The White Plains Board of Education has concerns about the French-American School of New York”™s proposal to build a campus on the site of the former Ridgeway Country Club, and opponents think those concerns could be a death knell for the project.
In a letter sent to White Plains Mayor Thomas Roach and the members of the White Plains Common Council and obtained by the Business Journal, the school board relayed worries over the impact of increased traffic from FASNY on the safety of students at White Plains High School. The correspondence was signed by all seven Board of Education members and interim superintendent Timothy P. Connors.
“It is the unanimous opinion of the White Plains Board of Education that ”¦ the increased traffic resulting from the location of the main entrance to the proposed consolidated French American School on either North Street or Bryant Avenue would have a profoundly negative and disruptive effect on the operations of White Plains High School and the safety and welfare of our students, their families and our staff,” the letter said.
Opponents of the project hope that the Board of Education”™s letter will effectively end the possibility of the French-American School redeveloping the former golf course property.
“The letter speaks for itself,” said John Sheehan, the president of the Gedney Association, a neighborhood group that opposes the FASNY project. “I think this application (by FASNY for a special permit) is history.”
In a press release, FASNY said, “the Board”™s letter sent yesterday to the White Plains Common Council stating that it is opposed to the North Street access driveway to the school showed a lack of substantive analysis of FASNY”™s driveway and student busing plans and appeared based on conjecture rather than facts.”
FASNY”™s statement noted that the Board of Education “offered no comments on traffic or any other issue during the entire three-year State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) proceeding conducted by the Common Council.”
Sheehan doesn”™t think the Common Council will go against the recommendation of the White Plains Board of Education.
“They are charged with the safety of our children,” Sheehan said. “They said North Street and Bryant Avenue were unsafe, and the Common Council said Ridgeway was unsafe. Everyone is gratified the school board made a serious, in-depth inquiry.”
An original traffic management plan, filed as part of a draft environmental impact statement in 2012, was revised twice in 2013 in response to concern over traffic patterns. According to the revision, 75 percent of the school”™s students would have been required to participate in a mandatory busing program aimed at lowering traffic.
FASNY also reduced the number of students it hoped to accommodate from 1,200 to 950 and moved the planned entrance to the campus directly across from the entrance to White Plains High School on North Street.
The board”™s letter expressed concern that FASNY”™s traffic mitigation proposals don”™t actually remediate the problems with the original plans, but would actually create larger problems for the White Plains public schools.
“It has also been our experience that there are undesirable, unexpected consequences from FASNY”™s proposed ”˜mandatory”™ busing policy,” the letter said. “Even under the best of weather conditions, such programs are difficult to enforce, and over time, compliance fades.”
The French-American School”™s statement said the school met with representatives of the school district several times and made a full presentation to the board Sept. 23, 2013, during which the traffic plan was discussed. The statement said, “the Board of Education”™s letter to the City also demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the busing plan that is an integral part of the overall traffic mitigation plan for the school.”
The roughly $60-70 million project would consolidate the French-American School”™s three campuses currently in Scarsdale, Mamaroneck, and Larchmont into a single site for 950 students.
Residents in the neighborhood surrounding the former Ridgeway Country Club have been opposed to FASNY”™s plan to build a school campus near the golf course”™s former clubhouse. Under FASNY”™s plan, the remainder of the golf course property would be turned into a conservancy.
