A state judge has dismissed a lawsuit by the town of Mount Pleasant that sought to make a $206 million construction project proposed by Westchester Medical Center on its Valhalla campus subject to town zoning regulations and environmental review by town officials.
The town in June went to state Supreme Court in Westchester to challenge a decision by Westchester County Health Care Corp., which operates the 652-bed hospital, to proceed with a 260,000-square-foot development as the only agency involved in the state’s required environmental review of the project. Hospital officials at the same time declared the project would have no significant environmental impact without preparing the voluminous environmental impact statement commonly required of large development projects by Westchester municipalities. The hospital instead prepared a shorter environmental assessment form, avoiding the protracted and costly review and series of public hearings that would have been required by the town of Mount Pleasant.
The project includes a new ambulatory care pavilion and seven-story hospital addition. WMC in its project application to the state Health Department said the ambulatory care building will allow the hospital to focus its outpatient care at one pavilion to create a more efficient environment and streamline patient care.
Mount Pleasant town attorney Darius Chafizadeh, of Harris Beach PLLC in White Plains, in the court complaint said the hospital was moving on the project without any meaningful environmental review and attempting an “end-run” around the town”™s zoning code and the State Environmental Quality Review Act.
In his Feb. 27 decision, though, Acting Supreme Court Justice Robert A. Neary agreed with WMC attorney Jordy Rabinowitz”™s argument that the hospital project was exempt from town authority when a “balancing of public interests” test was applied to the dispute between the town and the public benefit corporation that owns the hospital.
Rabinowitz cited a 1988 ruling by the state Court of Appeals that sets certain factors to be weighed to determine whether local zoning laws apply in such conflicts. The appeals court case involved an intergovernmental dispute in which the city of Rochester claimed the expansion of an airport owned by Monroe County was subject to city zoning regulations.
Based on that public-interest balancing test, Neary said the hospital is exempt from local zoning and permit law and may proceed with the project without land use oversight from the town.
The judge noted the proposed ambulatory care facility would simply improve upon a service already provided in a smaller building on the Grasslands campus. He said the “overwhelming majority” of the new space, which includes shell space for future use in the planned tower addition, will be used by the hospital itself. The project is on “a well-established and properly developed site where the county has operated a hospital for many years,” he added.
The town last week notified the court it plans to appeal the decision. Chafizadeh could not be reached for comment Tuesday morning.
The project”™s construction schedule was not available Tuesday morning from Westchester Medical Center.
