The de Blasio administration is throwing its support behind a controversial nursing home project on 97th street against the objections of neighbors and parents at the adjacent school, PS 163.
The Jewish Home Lifecare nursing home project has been stalled by a lawsuit filed by parents and neighbors arguing that the state’s environmental review was inadequate. The opponents won the suit, but now JHL is fighting that ruling. The mayor’s office filed a brief in favor of JHL, claiming that the state relied on city rules that should not be second-guessed by outside parties. State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman also filed a brief this week in support of the state and JHL.
The PS 163 Task Force, which had hoped for the mayor’s support in stopping the project, registered its disappointment.
“This abandonment of responsibility for the nearly 600 children at PS 163 undermines our efforts to protect them. More powerfully, it plainly illustrates how our school community has been abandoned by the New York City government that we believed had an obligation to protect our children.”
Ethan Geto, spokesman for JHL, wrote in an email that the city and state AG’s support helps the nursing home’s case.
“Jewish Home has believed all along that not only did it fully comply with the State environmental review process but that in fact it took a number of steps that exceeded the environmental review requirements. We feel more justified than ever in this belief given the strongly supportive briefs submitted by both the City of New York and the State Attorney General affirming that the environmental review process was conducted properly and with integrity and that the State Supreme Court’s decision was inappropriate.”
