Matt Hamilton/Daily Citizen-NewsHari Ankasala bats as Mehul Patel throws and Nick Patel catches in this file photo of an exhibition match at the Dalton Cricket Grounds.

DALTON, Ga. — The future of the Dalton Cricket Grounds faces an important test on Monday.

The Dalton-Whitfield Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on a request by owner Alpesh Patel for a special use permit to allow an athletic field on 21.8 acres at 1140 Tunnel Hill Varnell Road. Commissioners will then vote on whether to recommend that permit. The commission meets at 6 p.m. at Whitfield County Administrative Building 2, 214 W. King St. in Dalton.

The site of the cricket grounds is actually inside Varnell city limits, so the Varnell City Council will have final approval of the request.

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 and is popular in many parts of the world including the Caribbean, India, Pakistan, the United Kingdom and southern Africa.

The cricket grounds opened for play in April. But at a May meeting of the Varnell City Council several residents of a subdivision next to the cricket fields expressed concerns about its impact on traffic and noise.

At that meeting, Whitfield County Zoning Administrator Jean Garland said the site of the cricket grounds is zoned residential and when Patel applied for a land disturbance permit to clear the property he signed an agreement that it would only be used by his family and that he would apply for a special use permit if he wanted to open it to public use.

Patel told council members that he did not believe the cricket games held on the field were a public use because he did not charge anything. But council member Jan Pourquoi said there did not have to be any commercial activity taking place for the council to find there was public use of the property.

Council members had Garland read an April 23, 2017, story from the Daily Citizen-News on the grand opening ceremony for the cricket field. In the article, Patel said the Atlanta Georgia Cricket Conference would host games weekly and the Chattanooga Premier League would be playing almost daily at the cricket grounds.

Council members voted to declare the games being played on the grounds to be a public use. But they also voted to allow the games to continue until a decision is reached on the permit.

City Manager Mike Brown says council members expect to vote on the permit at their July 18 meeting.