DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — The zoning board in DeKalb County denied an appeal against the building permit for the future Atlanta police training center on Wednesday. The training center has faced a long-running protest movement by opponents that refer to it as "Cop City."
The vote, which will allow full construction on the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center to proceed, was unanimous.
The appeal was filed with the county's Zoning Board of Appeals by Amy Taylor, who has been a community representative on the project's Community Stakeholder Advisory Committee. It's also joined by a DeKalb County commissioner, Ted Terry.
Officially, it challenged the land disturbance permit - essentially, a construction permit that was issued for the project in January.
The Dekalb County Zoning Board of Appeals will held its meeting Wednesday afternoon.
The appeal argued that the land disturbance permit, which would allow construction to begin after finalizing the building site, should not have been issued. It cites "sediment discharges from the site during clearing, grading and construction" that would "exceed the numeric waste load allocation for Intrenchment Creek in violation of state and federal law."
It also argued that agreements between the city and Atlanta Police Foundation - which is the primary funder of the project - called for the preservation of 265 acres of greenspace on land owned by the city. However, the actual greenspace accounted for in the permit would only total 210 acres.
While the zoning board could not comment on the green space permit, they unanimously voted to uphold the project.
While some concerns were made about the site's environmental impact, there wasn't "clear evidence that the county has not met due diligence," as one board member put it.
DeKalb County has previously released a timeline of the permitting process that led to the issuance of the permit.
A previous attempt to have a Fulton County court stop construction at the site pending this appeal failed.
Last week, a stop work order for the site was issued by the county Department of Planning and Sustainability. Inspectors issued the order after they saw that the site's silt fence was "malfunctioning."
These required fences are used to retain soil to disturbed land and control erosion.
However, the stop work order was quickly lifted, after required "Best Management Practices" had been brought back into compliance with the county's codes.
For more on "Cop City" and the controversy surrounding the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, see here: What is 'Cop City'? Explaining the controversy around a future police training center in Atlanta