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Talking Points in Opposition to the French American School's Plans for the Ridgeway Country Club Property
The French American School's proposal:
• Close on the sale of the property on January 20.
o The sale of the property is not contingent on the securing of any approvals from the City.
o They will own the property whether or not they obtain permission to operate a school there.
o If the permit is denied, School has commitments from wealthy individuals from their community to buy the property from the School, allowing the School to seek another place to build.
• Make their initial applications within the next 3 months.
• Current campuses are leased space in Larchmont, Mamaroneck and Scarsdale.
• Current student population of the School is 850
• Expect to raise the number of total students to 1,200.
• School is organized as four schools: a high school, middle school, elementary school and a nursery school.
• Keep the present clubhouse buildings and modifying them for use for school administration.
• Build three additional buildings on the property:
o one for the high school, one for the middle school and one to be used by the elementary school and nursery school.
• High school and middle school buildings to be built adjacent to the existing clubhouse.
• Elementary and Nursery School building to be constructed at the other end of the property near Bryant Avenue adjacent to the Burke Hospital property and Bryant Gardens. This building would be accessed from Bryant Avenue.
• Athletic facilities are planned for the area immediately north of the present caddy building off of Hathaway Lane (near Ridgeway).
• The remaining 60 acres (out of 128 acre total club property) would be preserved as open space.
Why are we opposed?
1. Open Space Needs to be Preserved
a. The City of White Plains has precious little open space and we need to preserve as much as possible.
b. NYC has more open space, per capita, than does White Plains.
c. The School's plan of preserving 60+ acres of the property (of a total area of 128 acres) as open space is not as generous is it may initially sound. The vast majority of the property will remain open regardless if the School builds or not. Most of this property is not developable. It is too wet and environmentally vulnerable.
2. The Ridgeway Property's Environment is Fragile
a. It is wet. It has never been developed for a good reason - the Mamaroneck and Sheldrake Rivers run through and underneath the property.
b. The School's plan calls for 3 new, significantly sized buildings, serving 1,200 students plus faculty and staff. Based on population, that would mean, buildings the size of:
i. two more Ridgeway Schools, or ii. three more German Schools, or iii. two more Stepinacs, or
iv. another Highlands School v. plus parking...
c. The plan would bring much more impervious surfaces to the property ... too much for it to handle. This development would detrimentally impact both the immediate area and in the communities downstream including; potentially, the village of Mamaroneck.
3. A violation of the City's Comprehensive Plan
a. The White Plains Comprehensive Plan calls for significant parcels of open land, including Ridgeway CC, to remain undeveloped. Why? Projects like this will adversely impact the City.
b. Density - the comprehensive plan calls for the least dense use of the property as possible. 1,400 people (students, faculty, staff and visitors) into White Plains and onto the property every school day is a very dense use of the property.
4. Too Much Institutional Use
a. When taken together with the other 20+ institutional uses (schools, houses of worship, hospitals, YWCA, Women's Club) already present in the immediate area of the property, the accumulated effect would be devastating to the residential character of the neighborhood.
5. Traffic
a. The city wide problem of too much traffic in its residential areas will be made much worse if the project is built.
b. The impact of traffic to transport 1,200 students by bus and car, and hundreds of faculty and staff must be considered.
6. Cost to the Taxpayer
a. Infrastructural changes needed to accommodate the School will cost the taxpayers money
i. Additional turning lanes on Ridgeway and possibly Bryant to accommodate buses and car traffic ii. Possible addition of a traffic light at Hathaway Lane and Ridgeway and another on Bryant Avenue to assist with increased traffic
iii. Sidewalk for Ridgeway (although already needed) will definitely be required to accommodate walkers' safety
iv. Increased sewers, water, fire, and police will be needed to accommodate increased demand.
b. Changes will be paid for by White Plains taxpayers to benefit those who are not.
i. The overwhelming majority of the School's families and staff live outside of White Plains.
c. The School is exempt from paying real estate taxes. The loss of tax revenue will be at least $230,000.
d. If built, the School could adversely affect home values which will lead to lower assessments and lower tax collections with the entire City's taxpayers taking on the additional tax burden.
Recommended Actions:
The Common Council should vote to decline to hear the French American School's application for a special permit to build and operate a school on the Ridgeway Country Club property. This would avoid a long, drawn out process and save the City and the applicant time and money.
Further, the Common Council should impose a moratorium on any changes to the City's golf courses and similar properties until the Council can decide the proper way to preserve our sorely needed open spaces.
What can you do?
Talk to your neighbors and friends throughout the city and encourage them to contact the Common Council members and the Mayor.
A list of the Mayors and Common Council's contact information is attached.
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Sale of Ridgeway C. C,
FASNY plans for RCC
The two site plans
Objections to school
FASNY rebuttal
Area photo album
W.P. Government
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