Substance Abuse Treatment Hospital Proposed in Cortlandt
An upscale residential treatment center for patients with alcohol and other substance abuse disorders is being proposed in a rural neighborhood in the Town of Cortlandt.
The Hudson Ridge Wellness Center is seeking site plan approval and a special permit from the Cortlandt Planning Board to fill a maximum of 92 beds in seven existing buildings on the former Hudson Institute property at 2016 Quaker Ridge Road in the Village of Croton.
The 20.8-acre site also spreads into the Village of Ossining and Town of New Castle and requires approvals from those municipalities.
Bob Davis, an attorney for Hudson Ridge, compared the facility to the famous Betty Ford Clinic and maintained it was not the same as the recently opened sober living residence in the Town of Yorktown, which he was actively involved in getting approved.
“The sober home is a place people may go after they leave a place such as our proposal,” Davis told Cortlandt planners while a room full of interested neighbors listened intently.
Davis said the majority of clients at Hudson Ridge would be “corporate referred adults” with no behavioral or psychological problems and would pose no danger to the area.
“The patients clearly don’t want to draw attention to themselves,” Davis said, noting the average stay for a patient would be a month or two.
Since the Hudson Institute closed in the early 1980s, Davis said the property and buildings had fallen into disrepair and become “a haven for wild parties and illegal hunting.” Hudson Ridge has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars since 2010 to refurbish the buildings and land.
The medical facility, which will be staffed with about 92 doctors, nurses and other employees, is expected to generate more than $500,000 annually in property taxes. It would be regulated by the state Health Department.
“It’s not an unregulated facility. It’s not like the wild west,” Davis said. “It’s not like it would be open and there would be 92 people there.”
Karen Wells, a local resident who said she was representing Concerned Citizens for Responsible Hudson Institute Site Development, expressed concerns about some of the claims Hudson Ridge made in its application to the town and insisted a regional traffic study and Full Environmental Impact Statement be required during the review process.
“We are the residents who will be impacted by the proposed plan,” Wells said. “Until recently this was an abandoned site. The applicant is claiming this was an existing hospital. If you go to the site there is no hospital. When is a special permit no longer special and becomes a rezoning?”
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/
