White Plains CitizeNetReporter - Fisher Hill Group Home Opponents Ask Zoning Board to Reverse Building Permit

WPCNR Evening City Star Reporter. By John F. Bailey. August 15, 2002: The Walworth Avenue Neighbors Committee has launched a legal effort to prevent the Jewish Board of Family & Children's Services from converting 139 Walworth Avenue into a foster home for teenagers from broken homes. It has asked the White Plains Zoning Board of Appeals to deny the Building Permit issued by the City Building Department to the JBFCS to prepare the home for occupancy by 10 teenagers.

Their complaint is scheduled to be heard at the September 4 Zoning Board of Appeals meeting.

In the appeal, filed with the city August 9, the neighborhood organization asks the Zoning Board of Appeals to revoke the Building Permit on the grounds that the Jewish Board of Family & Children's Services needed to acquire a Special Permit Zoning Variance, or undergo a siting review process, provided for under the state mental hygiene law, and that "the Building Department exceeded its authority," in granting the permit.

The complaint, in addition, asks the Zoning Board to revoke the Building Permit on the grounds that "the proposed operation of this facility is not remotely similar to a natural family, nor to the state-created families described in the relevant caselaw."

The brief explains: "there will be no house parents in residence at 139 Walworth, " and that, "no adult staff would reside there even part-time. Instead, the staff would come and go from the site, and a single staff member will be on the premises during the night shift between 11 PM and 7 AM."

As a result, the argument contends, "This staffing arrangement does not meet the definition of "family" under Section 2.4 of the White Plains zoning ordinance," which describes a family as a person who is a relative or a householder caring for a reasonable number of children, likely to be found in a biologically unitary family.

The appeal contends that a Siting and Review Process under the Mental Hygiene Law was required before a Building Permit could have been granted. The brief cites two case rulings in 1978 and 1984 supporting their position.


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