German School Expansion Hearing Draws Crowd
The White Plains Planning Board public hearing on a special permit application by the German School New York, located at 50 Partridge Road in the Havilands Manor neighborhood of White Plains, to increase the student population from 375 to 500, enlarge a parking lot to 62 spaces, move a stone wall to accommodate changes within the property, and create an entrance to the school directly off of North Street, continued at the June 25 meeting. The room was filled to capacity primarily with residents from the Havilands Manor, North Street and Gedney neighborhoods.
Allen Fissler and Tony Justic, board members of the North Street Neighborhood Association presented an analysis of the German School’s application and Bernard Adler, a licensed engineer and former Commissioner of Traffic for the City of White Plains, also representing the North Street Neighborhood Association, analyzed the school’s traffic impact study, determining it was insufficient.
The proposed new entrance to the school at Roger Place would redirect traffic from within the Havilands neighborhood to direct access from North Street. Residents’ concerns focused on traffic safety and cautioned that additional traffic being considered for the French American School DEIS would also bring more traffic onto North Street. Planning Commissioner Sue Habel explained that because the FASNY DEIS had not yet been accepted by the Common Council, it was not considered as part of the German School analysis at this time. That being a legal and procedural implication, did not mean both applications should not be considered as part of a broader picture and the final plan, according to Habel.
Agreeing with Adler, that more analysis was required to determine if there is enough width on North Street to accommodate a left turn pocket onto Roger Place, residents of Club Pointe, which is accessed by Club Pointe Drive, and just a bit south of and across from Roger Place on North Street, said the speed on North Street is already hazardous despite a 35 mph limit and that the slight curve in the road before the proposed turn-off for the school would create a further safety issue. The resident at 7 Roger Place, located at the corner where traffic would be exiting off of North Street in the proposed plan, expressed his concerns about increased traffic on the main road, saying it was already an extremely dangerous situation, causing him and his family stress when they exit and enter their property. “It is almost impossible to get out,” he said.
Parents of students attending the German School spoke about the global community, which encouraged snickering from some members of the audience and set off a series of comments from German School families in the immediate neighborhood that they too were taxpaying residents of White Plains, who wanted their children to be able to walk safely to school, off the main road.
John Sheehan, vice president of the Gedney Neighborhood Association, which is actively fighting the special permit application of the French American School in that neighborhood, said the issue is more about the physical expansion of these educational institutions into the residential neighborhoods. He advised the Planning Board and the Common Council to use the city’s Comprehensive Plan as their guideline in these matters, “because it already states that the North Street corridor should be preserved as a residential area,” he said.
Terrence Guerriere, president of the Gedney Neighborhood Association, and an outspoken opponent of the FASNY application, said he was not representing the association when he said he supported the German School’s application. “Because they are not expanding the building area, I support it,” he said. Guerriere’s wife is a teacher at the German School and their children attend the school as well.
