Reader says Is that the “Village” that we want to live in?
Valley is a nonconforming business that wants an exception so that they can double in size in a residential neighborhood. The downtown developments are looking to build in a commercially zoned area.
I do not like any of the proposed projects and I object to them all because I do not want to live in a city. Imagine Ridgewood with 5 retail/condo developments and a doubled valley hospital.
Is that the “Village” that we want to live in? With no plan anyone can build. When we start having exceptions then the precedent will be set and there will be no stopping developers.
When you consider that most people moved here to avoid all this, it’s fascinating that a few people want to screw it up for the majority. For the overall good of this town, let’s hope the folks on the PB see past all of this.
What do you suggest ? Surely the empty stores and gold pawn shops on East Ridgewood Ave, the old auto dealers in the CBD and along North Maple, as well as the Town Garage aren’t “for the good of the town” either ? Instead of just compalining about developers, what do you propose instead of the eyesores ? There are lots of towns that have a pretty, thriving CBD without so many dead spaces, look at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Nyack, NY and Greenwich, CT, why can’t we benchmark against places like those ?
because as you have seen with Valley every time residents are told to be reasonable , the development side is not. Clearly the developers do not know anything about Ridgewood , which is not ,I repeat not located in Hudson County . Even NJT eventually saw the light , and kept the train station renovation with in the bounds of good taste and fitting the nature of the Village of Ridgewood while still managing to spend an exorbitant amount of money doing it . People coming to Ridgewood for the good schools and the Village quality of life so close to NYC . Over development and turing Ridgewood into yet another NJ dump of a town for the sake of under achieving and overly ambitious politicians is a NO GO . It it happens the consequences of destroying a beautiful Village will be grave .
Most people moved to Ridgewood for the schools, to be fair. I’m not sure anyone would pay 66% of these outrageous property taxes to “avoid all this” ? And why do so many move after their kids graduate from RHS ?
Ridgewood will be filled with ugly, vacant lots or high density development? Valley will close down or Valley doubles in size? Our elected officials should be the voice of reason in all of this nonsense. Where is the middle ground? It does exist. This continual “all of nothing” banter is insulting to our intelligence.
#2 anyone with a business plan is free to start-up in Ridgewood. No one is stopping them. Do we need another restaurant or frozen dessert store?
Why don’t people shop in the downtown? Parking is one reason. Another is lack of selection. Westport,Ct has large retail stores and small boutiques. They have a beautiful downtown. Maybe we need some good anchor stores. When I need clothes I do not think of Ridgewood. I go to a big store (with parking) that has a selection. Foxes is the only store that comes close. We need real stores, not just boutiques.
When we go out to dinner we go to downtown.
Maybe they need to find out why residents are not shopping in town. Don’t just develop and hope for the best.
#1, what is your suggestion then on this “for the good of the town” rhetoric ? Do you like the empty stores and empty lots – are they contributing to the overall good of this town ? what’s your solution ?
I don’t like “empty stores or lots ” any more than the next guy, but I also don’t like over developing a town either. Take Valley, for instance. Do you really need to double the size over a seven year plus period on a non-tax paying facility ? What the hell benefit is that to Ridgewood ? Zip !
As for the CBD proposals, you could have mixed use (and get some revenue), just don’t go crazy like the developers want to do.