New Residents Group Pushes for FASNY Denial Reconsideration

A new residents group calling itself White Plains Neighbors ACT has launched an effort urging the City Council to reconsider its vote to deny development of the French American School of New York at the former Ridgeway Country Club.

The group announced itself at a council meeting this week, and it sent a letter to Mayor Thomas Roach and the council vowing support for the FASNY proposal. WPNACT lists more than 80 members in the letter to officials.

In August, the council narrowly voted down a plan to close part of nearby Hathaway Lane for the school development. Since then, the school has sued the city, and an area developer has expressed interest in buying the proposed site, which the school has said is not for sale.

“We are White Plains residents who believe that a nature preserve and new school would make our city a better place to live,” WPNACT wrote on its website. “We are shocked that a minority of the Common Council would oppose a forward-looking plan that offers so many educational and environmental benefits to our city, especially since there is no cost to the taxpayer. The tail is wagging the dog.

“We feel compelled to take action, right now, before our city’s best chance for a private school and a new public nature preserve is lost forever,” the group added. ”We support the current property owner of the failed private Ridgeway Country Club, the French-American School. And we will work with them to further our group’s goal of creating a better White Plains.”

The FASNY plan was strongly opposed by several residents of the Gedney Farm neighborhood where the former country club is located. And the president of that group, John Sheehan, told The Journal News that WPNACT’s efforts are essentially too little, too late.

“The Common Council has made its decision,” said Sheehan. “As far as we’re concerned, the project is finished. We’re moving on.”