Cuddebackville - Deerpark Planning Board members unanimously denied a six-month extension for a special-use permit for Falun Gong retreat Dragon Springs Buddhist Inc. on Wednesday night, saying they were never told of a performing arts college and high school being run there.
Planning Board attorney Glen Plotsky said Dragon Springs had violated its site plan by failing to show it was running Fei Tian College, a traditional Chinese performing-arts school, and Fei Tian Academy of the Arts, a registered high school for grades 6 through 12.
State Education Department records show the high school was first approved in 2007 and enrollment is about 200 students. The college is financed primarily by Dragon Springs and had a $3 million endowment on hand last year, according to records.
Kaijin Liang, president of Dragon Springs, said the group didn't think it needed to put the schools on the site plan, and said many of the students are Chinese orphans. He said Deerpark knew the group was running the schools.
"Show me anywhere on your site plan where it says anything about schools or orphans and I'll eat my words," said Plotsky at the meeting.
Liang said the community felt that since it's a tax-exempt, religious institution, it didn't want to burden the local school system by enrolling its students there.
Liam O'Neil, former Deerpark Town Board member and Dragon Springs representative, said he had brought up the schools to Town Board members and that it was never a secret.
"The fact is that it was wide open. It's not a secret," said O'Neil.
Plotsky said the town only found out about the schools recently from the schools' websites.
The special-use permit expires this month, Plotsky said. Liang said the group plans to submit an updated site plan that includes the schools.
The massive complex, at 140 Galley Hill Road, has its own water system, drum and bell towers, a 132-foot pagoda tower, four dormitories and rehearsal halls. Originally, the site was approved for housing for 100 residents, whom Planning Board members said they thought would be Chinese monks.
