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WPCNR THE LETTER TICKER. December 3, 2014:

Prior to the resumption of the French American School of New York dual hearings on the proposed campus site plan and request for closure of Hathaway Lane where it bisects the former Ridgeway property, a reader sent this letter to the Mayor and Common Council members:

Dear Mayor Roach and Council Members:

Several thoughts and things to consider in your questions to the applicant of the largest development project in a residential neighborhood in the history of White Plains.  FASNY .

No where in the latest FASNY documents is a perimeter fence mentioned or depicted.  Very simply, is FASNY going to have a fence surrounding its 56 acre campus?  If so, what kind of fence and where will it be located?  The Council must demand answers to these questions.  I suspect that fortress FASNY will be ‘safely’ demarcated from the City of White Plains.

Also, the submitted ‘3-D model’ was a joke.  It was not in anyway helpful in visualizing the enormity of the over 260,000 sq ft school buildings/campus and the visual impact to the surrounding Gedney Farms neighborhood.  Yet again, FASNY responded to your request and produced a pitiful, useless piece of nonsense.  You must demand a 3-D rendition with CAD computer aided-design of the proposed FASNY site so that all stakeholders would know what FASNY in White Plains would really look like.  The picture below is an example of a 3-D CAD of New York City.

In addition, according to experienced landscape professionals, FASNY’s meadow restoration project is ‘not natural’.  The habitat of Westchester is woodland not meadow as shown in the pretty FASNY aspirational depictions.

All of the evidence presented to you over the past four years against this project is overwhelming.  Please carefully consider it. As elected stewards of the city, do the right thing for the future of the entire city of White Plains and vote no to the closure of Hathaway Lane and no to the FASNY special permit. Reasonable people will suspect that undue influence was exerted on Council members if any other decision is reached.

I do not believe that FASNY is a done deal.  To date, 1,618 viewers of the “FASNY: It’s Not a Done Deal” Youtube video agree. http://m.youtube.com/watch/v=809tyjLvs68   It might be worth while to re-view the bucolic jewel of a neighborhood that is depicted in this 3min14sec video.  You can save Gedney Farms. You have been more than fair with FASNY throughout this SEQRA ordeal and followed the procedures to the letter of the law.

Abandonment of Hathaway Lane!

Enough is enough.

Thank you,

Anne M. Casey, M.D.