Judge Orders White Plains to Vote on FASNY Project
The following press release was issued Thursday, Jan. 21: The plan to build the French-American School of New York (FASNY) in White Plains took a major step forward today with a Decision by a State Supreme Court Judge that orders the City’s Common Council to vote on the School’s application for a school and nature park at its next meeting and rejects the attempt of a neighborhood opposition group to intervene in the case.
In a 17-page decision, Judge Joan B. Lefkowitz said that “FASNY’s special permit and site plan applications, including the partial discontinuance of Hathaway Lane, were subjected to exhaustive, public environmental review.” The Court squarely rejected the City’s argument that the Council could “table” its vote on FASNY’s Special Permit and Site Plan Applications after the School did not receive the 2/3rd vote necessary to discontinue a small length of Hathaway Lane at its August 5, 2015 Meeting. Instead, the Court held that FASNY’s Application was complete, and “the Common Council failed to comply with the time limits in the Zoning Ordinance or the General City Law” by failing to act on it. The Court ordered the Council to “vote forthwith” on FASNY’s Applications “no later than its next regular meeting.”
The decision states that the Common Council in its own Environmental Findings, which were approved by a 6-1 vote in December 2013, “explicitly found that of all the (access) options considered during the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) process,” and the North Street driveway access, which included the partial closing of a portion of Hathaway Lane, “avoided or minimized adverse environmental impacts to the maximum extent practicable.”
The Judge denied the motion of the Gedney Neighborhood Association, which has vehemently opposed FASNY since the school purchased the former Ridgeway Country Club in January 2011, to intervene in the lawsuit that was brought by FASNY following the Council’s August 5th vote that rejected the partial closing of a small section of Hathaway Lane. She concluded “the Proposed Intervenors would unduly delay the determination of the proceeding” and “would be adversely prejudicial to FASNY.”
While the Gedney Association argued that the partial discontinuance of Hathaway Lane or construction of the school, would if approved, have environmental impacts, Judge Lefkowitz noted that “FASNY’s special permit and site plan applications, including the partial discontinuance of Hathaway Lane, were subjected to exhaustive, public environmental review.” She characterized allegations that access to some homes would be adversely affected or even prevented, as “unsubstantiated allegations (that) are not sufficient” to warrant intervention, and said that the legal cases cited to support the motion to intervene are not “even remotely pertinent to, much less supportive of their argument.”
Andrea Colombel, Chair of the FASNY Board of Trustees, said the School “is very pleased with the decision and the Court’s recognition of the five years of study, analysis and review that the plan had been subjected to. It’s been a long and extremely thorough review with extensive public input. Simply put, the time has come to move forward with the project. We look forward to becoming a part of the extensive and diverse educational opportunities for which White Plains is so well known and respected.”
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