A state judge has ordered the city Planning Board to allow the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to demolish the former St. Teresa of Avila Middle School, ruling that the panel failed to make the case that the building was a vital piece of the neighborhood fabric as it claimed.
In a 15-page decision, acting state Supreme Court Justice Richard Platkin found that board's insistence that the 1950s-era building is an integral part of the Helderberg neighborhood "lacks rational basis" and was not supported by substantial evidence submitted to the court.