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Top Stories 2012: Open Door Seeks Sleepy Hollow Move

SLEEPY HOLLOW, N.Y. – The struggle to relocate a Sleepy Hollow medical clinic played out in heated debates in several municipal meetings in 2012.

The Open Door Medical Center wants to move into a building at the intersection of Route 9 and New Broadway.

The Open Door Medical Center wants to move into a building at the intersection of Route 9 and New Broadway.

Photo Credit: Meredith Shamburger

The Open Door Medical Center wants to move out of its 5,000-square-foot offices on Beekman Avenue into an existing building at 300 North Broadway in the Webber Park neighborhood. Open Door provides low-cost health care including medical, dental and chronic disease management care.

A final site approval vote for the Open Door Medical Facility's proposed North Broadway location has been delayed as the village Planning Board referred the matter to the Sleepy Hollow Zoning Board of Appeals. The Zoning Board is still debating the proposal.

Open Door's proposal includes requiring all staff members to park at Phelps Memorial Hospital and take a shuttle to the new clinic. Officials said the limited on-site parking will not be a problem because 70 percent of their patients walk to their clinic.

Phelps Memorial Hospital CEO Keith Safian praised Open Door's mission and its proposal.

“It would be a tragedy if parking brought this down,” he said.

Residents have also questioned pedestrian safety because the proposed site sits near the five-points intersection on Route 9. Open Door officals said they will direct patients to walk a certain route and they are willing to hire a crossing guard.

Depeyster Street resident Grey Salcedo told village officials she supported Open Door, calling it a great family clinic because she's able to walk to it.

Webber Park resident Edna Robinson asked planning officials to reject the proposal because it would cause unbearable traffic and parking congestion in her neighborhood even with changes to the project.

“Find a right location,” she said.

See more Top Stories of 2012.

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