Planning Board – Meeting Schedule June 16 & 17 – Valley Hospital Application
PLANNING BOARD
AMENDMENT TO MEETING SCHEDULE
Special Public Meetings: June 16 & June 17, 2014
In accordance with the provisions of the “Open Public Meetings Act,” please be advised that the Planning Board has scheduled special public meetings for:
Monday, June 16, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium at the Benjamin Franklin Middle School, 335 North Van Dien Avenue, Ridgewood, New Jersey, at which time the Board will receive instructions regarding the proposed H-Hospital Zone amendment to the Master Plan.
Tuesday, June 17, 2014, at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium at the Benjamin Franklin Middle School, 335 North Van Dien Avenue, Ridgewood, New Jersey, at which time there will be Board deliberation and vote only concerning the proposed H-Hospital Zone amendment to the Master Plan. Doors will be open at 6:30 p.m.; all ingress into the auditorium will be limited to the doors located at the rear of the auditorium.
The Board may take official action during these Work and Public Meetings.
Jane Wondergem
Secretary to the Board
When my husband and I began attending Planning Board meetings years ago,
we were deeply annoyed with Valley Hospital, whose officials had already drawn
up elaborate plans to double in size while neglecting to consult the taxpayers
who would have to endure years of construction, and its permanent aftermath (to
date, residents have yet to be consulted).
More than 8 years later – after countless meetings, thousands of dollars, and
numerous, stressful hours, my family is no longer annoyed. We are furious!
Valley wants to place a structure the size of Paramus Park Mall in the middle of a
neighborhood of single-family homes, 3 schools, and playing fields – an area
traversed by many hundreds of children daily. In order to get their way, Valley
officials have spun, sliced and diced the “facts”, treated residents with disrespect,
and have consistently failed to address the matter at hand. It is this last point
that I find most infuriating. Indeed, every single argument in support of this
gargantuan project has been specious, beside the point, and misleading — no
matter how compelling, heartwarming or dire.
Valley officials claim that the hospital needs to modernize to remain competitive,
to attract good doctors and to deliver the best care. Single-patient rooms are a
“must” in the fight against germs and breaches of privacy. Valley employees warn
us that the hospital may even close if the hospital is not permitted to expand.
These arguments may sound convincing, but they have all been laid out in an
impossibly ideal context, as if there were 30 acres or more of open space
begging to be developed! Nothing changes the fact that Valley Hospital is
already too big for the paltry 15 acres upon which it sits. Not one argument has
addressed the appropriateness of building an enormous regional medical center
in a village of inhabitants who chose suburban life over that of the city. Not one
street in Ridgewood was built with the intention of withstanding the kind of traffic
such an expansion is sure to create. Our infrastructure cannot handle it (we are
still dealing with potholes!). And the threat to our safety, to that of our children, is
very real indeed.
“Mom, I want a pony for my birthday”….”No, we live in a 2-room apartment”…”But
I need the companionship!”…”No, we live in an apartment”…”But it will teach me
responsibility!”….”NO, we live in an apartment”…”But the exercise will be good for
me”….”NO, we live in an apartment”
My husband and I have endured an analogous exchange for 8 long years. We
are furious!
Melinda Wagner
As the June 17 Ridgewood Planning Board meeting about Valley’s proposed Master Plan changes approaches, it is worth considering what this fight is really about and what Ridgewood has already been through.
If you remember, Valley started this ambitious push in September 2006, with bold move to get what they wanted through a change to the Village’s Master Plan. It was clear then that Valley had been developing their strategy years before this 2006. Having been thwarted by the Ridgewood Council in 1983, the highly paid Valley legal team decided to do an “end-around”; by passing the elected council by using a tactic that more commonly used by developers on the Jersey Shore to push through high-rise developments.
Also in 2006 Valley believed that they had a sympathetic Major in the person on David Pfund, who had a long history of family connections with the hospital. Many members of the Council and the Planning Board chaired by David Nicholson were also tainted by Valley through, work, family or membership of the elite Valley Foundation social club. Even the members of the Ridgewood BOE seemed to be sympathetic to Valley, refusing to take a stand against Valley’s proposal on behalf school children and their teachers through their spokesperson Sheila Broga, first in 2009 and again in 2013. Instead the BOE took the attitude that the development was going to be approved so the school community needs to adapt!
All would have gone according to Valley’s plan, except for some Ridgewood Residents who noticed that there were some unusual proceedings occurring on at Council and the Planning Board.
Once Valley tactics became known, people from all over Ridgewood began to organize against the plans for mega hospital. The gang of three, that later become known as the Valley Girls (Meyers, Frazer and Goldfischer) hastily went it damage control. Do you remember the newsletter and cards we all received in the mailbox from Valley? It was a campaign that was built on a perceived personality cult centered on Audrey Meyers. In the fliers Mrs Meyers was photographed perpetually sporting a fixed smile under a thick fringe of black hair, “Its alright, trust me…trust Valley what could we possibly do to hurt the Village?”
Of course the forced folksy facade was exposed when the first public hearings started in September 2007. More and more of the monstrous facts emerged and within a short time Mrs Meyers stopped attending the public meetings. We can assume that she was advised not attend as she drew too much heat. Instead the residents of the Village sat through weeks of hearings watching the spectacle of Frazer and Goldfischer in the audience chatting and laughing during many, many sincere and heart felt speeches against the Valley’s plans.
Then there was Mr Collins the local legal hack for Valley who’s only job seemed to be to disrupt proceedings as much as possible.
Despite Valley’s attempts at intimidation, stalling, legal maneuverings and costly PR campaign the opposition to the Mega Hospital continued. All sorts of tactics were used. Valley supporters formed a front-group to try and convince Ridgewood people that there was also a grass roots organization that supported Valley. It was seen for what it was. Donations to the BOE from Valley increased and Mrs Frazer, VP of Marketing of Communications for Valley, became a director of the Ridgewood Chamber of Commerce; a strange situation as the chamber was formed to support Ridgewood’s small businesses.
After hearings that dragged on for years, the planning board approved the Master Plan amendment in favor of Valley at a tumultuous meeting held in August 2010 at GW middle School. Three police districts were in attendance to control the crowd that could not fit into the building and there as an attempt by a Valley supporter to prevent people parking at the adjacent church.
While the Ridgewood Council finally decided not to approve the ordinances that would be needed support the Master Plan, it still left the Master Plan in place. It then took the Concerned Residents of Ridgewood CRR to take Valley to court try and remove the time-bomb of the altered Master Plan that still remained supporting Valley’s Mega hospital.
Thanks to court proceedings won by CRR, the residents and village have had to spend more time before the Planning Board through the last 12 months.
Now 8 years from 2006 when Valley first tried to tamper with Ridgewood Master Plan, the Planning Board will again look at the Master Plan. Since 2006 Audrey Myers the CEO of the non-profit Valley Hospital has seen her salary rise by over one million dollars from $787,000 (2007) to $1,988,369 (2013). The highly paid driving force behind 8 years of turmoil in Ridgewood. Meanwhile CRR and its supporters have had to spend well over $100,000 to defend the Village against Valley.
Hopefully next week and for the last time the Ridgewood Planning Board will finally put an end to this madness.