JUNE 23, 2015 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JUNE 23, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
RIDGEWOOD — The Historic Preservation Commission wants to expand the downtown historic district as part of the Planning Board’s impending update to the master plan.
At the board’s meeting last week, Ridgewood’s planner, Blais Brancheau, outlined the Historic Preservation Commission’s recommendations for the master plan’s next iteration.
The commission suggests widening the Village Center Historic Zone to encompass Ridgewood’s entire business district as well as Doremus Avenue, Prospect Street, both sides of Franklin Avenue and the area surrounding the railroad station on Garber Square.
Such an expansion would promote consistency throughout the heart of the village.
The commission said the expansion would further en-sure “renovations and new construction conform to the his-toric streetscape” and increase scrutiny of proposed demoli-tions.
Discussion of the master plan update will continue for the foreseeable future at Planning Board meetings.
But members of the board did comment last Tuesday on the potential benefits and possible pitfalls of designating more of the village as “historic.”
Mayor Paul Aronsohn, a Planning Board member, said he was both “sensitive to the imperative of historic preservation as well as the needs and rights of property owners in the vill-age.”
https://www.northjersey.com/news/bigger-historic-district-proposed-1.1360939
No way, Comrade Wrubel. Streetscape? Where is this word found in the English language? This is a power grab, completely unnecessary, and we should tell the HPC to stick it. The master plan’s “next iteration”? This is not a work in progress, Blais Brancheau. The Master Plan is not to be molded and shaped at will, and it is not our job to tie the hands of our progeny and future residents in perpetuity, just because we felt like it. Hey HPC–why not include surrounding towns Glen Rock, Hawthorne, Wyckoff, Midland Park, Hohokus, and Paramus in the new expanded historic district? We wouldn’t want to leave any stone unturned when it comes to exerting control over our neighbors’ property and lives, now would we?
Just imagine another ten thousand street signs opportunity
The Planning Board and these committees are on a roll. The question is . How do you stop them. They don’t listen to the residents.
Who knew?
The word ‘streetscape’ caught on relatively early (as opposed to ‘wildscape’, which is not yet in the dictionary, much to the dismay of the Ridgewood Wildscape Association):
Merriam Webster Online Dictionary:
street·scape \’strēt-ˌskāp\ noun
1: the appearance or view of a street
2: a work of art depicting a view of a street
First Use: 1924