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Urge Village Council to Learn the Facts

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Please read this compelling email from CBR Supporter, Lorraine Reynolds, and consider emailing Village Council Members.

Thank you!

Citizens  for  a Better Ridgewood
citizensforabetterridgewood@aol.com

All,

As you may or may not know, on September 30th the village council will be continuing the 2 night hearing and voting on the 5 ordinances regarding the high density housing. These ordinances would increase the density allowed from 12 units per acre (current) to 35 units per acre (UPA) in our downtown. Here’s a comparison as to what some other towns in our area allow: Fort Lee 50 UPA, Teaneck 28 UPA, Englewood 12 UPA, Hackensack 22 UPA. If passed, Fort Lee would be the only town in our area, similar in population, with a greater density per acre. I do believe the majority of the town is accepting of development, but on a smaller scale. Maybe 25 units per acre? Do we really want to be built up more than Teaneck? I certainly don’t want to be anywhere near Fort Lee’s density.

The planning board spent approximately 3 years in discussions and 1 1/2 years in a public hearing before voting. The village council had a small portion of their Sept 16 meeting devoted to this and now the council will be coming to the sept 30th meeting with their written statements prepared on how they are voting and why. The Ridgewood News had an editorial last week about “what’s the hurry?”. I have to agree with them. While I don’t want this to drag out, I do want the council to do their due diligence and get all of the facts before they vote. During the Valley hearings at the council level, the council brought in the traffic expert, planner, geotechnical engineer, etc and each council member asked questions of these experts and based their vote on what was discussed at council.

It appears that the majority of the council does not want to bring in any experts. They are ready to vote without asking any questions of any experts as to how this will effect Ridgewood. At the planning board level, a concern about the increase this would bring to our taxes was brought up several times by residents. The discussion was always shot down, because “it is not in the purview of the planning board to consider finances.” In fact, the village planner stated, “residential housing almost always increases taxes, we should not be doing this if we think taxes will go down, but there are other benefits to residential housing.” The council has a much broader scope of items they can discuss, finances being one of them. You may remember that Tom Riche voted yes to the Valley amendment at the PB level, but no to it at the council level. That is because the council is able to look at a broader range of issues. Finances should definitely be discussed.

I would like to see the council bring in several experts in addition to a financial expert. Water must be discussed. I know this year is an exception with the lack of rain, but we have mandatory water restrictions every year. Can you imagine an additional few hundred apartments to supply? I can’t.

Schools must be discussed. The planning board did not have a member of the BOE at their public hearings. The council needs to ask Dr Fishbein to appear at the council hearing to answer questions.

The traffic expert, the engineer, the planner, etc should all be questioned. I do hear the planner will be there, but that’s it.
I don’t know how anyone could possible vote on something so monumental without questioning all of these experts to see what the impacts will be for Ridgewood.

I urge you to e-mail our council and ask them to have these experts at the hearing, get the facts first hand, and then vote.
These people are our elected officials, and we have a right to make sure they have done their due diligence before they vote.
Whether you are for or against the increase to 35 units per acre, I think we can all agree that each council member needs to be able to ask questions of the experts to help them in their decision making process.

Below are the e-mails of all the council members. Please send them an e-mail today and forward this to friends. Thanks

paronsohn@ridgewoodnj.net
ghauck@ridgewoodnj.net
sknudsen@ridgewoodnj.net
apucciarelli@ridgewoodnj.net
msedon@ridgewoodnj.net

11 thoughts on “Urge Village Council to Learn the Facts

  1. It’s a done deal. Final vote 3 -2.
    Everything else is just for show.
    The People Get The Government They Deserve

  2. Unfortunately, Rich is correct. Aronsohn, Hauck, and Pucciarelli will not be swayed by what taxpayers have to say. Ms. Hauck summed it up a few meetings ago when she said that she’d listen, but she wasn’t about to change her mind.

  3. That isn’t true! They think you don’t care and that is why they will approve it. We need to be a roadblock the same way Valley and Pool Project people were. Email them! How hard is that? If you care, send an email.

    Hauck also said in 2012 that she didn’t think four developments at once was a good idea and she was concerned about the impact on our schools. If her opinion has changed once it can change again. Particularly when she and Pucciarelli realize Aronsohn is out the door and they will not be re-elected.

    We voted in Sedon and Knudson by many more votes than those 3…they are the government we deserve and can play a bigger role when the others are gone!!

  4. Possession is 9/10 the law…
    Unfortunately, they posses the government… not the people.

  5. Not for long friend.

  6. she doesn’t care…the developers (and their pr guy) are her country club friends…good luck trying to change her mind

  7. “90% of success is just showing up ”

    The same was said for Valley and the overwhelming crowd changed minds. Aside from the few posters here who are strongly in favor, most posters here are not happy with the proposed changes and will not be happy when the town resembles Fort Lee or Hackensack. Speak up people! The three are laughing at how easy this has been. At least put up a fight and make the mayor look bad on his way out the door.

  8. What mind?

  9. I guess Lorraine, Anne and Boyd are the CBR ticket for 2016? Wonder what their platform will be given none of the current Council seem to have any original ideas on how to improve life for Village residents, or how to reduce our Village property taxes by working with BoE to target y/y tax reductions for residents. What’s the plan Lorraine assuming you’re our next Mayor?

  10. REVENUE OVER RESIDENTS!!! They can’t allow expert studies because it will confirm the public is at risk and avoidable financial strain. The same is being done at Schedler, no expert studies. GROSS NEGLIGENCE at its best and residents will pay the price. Write a letter and copy the State. Why don’t all the groups CBR, Schedler etc. come together as one?

  11. Schedler and Valley people are tired of fighting and people are confused/think it is over anyway.

    I am not one of those three but I will tell you this, the worst way to reduce taxes is to have high density housing that is not age restricted. The absolute worst. Actually no, the worst is that they are tricking seniors/empty nesters into believing that this is for them, if it were they would be age restricted. Fact is one of the developers admitted there is not enough market for empty nesters to even get a loan for that purpose so they are well aware that the demand is not there. The apartments will be filled with the people who always move to towns with good schools, young families who use services at a rate much higher than seniors.

    So our beautiful town will not only be more congested but you will pay more for it.

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