New Castle Zoning Board Approves Sunshine Children’s Home Expansion

By Andrew Vitelli

The New Castle Zoning Board of Appeals voted unanimously last Wednesday to allow Sunshine Children’s Home and Rehab Center’s expansion to move forward, granting a special use permit and two variances despite intense opposition from neighbors.

The board’s vote paves the way for Sunshine to increase its bed count from 54 to 118 on its 33-acre site on Spring Valley Road near the New Castle-Ossining border.

In addition to issuing the special use permit, the board voted for a negative declaration under the state Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), allowing Sunshine to move forward without submitting an extensive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Director of Planning Sabrina Charney Hull said the applicants had mitigated the need for an EIS by providing project changes throughout the review.

“Essentially, they did all of the analysis that would be required in an EIS as part of their project review,” Hull said. “They volunteered to monitor offsite well water, which alleviated the concern of the impact on groundwater wells.”

The ZBA’s decision angered neighboring residents, who said they would consider legal recourse to fight the expansion. Around 20 Teatown area residents attended the meeting at New Castle Town Hall, shouting “Shame on you” after votes for a negative declaration and in support of the special use permit.

“They’re authorizing a commercial facility in an environmentally sensitive residential neighborhood, well over 100,000 square feet, and no environmental impact study?” said Karen Wells, who runs the Greater Teatown group, after the vote. “This is Chappaqua saying, ‘Drop dead Teatown.’”

In a press release, Sunshine noted that its application, which increases the size of the facility from about 19,000 to 147,000 square feet, had included reports detailing the project’s impact on wetlands, tree removal, steep slopes, rock removal and water usage, and said completing an EIS would be time consuming and delay the project unnecessarily.

“We are thrilled and grateful beyond words to finally be able to move forward with plans for our beautifully expanded space,” Sunshine administrator Linda Mosiello said in the release. “I am very excited for expanded space that will allow us to provide important and even higher quality services and programs that are essential for the children here.”

At last week’s meeting, the ZBA discussed recent letters sent to the town regarding the project, including one from the Town of Ossining. Zoning Board member Michael Nolan expressed concern over voting on the permit so soon after receiving the letter.

“I’m just concerned I may not have digested it as well as I should have,” Nolan said, drawing applause from the Teatown residents in the audience.

Mark Weingarten, an attorney representing Sunshine, responded that the public hearing on the project had closed.

“There’s nothing that was raised in the letter that was not in the record prior to the closing of the public hearing,” Weingarten said. “Frankly, we believe you are in a position to make a decision.”

The town counsel concurred, saying the ZBA was not required to consider the recently received letters. Adam Stolorow, an attorney representing the neighbors, stepped to the microphone looking to comment, but the town counsel told the board they could not allow public comment without reopening the public hearing.

Sunshine had applied for 122 beds, but reduced their request to 118 after the Westchester County Department of Health determined the applicant needed 99 gallons of water per bed per day, rather than the 92 gallons Sunshine had originally proposed. Hull said the reduction would only lessen the environmental impact and shouldn’t raise any new issues.

Teatown residents, though, don’t believe even the 99 gallons per bed is sufficient.

“There is not enough water in the aquifer,” said Wells. “That is concern number one.”

Hull countered that the county Department of Health is the regulatory authority on water supply, and also noted that Sunshine has proposed a monitoring program of surrounding groundwater wells.

Sunshine still must go before the New Castle Planning Board for several permits pertaining to wetlands, trees and steep slopes, Hull said. Neighbors in Teatown, meanwhile, said they would continue fighting the expansion.

“Unfortunately, it means legal recourse,” Wells said.