FASNY To Sell Portions of White Plains Property
The French-American School of New York (FASNY) on Mar. 21 announced its decision to divest part of its Ridgeway property in White Plains with the sale of three parcels that are not part of the final approved reduced Site Plan forced by a court-ordered Stipulation Agreement between the school and the City of White Plains.
FASNY retained Stamford-based CBRE, a commercial real estate services firm, to market and sell the three undeveloped portions of the property, while retaining the 28 acres that are approved for construction of its Secondary School campus (grades 6 to 12) and a 51-acre nature conservancy.
Construction of the controversial project is anticipated to begin soon.
Residents in the immediate neighborhood and in other White Plains communities began fighting the project from the moment the property was purchased, citing environmental and traffic concerns and that the plan was contrary to the goals of the White Plains Comprehensive Plan and would destroy the existing neighborhood. Once the Stipulation Agreement was made, the Gedney Neighborhood Association sued both FASNY and the City of White Plains on several counts related to improper procedure.
FASNY is selling what are known as Parcel B (14 acres between Gedney Esplanade and Heatherbloom Road); Parcel C (15.5 acres between Heatherbloom and Bryant Avenue); and a portion of Parcel D (18.4 acres starting from Hathaway Lane and heading towards Ridgeway) that is not part of the dedicated nature conservancy.
The CBRE website describes the parcels as approximately 48 acres in the prestigious Gedney Farms neighborhood of White Plains.
The Property is located in the White Plains R1-30 Residential One Family zoning district which allows one-family dwellings on lots over 30,000 sq. ft. as a permitted principal use under the City’s zoning ordinance.
According to CBRE, “recent professional land planning studies contemplate that 42 homes may be constructed on lots ranging from .69± acres to 1.87± acres.”
The Stipulation agreement between FASNY and White Plains concerns only Parcel A for building of the school and the conservancy, leaving the remaining property FASNY purchased from the Ridgeway Country Club in 2011 with residential use in effect for the balance of the property.
CBRE has not yet returned a request for information on the sale price for the parcels and whether the parcels would be sold as one unit or could be purchased individually.
