White Plains Council Does Not Take FASNY Vote
Monday, Feb 1, 2016, was expected to be a big day in White Plains as the final vote by the White Plains Common Council was anticipated to either accept or deny the French American School of New York’s (FASNY) Special Permit and Site Plan application to develop and operate a regional K-12 school in the Gedney neighborhood in the south end of the city and end the ongoing discussion.
After several years of back and forth between the school and citizen’s groups at city public hearings, a vote in 2015 to deny FASNY’s application for a partial closure of a city-owned street, Hathaway Lane – an integral part of the school’s site plan – set the stage for a lawsuit by FASNY demanding the Council’s denial of the street closing be overturned.
In the Jan. 20 judgment by Joan B. Lefkowitz, Justice of the Supreme Court of New York, the White Plains Council was ordered to vote on the Site Plan submitted in 2014 at its next regularly scheduled meeting – Feb. 1.
The resolution, number 138 on the Council meeting agenda, sought the Special Permit/Site Plan Approval and because it had to be addressed because of the judgment, Council members voted to bring the FASNY item to first on the agenda.
Mayor Tom Roach, indicating that there was an appeal in place by the city to overturn the judge’s decision for the Council to vote, explained that the city stood by its decision that without the partial closing of Hathaway Lane, the FASNY application was moot.
Councilwoman Beth Smayda proposed a vote to remove item 138 from the Council’s meeting agenda and the vote in favor, stayed compliance with the judge’s order.
Council chambers, which was full of residents expecting to witness a vote, quickly emptied and the Council moved on with other business on the meeting agenda.
