November 14,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Pete Mckenna President of Concerned Residents of Ridgewood, commented on the Valley Hospital Settlement, “As I mentioned to the Village Council when this was on their agenda, our long local nightmare has ended. Much of the credit for this outcome is due to the work of mayors Knudsen, Killion and Aronsohn over the past many years. When this expansion was first introduced to then Mayor Pfund and his council it seemed like a done deal. Fortunately for the people of Ridgewood, common sense and rational land-use planning have prevailed. While this settlement is predicated on Valley receiving approval to move to Paramus from the State Department of Health, no obvious impediments to that approval happening have surfaced and it is expected to come in the months ahead. ”
McKenna went on ,”The settlement itself is a win-win for all those involved. The current litigation involved four parties, The Village, The Planning Board, Valley Hospital and CRR. All of the preceding and current legal actions were essentially consolidated into a single action being heard in the Appellate Division in Trenton. With the agreed upon settlement, CRR and all of the parties retain all the legal rights they have today should the state approval of Valley’s move not occur. If Valley’s move to Paramus is approved, the underlying issues of the lawsuit will have been addressed and there is no reason to continue litigation. Once approved to move the acute care hospital to Paramus, The Planning Board and Village will amend the Master Plan and Village Ordinances respectively to make the existing facility in Ridgewood “conforming”. The Ridgewood property today is “non-conforming” as much of the building over the previous decades has been by variance. By aligning the Master Plan and Ordinances with the existing facility size we provide the property owner and the community a greater sense of certainty about what can happen on that site. While the current facility has about 400,000 sq. feet of space above grade, the Master Plan that was being litigated would have allowed 1,000,000 sq. feet above grade on the same property. Knowing that we are working with a baseline that is 40% of the previously approved Master Plan is a huge comfort to me and should be to all Ridgewood residents. While there remains much work to be done to determine what health-related services will be performed at this location after the 2023 move to Paramus, I am optimistic that a workable compromise can be reached. CRR needs to conduct what I hope to be our last fund-raising drive to pay the attorneys that helped make this settlement a reality. ”
Still don’t trust valley. But thank you Planning Board, CRR and current Council. The others did not NOT help this.
Thank you for this post. I think this is the best news for Ridgewood that I have witnessed in years. I heard Pete speak at the council meeting and I was so surprised that there has been so little coverage of this event/decision. The people won. It was a true grass roots effort. Everyone benefits from this outcome!
Dont trust Valley until the last i is dotted and t is crossed. Hopefully this news is as good as it sounds. Too bad it took a generation to get here.
Well let’s see how long after the hospital vacates, the property will be used to meet Ridgewood’s low income obligation. Zoning can not be used to exclude the space, in fact the courts ruled the opposite, and we are far short of current legal obligations. Opening up a track of space negates much of Ridgewood’s debate and Valley would be well served selling the property
The courts have started to press these issues and the move of Valley aligns well with the timeframes the state would want to push. Also the incoming Governor and team are proponents of these rulings
My bet that within 3-5 years many people will be fondly missing the hospital.
I hope you’re right I hope we don’t lose a lot of business to I hope you’re right I hope we don’t lose a lot of business to Paramus .
Still need to digest this – the cynic in me says – read the fine print – are we truly getting what we want or is there a loophole/compromise in this solution that will end up leaving us worse of.
Agreed it looks good on the surface, but I do not advocate celebration nor letting our guard down just yet…
!:14 Which “The others did not NOT help this” are you referring to. Do you mean previous Village councils that voted Valley Renewed down.? Stop try to give this council all the credit.
Council Unanimous in Voting Down ‘H-Zone’
Last minute plea by Valley CEO Audrey Meyers to ‘compromise’ didn’t sway the council, which will vote no to the ordinance next week
By James Kleimann, Patch Staff | Nov 23, 2011 1:50 am ET | Updated Nov 24, 2011 10:41 pm ET
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All five members of the Ridgewood Village Council were in agreement Tuesday – that has pitted resident against resident for five years is “unsound” from a zoning and planning perspective.
All five plan to vote down the to the village’s Master Plan in the form of a resolution on Nov. 29. It’s decision was met with raucous applauds from one side of the room, while supporters of the “Renewal” shuffled out somberly.
Short memory 1:14 ?
Thank you for all of the hard work that CRR and it’s volunteers have done. It was an uphill battle as Valley was and is a powerful entity.
Every time I go to one of my doctors, the practice has been bought by Valley. I’m starting to feel as if I’m in a mining town with everything owned by the owners of the mine.