December 18,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, an online petition is be circulated by Ridgewood residents looking to stop the over development of the Village . The planning board in the past has not excepted online petitions some residents hope to bring pressure and sanity to the process .
TIRED OF SUBDIVISIONS AND DEVELOPERS taking down our homes, clear cutting 16 trees, eliminating open space, reducing our property values but raising our taxes.
#JUSTSAYNO to this 250 year old street and 157 year old homes being torn down. Attend the next planning board meeting 12/19 and support your residents – or please help to sign the petition.
Petition Background
I grew up in the historic home at 315 East Glen Avenue, which was built in the early 1830s and shares many original architectural and decorative details with the Hermitage and Hohokus Inn (woodwork, moldings, floors, banisters, windows etc.) It has a fascinating history with residents including the actor Edwin Boothe, and was reputed to have been a part of the Underground Railroad. A woman named Miss Colie lived there during the Depression who was supposed to distribute flour and sugar as a part of the WPA program, but she ended up committing suicide in the garage when she was found to have stolen the supplies.
Aside from the beauty, history and trees/landscaping that would be lost forever with the destruction of this home, the variances requested create issues for the town and neighborhood including:
– non-conformance of buildable and usable square footage to other homes in the area
– water collection, drainage and flood prevention given the reduction of trees and grass due to additonal paving proposed and requirements for running of utility lines
– access and safety of additional cars from secondary home
– non-conformance of variances for a home to be set back and sideways
– non-conformance to expand pathway to 20 ft, (currently no examples in town)
Please join us in opposing the variances that would allow this home to be destroyed and help us to save this historic home for future generations to enjoy as a part of the varied architectural and historic tapestry that make up our community! Thank you for your support!!
https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/stop-destruction-of-historic?source=c.em.cp&r_by=19358725
I wonder how many of the signatories live in houses that were built after previous 19th century houses were torn down by builders.
This is ridiculous. That is just another house. And anyone with ultra strong feelings for the house as-is is free to buy it and keep it unchanged.
There are no private property rights in the new People’s Republic of Ridgewood. If you loved the house so much, why did you move out? If you still love it, buy it from the current owners. I’m sure there’s a price they would take.
There are many 19 century structures in Ridgewood. I don’t see anything so special or beautiful about this one that merits a confiscation of the property rights of the current owner. If variances are inappropriate deny them but please not make this another faux historic shrine like Schedler.
Edwin Booth doesn’t really do it for historical significance. Now his brother–John Wilkes Booth–that might be a different story
The house next to King’s Supermarket on north Maple has an historic designation sign/tag. Who does that, does the owner apply or the town or the state of NJ? If a house does not have that it belongs to the owner, it seems to me. Sad , but true.
The other issues about clear cutting of trees and how the property is to rebuilt how close it is to neighbor’s property etc. Those are separate issues from the age of the house.
Hey they learned from the best! Want to tie the hands of a property owner? Find a historic house. At least these people aren’t telling us we should all pay millions to buy the place.
“Underground Railroad” is the new code for ‘let Ridgewood buy it over market value, restore it and put a sports field on the property.
Why petition the council for something like this? Zoning/Planning Boards more appropriate.
High density housing set the stage for developers to subdivide and cram lots. This is only the beginning and there is no recourse to stop them. It’s all now permissible and within code. How does Planning Board say No?
Attorneys will milk this.
1055, please define “cram lots”. This home sits on almost an acre at 41k+. There are surrounding homes sitting on 50/60/70×100 lots – are they ‘crammed too? Because of it’s situation, the maximum # of lots there are 2, provided a flag lot is approved and each home will be on ~20k. Hardly ‘cramming’, IMO. If everyone is so concerned about this home and wants it preserved, then make an offer to the owner and preserve it yourself.
While the petitioner has the best of intentions there are 3 main issues…first, this is private property, the owner has rights as long as they’re reasonably within code or in need of minimal variance… second is the petitioner could not have picked a worse template than one provided by a Soros back organization… and third is the pure volume of signatures from outside of the area…
I heard through the grapevine Wilks Ellie would like to buy the land and move your business there into a new building,
The woman who started this lives at 319 Glen.
Self serving as usual in Ridgewood land…what a complete load of crap.
you point is everything in New Jersey must look like a sh$t hole ?
To all the current Ridgewood residents who signed the petition: remember, one day, should you choose to improve your property, some people who fled Ridgewood years ago may sign a petition against you. Property rights are eroding and you side with socialist thinkers? Focus your attention on overdevelopment of our CBD where the friends of the 3 amigos want to pack Ridgewood with hundreds of units.
Knock it down let them build new as long is it Looks good in the neighborhood
It is interesting to see that people enraged about this building include those who spoke out in favor of the Arohnson Arms Apartments complexes that are about to be built in the middle of our downtown.
This is an amazing home with historical value. I have pictures of the home at the turn of the last century if you are interested in seeing them.