Patch Chat: Recreational Zoning District Too Restrictive, Not Restrictive or Just Right?

As open space becomes scarce in White Plains, the City decided to impose a six-month moratorium on land use approvals in April, to study its remaining open space parcels that aren't owned by the City or school district. 

The parcels—listed as “Parks and Open Space,” in the City's 1997 Comprehensive Plan Land Use Map—include: Westchester Hills Golf Club, the former Ridgeway Country Club, and parts of Fenway Golf Course, Maple Moor Golf Course and land along the Hutchinson River Parkway.

, the White Plains Common Council voted to bond $363,600 to hire two firms to assist the City with its study.

The study’s scoping outline [attached PDF] for its draft generic environmental impact statement (DGEIS) proposes to create an Open Space Recreation District (ORSED)—which would affect the parcels listed above, that are shown in the attached PDF map—as well as amend related zoning ordinances and land use regulations.

The City’s DGEIS will cover land use; community character; environmental characteristics; storm water management; community facilities; fiscal impacts; air quality and noise; traffic; open space; visual character and other impacts.

White Plains Planning Commissioner Susan Habel said the OSRED’s goal is to protect the open space character and environmental sensitivity of the area—which is subject to flooding, and includes areas that serve as the headwaters for the east branch of the Mamaroneck and Sheldrake rivers that flow into the Long Island Sound.

“The purpose of this district is to preserve open space, and not to prevent any other kind of development,” said Habel.

However, the French-American School of New York (FASNY) disagrees and says that the zoning proposal is “patently illegal,” and is an attempt to prevent them from putting a $60 million K-12 campus on the 129-acre former Ridgeway Country Club site.  Click for an outline of its plan. 

The City held a public hearing on Tuesday [click here to watch the meeting and to read the article]—and will receive written comments on the scoping document, and questions to be answered in the DGEIS until *Aug. 19 at 5 p.m. [date was originally July 18, and later extended].

Comments should be addressed to the attention of: the White Plains City Clerk at: City of White Plains, 255 Main St. White Plains, NY 10601.

Fairly Restrictive?

The OSRED would create a zoning district that allows recreational use of the parcels, which could include membership clubs, banquet halls, places of worship and other applications—as well as private schools by special permit.

The City’s proposal would restrict coverage—including buildings, driveways, parking lots, artificial surfaces, tennis courts, etc.—to 5 percent per parcel.

If you apply that to 129 acres, FASNY would only be able to build on 6.45 acres, which could be further restricted by protected wetland areas.  According to a FASNY press release, 60 acres of its campus would be dedicated public parkland called “Gedney Preserve.”

At Tuesday’s meeting, FASNY Attorney Michael Zarin said that FASNY is asking to build on 8.7 percent [if 129 acres, it would be 11.22 acres] of the site.

The proposal also creates setbacks between 100 ft. to 400 ft. The main building on each parcel would be subject to a 300 ft. set back, which according to Habel, Westchester Hills and the former Ridgeway Country Club currently comply with. Ball fields, playgrounds and other similar facilities are not allowed in buffer areas.

“We’re permitting more building and land coverage than there is now at Westchester Hills or Ridgeway,” said Habel. “So there is more development potential than is being demonstrated now.”

Too Restrictive

FASNY disagrees, and says no school or park could meet the proposal’s guidelines. Zarin said Tuesday that the average public and private school in White Plains uses 34.14 percent of coverage—compared to the City’s proposed 5 percent—and that city parks use up 22.16 percent on average.

While the City’s proposal calls for a 200-ft. side-yard setbacks for ball fields, FASNY’s application uses 25 to 80 ft. setbacks, though the average ball field in residential districts uses 5 to 25 feet—according to FASNY’s calculations. Habel said that FASNY calculations would be addressed in the DGEIS.

According to a FASNY “fact sheet” on the OSRED [attached PDF], the proposal discriminates against schools, ball fields and houses of worship and “creates a slippery slope potentially impeding future recreations facilities in all residential districts.”

FASNY is looking to build four ball fields, two baseball diamonds, four tennis courts and parking, which would White Plains residents would have access to, according to their website.

Not Restrictive Enough?

The City says its proposal treats schools fairly, and FASNY complains it’s too restrictive—however, some residents say it’s not restrictive enough.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Dan Seidel—a Hotel Drive resident, which abuts the Ridgeway property—said that the City’s proposal should not mention “schools” in its language at all, since it may presume schools should be allowed by special permit.

He says the City should use the zoning that residents submitted to the City [attached PDF], and proposed before FASNY announced its purchase of the property for . This zoning would render the OSRED area as purely residential, and would not include residential construction.

The City’s comprehensive plan states that:

“If not economically viable to maintain the courses in private club ownership, the Plan's preferred scenario is preservation of the golf courses through other private, quasi-public or public means. If the courses cannot be maintained as private courses, although clearly not a preferred scenario, the Plan envisions residential development at the City's lowest residential density, clustered to preserve open space and environmental features and providing public access to public and quasi- public areas, including trailways linked to the City's open space network.”

Current zoning requires FASNY to obtain a special permit approved by the council to run its school. Ridgeway Country Club’s only gets $8.5 million if FASNY doesn’t get a special permit to open its campus.

Seidel said that since the Ridgeway property has stopped being maintained as a golf course, “the floods have stopped. That should tell you something about the land and what it should be left as.”

FASNY says that its plan does fall in line with the comprehensive plan on its website—which some White Plains residents referred to as dishonest and misleading at the hearing.

Some at the hearing requested an extension to submit public comments.

What do you think?

Tell us in the comments, and send your questions to the City by July 18 to: Susan F. Habel, Commissioner of Planning at: City of White Plains, 255 Main St. White Plains, NY 10601.

Like us on Facebook (facebook.com/WhitePlainsPatch) and follow us on Twitter (twitter.com/WhtPlainsPatch)