Gedney Assoc. Threatens Legal Action Over FASNY Report
A letter addressed to Mayor Tom Roach, copied to members of the city council and dated October 7, was read aloud during the Citizens to be Heard segment before last week’s regularly scheduled monthly Common Council meeting in White Plains.
Written and presented by legal counsel for the Gedney Association, the letter accused the White Plains council of disregarding SEQRA procedure regarding the French American School of New York’s (FASNY) application to develop a regional school campus on the site of the former Ridgeway Country Club, which meanders through the Gedney neighborhood.
Specific reference was made to traffic and transportation considerations in the immediate and surrounding neighborhoods and transparency of information important to public commentary on the application’s progress.
FASNY’s proposed development would house 1,200 students and about 225 to 250 staff in new buildings with 428 parking spaces and student activity on various athletic fields on over 45 acres of land.
The October 7 letter quotes the FASNY application as conceding that 1,170 vehicles per hour will be generated on the site. The letter further refers to the city’s TRC Engineer’s traffic report, dated September 12, 2013, which it claims was not made available for appropriate public review prior to adoption of the September 16, 2013 SEQRA Resolution by the council to accept the FASNY Environmental Impact Statement as complete. The letter emphasizes that: “it is apparent that the Applicant (FASNY) had access to, knowledge of and the ability to comment on that TRC Report without the same right being accorded to the (Gedney) Association and the public generally.” The letter provides a chronology of events to support its claim.
The letter finally demands that the city re-open the SEQRA Record with the consequence of legal action if it does not.
On October 1 and in reference to the September 12 report, which was received by the Gedney Association on September 24, Mary A. Manning, an engineer hired by the Gedney Association to review the FASNY plan, states in a letter that the TRC Report concludes that the FASNY FEIS does not contain enough information to adequately describe the project and it lacks proof that a proposed alternative traffic mitigation plan to enter the FASNY site from either North Street or Bryant Avenue rather than the original plan for an entrance on Ridgeway, is feasible and reasonable.
Manning further states that many of her specific concerns are echoed in the city’s own TRC Report.
Mayor Roach and the Council have noted throughout the SEQRA process that they are following the process to the letter and that the September vote was not an approval of the project. During the September vote to accept the FASNY EIS as final and complete, there were five votes to accept and two to decline. The declining votes were made by Councilwoman Milagros Lecuona and Councilman Dennis Krolian.
