We thought we would share an opinion piece that was written by a resident for the “Tips From Town” website.
The recent decision by the Planning Board to approve the amendment of our master plan to allow for 35 units an acre, three times what is currently allowed, has me experiencing a flood of negative emotions, everything from sadness, to fear, to anger.
A recent article in North Jersey.com, notes all three of the builders left the vote with big smiles on their faces, and why wouldn’t they? It feels very much as if the 6 out of 9 members who voted “Yes” had exactly the builders’ satisfaction and approval in mind when they cast their careless vote. Many are arguing they may have had some more selfish motives in mind, but I won’t speculate. The four builders who originally petitioned for the change asked for 55 units/acre, probably hoping for half that, and the Town Planning Board, whose responsibility should be to the residents of Ridgewood, nodded their heads like puppets, and essentially said, “Whatever you need to turn a profit at the expense of our village.” Thank you to the three members who voted no.
I know the town needs to change with the times. I support multi-family housing development, just not at this density. There is no doubt if the Village Council supports the Planning Board’s recommendation, we Ridgewood residents are in for a helluva time. I can barely drive through town now with all the congestion. Imagine what this will do to traffic. It took months to “improve” the underpass at Garber square, what will this kind of massive construction do to the safety and usability of downtown? And, that is just in the short term.
https://ridgewood.tipsfromtown.com/2015/06/05/opinion-35-units-an-acre-is-too-many/
If you agree, please share with your neighbors and consider signing the petition to let our council know just how many residents are opposed to the proposal before them
Another letter that makes sense.
Good letter, but the petition might be meaningless at this point. Worth signing to let the council know that so many are opposed to this nonsense. And we agree the developers played the board let a bunch of fools.
However, a recall petition for Mayor Aronsohn is the only thing that will have any effect a this point. The other thing that will make a difference is if objections are raised to any of the council members voting on the amendment who took the free Christie Tickets from Saraceno, and/or any thing else of value from the developers. They should recuse themselves from voting.
Is anyone taking the lead on a recall petition? What is CCR doing?
and ware are they building 35 units first.
improvements at Garber square???
Really?
the bike lane is a DISASTER…NOT an improvement.
@ 2:23 It reads “improve”…I dare say the author feels the same as you…
I bike 100 miles a week when the weather is good…..I avoid Garber Square like the plague…
Seriously, Villagers are more interested in the lacrosse stickgate than the unending debate. If you wanted to change the densities, then you should have been signing petitions to repeal Ordinance 3066 five years ago or more. I agree that 35 units is too high, but that’s because developers are allowed to submit proposals to amend the Master Plan under Ordinance 3066 (passed by then Mayor Pfund under cover of July summer vacations in 2007 to help out his pals at Valley), and its easy to anchor the debate initially at 50 units and thgen say you’ve “compromised down to 35 units even though the initial anchoring of the discussion should have been at 12 units as per the existing Master Plan. Talk of this petition sounds too little, too late to me. The apathy is stunning.
Apathy runs pretty thick in Ridgewood..,.always has always will