After two years of studies and public hearings, the French-American School of New York”™s plan to create a $70 million campus on a former golf course is one step closer to final approval.
The White Plains Common Council last week accepted the project”™s final environmental impact statement as complete.
“The Common Council is working with the city”™s technical staff to answer additional questions,” said Mischa Zabotin, chairman of FASNY”™s board of trustees. “At this stage ”¦ the ball is in the Common Council”™s court.”
Once the findings are approved, FASNY will have to submit its site plans, which opens the door to public hearings. The vote on a special permit comes even further down the road. But that road could prove rocky, as the plan has proved unpopular with neighbors.
In 2010, FASNY, a bilingual French-American school that leases campuses in Larchmont, Mamaroneck and Scarsdale, paid $11 million for the 129-acre former home of Ridgeway Country Club. After 33 years of operation, FASNY needed a new space to accommodate more students and provide outdoor athletic facilities.
“The idea was to consolidate the three campuses into one,” Zabotin said. “Right now, we rent the three schools we occupy. But we wanted something to call our own.”
The school has proposed creating a campus clustered on 46 acres of land that would include school buildings, athletic fields, playgrounds to accommodate 1,200 students from nursery to 12th grade and a staff of up to 250. The remaining 84 acres would be set aside for a nature preserve that would be open to the public for activities such as biking and jogging.
FASNY has faced fierce opposition from neighborhood groups including Gedney Association, which represents 400 households in the Gedney Farms neighborhood.
Gedney Association President Terence Guerriere said the project was inappropriate and took away historic land that has never been developed. “This property is so wet that it wasn”™t used for anything else except a golf course. It”™s not appropriate for a development to come in here,” he said.
He added that the proposal isn”™t consistent with environmental regulations.
“We”™re replacing open green space with impervious space and creating multilane roads, which will have drainage issues,” Guerriere said. “But you also have buses traveling, so these lanes will be wide lanes. Parking could add a third lane.”
The multilane driveway will extend 3,000 feet, which concerns neighbors because it might interfere with traffic to nearby schools, including White Plains High School, German School New York and preschools.
To address those concerns, FASNY proposed alternative entrances to the campus at North Street and Bryant Avenue to alleviate traffic congestion. These were included in the final environmental statement accepted Sept. 16.
“We knew traffic was the single biggest issue,” Zabotin said. “We listened to professional input from the city and came up with alternative solutions.”
The flow of traffic can be reduced by half, he said, because FASNY plans to keep most of the bus drop-offs and pick-ups on its property. Zabotin said FASNY also plans to stagger the opening and closing times of each of the divisions so not everyone shows up and leaves at the same time.
“Between the long driveways that capture traffic, staggered start and stop times and the busing program, we feel we”™ve done everything we can to mitigate traffic issues,” Zabotin said.
White Plains Mayor Thomas Roach and Karen Pasquale, senior adviser, could not be reached for comment at press time.
