Judge rules against lawsuit to stop Harrison senior center

A proposed 160-unit senior housing facility in Harrison is cleared to move forward after a state Supreme Court judge ruled against a challenge to it from a group of residents there.

A Feb. 22 ruling from Justice Gretchen Walsh ruled against resident group Save Harrison, Inc., which had filed an Article 78 challenge to the proposed 169,000 square foot facility.

Brightview Senior Living LLC, a Maryland-based senior housing developer, has been met with community resistance to its plan to build a mix of independent and assisted-living units on a 7.3 acre property at 600 Lake St. in the town, a site previously home to a granite quarry.

The Harrison Town Board approved a zoning change necessary for Brightview’s proposal in May 2016, following a tense meeting that included boos and chants from residents.

In June, Save Harrison filed a lawsuit against the developer, along with the town board and planning board, challenging the project. The groups says the proposal is a threat to neighborhoods near Silver Lake in the town. In July, a Save Harrison member told the Business Journal that the group objected to a project “the size of two Home Depots” going into a residential neighborhood. The project would bring increased traffic, noise and potential flooding, plus disrupt nearby wetlands, the group argued in its lawsuit.

The lawsuit also questioned the thoroughness of the town’s environmental review and whether the proposal lined up with the town’s comprehensive plan.

Walsh wrote in the decision that the Harrison Planning Board’s review gave “exhaustive consideration to all potential environmental problems.”

Brightview Senior Living LLC is a subsidiary of The Shelter Group, based in Baltimore. 

Brightview’s proposal calls for a four-story building with 84 units for independent living, 50 for assisted living and 26 for memory care. The company manages a 95-apartment senior living facility in Tarrytown and 35 other similar facilities along the East Coast.

Brightview’s attorney, David Steinmetz, of the White Plains firm Zarin & Steinmetz, said Brightview is “extremely pleased that the court upheld the validity of the town of Harrison’s zoning text amendment, (and) the comprehensive environmental review that they did.”

Save Harrison is represented by Al Pirro of The Pirro Group in White Plains. Pirro told both The Journal News and the local newspaper The Harrison Review following the ruling that his group planned to appeal the decision.

Brightview is entered into a contract with the owner of the granite quarry, Lawrence Barrego, to buy the property.

The proposal comes after a legal dispute between the quarry and town that dragged on for several years. In 2009, the town of Harrison filed criminal and civil charges against the quarry for alleged violations of town code and issued stop-work orders. The matter bounced around state courts until the two sides reached a settlement in 2014. The quarry agreed not to further its operations, end all litigation against the town and submit an application for a senior living facility on the site. In exchange, the town of Harrison agreed to no longer pursue $825,000 it was allegedly owed in fines and dropped its pursuit of alleged code violations.

Harrison had a public hearing scheduled on the proposal for its town board meeting March 2, but pushed the hearing back to its March 23 meeting. The hearing was needed as a precursor to any vote by the town board confirming the planning board’s issuance of a special permit to Brightview, a requirement for the project to move forward.