.
The project, which the Atlanta Police Foundation will fund under a lease agreement with the City of Atlanta, which owns the land - has nonetheless moved forward. The developer released a timeline last month that slated it to be completed in December 2024.
The filing submitted on Wednesday, on behalf of DeKalb Commissioner Ted Terry - whose district includes the building site - is the latest effort to halt that process.
It argues that the county official who initially approved the land disturbance permit "erred by issuing the land development permit because the zoning ordinance prohibits issuing a 'development permit for the use, construction or alteration of any land' if the proposed use or alteration would violate any law of the county or state" and that the zoning board further "erred by affirming the planning director's decision."
The filing asserts that the law the development would violate is the Water Quality Control Act. According to the arguments in the filing, sediment loads allowable under environmental regulations for Intrenchment Creek, which runs through the site, are already regularly exceeded and would be worse with the building of the public safety training center.
It states the legally designated use of the creek is fishing and that the construction activity "will interfere with the designated use of the water body by lowering the water quality below the level necessary to support fish."
"The planning director acted in an arbitrary manner by issuing a land development permit for construction," that will harm the creek, the filing states, in several ways:
- "...discharge more sediment than can be assimilated by Intrenchment Creek;"
- "...cause additional impairment to Intrenchment Creek;"
- "...violate water quality criteria for aquatic life;"
- "...discharge more sediment than the available wasteload allocation."
"The (zoning board's) decision to affirm the issuance of the land development permit was unsupported by and contrary to the evidence, and error as a matter of law," it adds.
The filing asks for a court to review the decision, find it erroneous, and reverse it. It's unclear whether the petition will be granted such a hearing.