White Plains CitizeNetReporter - Zoning Board Revokes Building Permit for 139 Walworth Group Home Facility.

WPCNR ZONING BOARD BULLETIN GAZETTE. By John F. Bailey. October 3, 2002: The White Plains Zoning Board of Appeals has stopped the Walworth Avenue Group Home project, revoking a Building Permit issued by the City Building Department.

The Zoning Board cited that there was no provision in the White Plains Zoning Code defining a family community residence where not one of the owners was living there as their full time residence Wednesday night, as grounds for revoking the permit. The permit had previously been issued by the city Building Department for renovation of 139 Walworth Avenue by the Westchester Jewish Board of Family & Children Services for a residence by some ten teenagers previously in foster care.

The Zoning Board ruled on an appeal by the Walworth Avenue Neighbors Committee to revoke the permit. The action has stopped the project.

Work Grinds to Hault

A "Stop Work Order" was issued by the Building Department. The WJBFCS said in a statement today that they were reviewing the decision and had no comment. Cecelia Bikkal, Chairperson of the Zoning Board of Appeals, said, when asked if the WJBCFS could appeal to the Zoning Board, the WJBFCS could mount an Article 78 action in Supreme Court to overturn the decision.

Bikkal said the Zoning Board decision hinged on the "definition of family." She said that there was no case law precedent which upheld a community group home residence as being a family residence when a principal was not living there full time.

Asked how the Westchester Jewish Board of Childrens and Family Services was able to operate a group home of similar child residents in the Eastview area, Bikkal said that originally she had been under the understanding that there was a fulltime supervisor living in the Eastview area when that home was in operation. However, she said when she asked WJBCFS representatives Wednesday evening if there was a full time resident supervisior at that defunct home, she said she was told "No."

The Building Department had originally issued the permit because state law has long held that you cannot deny a group home. Cynthia Ryan of Walworth Avenue challenged the permit on several grounds, primarily on the definition of family residence as it appears in the Zoning Code.


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