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WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL CHRONICLE-EXAMINER By John F. Bailey. December 9, 20013 UPDATED 5 P.M. E.S.T.:

The French American School of New York  Findings Statement expected to be approved by the Common Council this evening sets up thousands of conditions that the school will have to satisfy before they lift a shovel of dirt to build.

It has just been announced to WPCNR by the Mayor’s Office that it has been decided by the city to televise the meeting  on Government Access, channels 75 and 44, according to the Mayor’s Office.  Previously WPCNR had been told the proceedings would not be televised. Now they will be.

And anything can happen, including no vote. 

Among the conditions among thousands in the document:

1. 75 foot setbacks from all borders of the property to school facilities and parking lots.

2. Closing of Hathaway Lane subject to Council approval

3. Apparent elimination of the ball field

4. Individual special permits for each building.

5. An entrance on North Street, (requiring school district approval)

6. Limitation of traffic flow to 530 vehicles a day. 

7. A mandatory busing plan

7. Most significantly, the Findings Statement envisions cutting school capacity to 950 students, 250 less than the school proposed originally (1,200).  

The Common Council is holding a special meeting this evening at 7 in City Hall to consider a resolution determining the Finding on the French American School of New York proposal to build their 7-building campus on the former Ridgeway Country Club.

The proposal has been in the approval process for three years.

The Findings statement is  expected to be approved by the Common Council following the lines of the 5-2 approval of the Draft Final Environmental Impact Statement, October 16.

In that vote perquisite to tonight’s meeting,( which as of 11:30 A.M. is still scheduled), Mayor Thomas Roach,  Councilmen Benjamin Boykin, John Kirkpatrick, James Martin, and Council President Beth Smayda  voted in favor, while Councilman Dennis Krolian and Milagros Lecuona voted against finding the Draft Environmental Impact State complete and accurate. 

Since that date, the Common Council and city lawyers, consulting firms have been preparing the Findings Statement, which if approved by the Council will allow the project to proceed under the conditions set forth in the Findings Statement.

There are thousands of specific conditions, applications for special permits on a building-by-building basis, for example, plus it does not give the school what it wants: 1,250 student capacity. The hoops the school will have to jump through are painstakingly detailed in the 126-page Findings Statement the school would have to  meet and have approved in site plan process, the next step, in order for FASNY to lift one shovel of dirt. These conditions can be read on the City website in their entirety at

http://cityofwhiteplains.com/dataimages/12-09-2013s_common_council_agenda_backup.pdf

The Findings Statement approved the project subject to meeting the conditions and changes and restrictions in the various matters addressed in the statement, to wit:

In view of the foregoing, the Common Council as Lead Agency finds that the Modified Proposed Project using North Street as the primary access, as further modified by these findings and subject to the conditions contained herein, including but not limited to reduction of the proposed student body to 950 students, which is consistent with the projected needs of FASNY at least through the 2018-19 school year and it is also consistent with the reasonably projected compliance with mandatory busing and other variables addressed herein, will avoid to the maximum extent practicable the significant adverse environmental impacts addressed in  these findings.