I was in the initial first-grade class at Osborn School when it opened in 1957; the school was built on land purchased from The Osborn Home. It was a fortuitous arrangement — Rye needed another elementary school and The Osborn needed additional cash resources to respond to a changing marketplace.
Today, The Osborn again faces the need to change and evolve. It has asked the City of Rye for changes in its zoning code, a request that is a matter of a building envelope, nothing more.
Any construction would be subject to the City of Rye building code: building location setbacks, heights, densities, traffic, refuse logistics, exterior light levels, construction sequence, etc. It is important to note that, currently, none of the above is under consideration. The property along Boston Post Road will remain unaffected and the property at the corner of Osborn and Theall roads is deemed a wetland and will remain as such.
The Osborn is important to the fabric of Rye life. Decisions of this type are hard. The City Council must take all of this into consideration in support of The Osborn and its mission to serve elderly members of our area and weigh this, not as a specific yea or nay to hypothetical building (s), but as a decision about long- term planning and what kind of community we want Rye to be.
– <Peggy Peters>
