What becomes of the 20 acre property locally known as the old Hudson Institute located in the Town of Cortlandt and within Greater Teatown is a key question for our community. The property had been abandoned and largely neglected for 30 years and is an important property in our environmentally sensitive area.
The Hudson Education and Wellness Center proposal proposal to the Town of Cortlandt calls for developing the abandoned former Hudson Institute located at 2016 Quaker Ridge Road, Croton on Hudson, NY 10520 into what the applicant describes as a luxury 92 bed treatment facility for those with chemical dependency (alcohol and / or drugs).
The proposed facility is being called Hudson Ridge Wellness Center. In addition to the 92 patients, the proposed treatment facility puts forth an employee count of 92 Full Time Equivalents, although in the competitor analysis, staff to patient ratios are higher than 1:1. In fact, using the 1.4:1 ratio of one competitor results in 129 Full Time Equivalents.
The proposal also mentions visits by family, removal of 1-2 tons of waste (with no mention of medical waste) per week by a commercial vendor, and the use of 12,800 gallons of water per day through wells drilled on site. The associated waste water is also proposed to be processed on site using septic fields.
In the application, the Hudson Ridge Wellness Center requests a variance from the requirement that a specialty hospital in a residential zone be located on a State Road. The zoning board of appeals must consider several factors in deciding whether to issue the variance including the impact on the character of the neighborhood.
Currently the area, including the property in question, is zoned R-80. This essentially means for each home there needs to be a 2-acre plot. For the 20.8 acre property this would mean at most 10 homes.
We are not opposed to treatment facilities. In fact, the Town of Cortlandt, in its award winning Master Plan, has put forth a Medical Oriented District (MOD). This district is an ideal location for a specialty hospital such as the one currently proposed for the former Hudson Institute site.