German School Completes Another Hurdle
It’s been a three year process, beginning back in 2010 when the German School at 800 North Street and 50 Partridge Road in White Plains, began an application for amendments to the special permit it has to operate a private regional school in a residential neighborhood.
At the March 19 meeting of the Planning Board, the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) was accepted by the board as complete, having addressed all the issues brought up during the public comment period as well as by city staff.
After a 10-day period the document with all of its additions and changes will be made public. In the meantime, the project enters into the environmental review stage.
At the request of several board members, wording that identified White Plains as the agency that would have control over traffic signaling on the stretch of North Street affected by the additional of turn lanes and added traffic due to an increase of the German School’s population, was to be put into the FEIS. This would in effect create a school speed zone similar to the one currently in place on Mamaroneck Avenue.
Board chairman Michael Quinn read from a list of considerations related to the preservation of the environment and life quality of an existing neighborhood that had been brought up by both the board and members of the community that had submitted written comments and that were also specified in the city’s Comprehensive Plan as well as in its Zoning Code.
Quinn and members of the board agreed that all of the points had been addressed by the applicant.
In an interview after the meeting, Allen Flissler, president of the North Street Civic Association, told The White Plains Examiner that he and other members of the community were concerned that the Planning Board appeared to be set to allow the project to go through.
“The point is that the board must follow the guidelines provided by the Comprehensive Plan and we feel this project even with the changes is in direct violation of that. The Planning Board must take all the information together and put it into context. The different city departments have been working in a vacuum,” he said.
Referring to the Club Pointe community, Flissler said there was a lot of upset over the addition of a turning lane just outside the neighborhood’s access onto North Street. There is a major traffic safety issue here and the introduction of that safety issue in itself is a violation of the guidelines of the Comprehensive Plan.
Flissler expressed the consideration that as a business, the German School had to make long-range plans to ensure its long-term success and that the current parking space and student population requests were just the tip of an iceberg that would become evident seven to ten years down the road.
“The Planning Board’s job is to make sure the zoning ordinances and essence of the Comprehensive Plan are maintained,” Flissler said. “This is not about the fact that the applicant spent money changing the plan or about the amount of time it has taken to amend the application. It is about whether or not the plan is appropriate for the neighborhood and the overall health of the city.”
