As part of continued efforts to garner support for its proposed White Plains campus, the French-American School of New York (FASNY) announced July 9 that Teatown Lake Reservation Inc. would conduct an in-depth study of the campus”™ 84-acre Greens to Green Conservancy.
Since buying the 130-acre former Ridgeway Country Club in January 2011, the school has encountered heated opposition from homeowners in the Ridgeway Avenue neighborhood.
The school plans to develop just over a third of the property, where it would consolidate its lower, middle and upper schools, while leaving the remainder of the property as an undeveloped, publicly accessible conservancy.
FASNY officials hope to appease residents and city of White Plains officials through the conservancy portion of the development plan.
A citywide moratorium on open-space developments has been in effect since early 2011 while the White Plains Common Council considers a zoning amendment that would limit development on certain properties ”“ including the former Ridgeway Country Club ”“ to 5 percent of the parcel.
Teatown Lake Reservation, an environmental research and education nonprofit based in Ossining, will conduct a yearlong biodiversity study of the proposed conservancy, which presently includes meadows, ponds, wetlands and forest.
The study, which will begin later this month, will serve as the foundation for the future management and for any research decisions relating to the 84-acre space.
Mischa Zabotin, chairman of the FASNY board of trustees, said school officials talked with a number of regional environmental organizations before selecting Teatown.
Teatown “stood out as offering a science-based program that could provide the kind of in-depth analytic knowledge we need to create this unique conservation opportunity,” Zabotin said in a statement.
The White Plains Common Council along with various city officials is currently reviewing the school”™s draft environmental impact statement for the proposed campus development.
A FASNY representative said a study on the conservancy was not specifically requested by the city, and said FASNY would have sought out such a study regardless of any opposition to its campus proposal.
FASNY last month held its second open house for city residents ”“ the first having been held just two weeks after the school closed on the $11 million acquisition. Roughly 200 people were in attendance at the June 9 event.
