Sigma Chi Wants to Return to Cobbham

There's going to be  full house on Wednesday.

That's when the Historic Preservation Commission will consider the preliminary design plans of the Sigma Chi fraternity for a new chapter house on North Milledge Avenue. The fraternity's housing group last fall bought 1.5 acres between Hancock and Meigs along Milledge where St. Mary's Hospital used to be.

Residents of Cobbham, the historic in-town neighborhood where the lot is located, are preparing for a fight, said retired UGA math professor Clint McCrory. They have learned from a battle last by Five Points homeowners in 2010-2011 against a proposed Chi Phi fraternity house on South Milledge.

In that case, the ACC Commission granted a special use permit to the fraternity, over the very vocal objections of many neighborhood residents. The exterior of the house is almost finished on the Arnocroft property at Milledge and Rutherford.

According to a story in the Athens Banner Herald, the fraternity will need an okay from the Historic Preservation Commission because the proposed house is in a historic neighborhood.