Category: Hawthorne NJ
Fallen Ridgewood Tree Limb takes out Power Hawthorne
Hawthorne sets a new era of smaller-scale business development along two thoroughfares
Hawthorne sets a new era of smaller-scale business development along two thoroughfares
MAY 7, 2014, 8:17 PM LAST UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 2014, 8:24 PM
BY MINJAE PARK
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
HAWTHORNE — The door was already shut on Wal-Mart coming to town, but borough officials — at the urging of opponents of the planned supermarket — locked it for good measure on Wednesday night.
Wal-Mart announced in March 2013 it would scrap plans to bring a supermarket to Wagaraw Road after its application was met with fierce resistance from some residents, who argued the supermarket undercut community aspirations for a better development suitor.
On Wednesday night, the council — which had argued Walmart would bring in much-needed tax ratables — unanimously adopted a zoning ordinance that forecloses the possibility of any big-box developments returning to a stretch of Wagaraw Road, including the 8.6-acre lot where Wal-Mart planned to locate.
The vote follows a series of public hearings on the ordinance that borough officials and Walmart opponents alike said were productive.
“This new ordinance was negotiated with extensive public input and without a pending project to shape it,” said Joe Osborne, president of Hawthorne Deserves Better, the non-profit that led the charge against Wal-Mart. “That’s how it should be. We’re very pleased.”
Mayor Richard Goldberg said, “I don’t know anybody who’s not happy with what we’re doing.”
“All in all, it should be a win-win for all the residents in the borough,” he said.
The ordinance is aimed at making it “a little easier for businesses to open up,” Goldberg said, by establishing two new business districts on parts of Goffle and Wagaraw roads. Officials hope the districts will attract bakeries, electronics stores, grocery stores, restaurants, offices, health clubs and other businesses.
The new ordinance is expected to end the lawsuit against the borough, the developer and the Planning Board brought by Hawthorne Deserves Better, which had claimed previous zoning ordinances, dating to 2000, had been adopted without public notice, and that a 2011 ordinance was adopted to benefit the Wal-Mart project.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/hawthorne-sets-a-new-era-of-smaller-scale-business-development-along-two-thoroughfares-1.1011111#sthash.prpzv4cs.dpuf
Ridgewood employees’ holiday party to be held in Hawthorne
file photo Boyd Loving
Ridgewood employees’ holiday party to be held in Hawthorne
Wednesday November 27, 2013, 11:22 AM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
The annual village employee holiday party will once again take place outside of Ridgewood, a notion that has been a growing sore spot in the minds of some elected officials and residents who had hoped to keep the celebration local. As they have done in previous years, village staffers will venture into Hawthorne next month for their workplace gala.
“I don’t understand how we’re not able to do this party in Ridgewood, with all the restaurants that we have,” Mayor Paul Aronsohn said during a council meeting earlier this month, further stressing his ongoing penchant to patronize a village business with the partially taxpayer-subsidized event.
After sending out a questionnaire to 15 Ridgewood establishments, officials at Village Hall received only three responses from those interested in hosting the holiday get-together, according to acting Village Manager Heather Mailander. The manager’s office opened up the search to village restaurants and non-profit groups with rental halls, but none of the proposals that were delivered entirely fulfilled Ridgewood’s needs and requests.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/233623321_Ridgewood_employees__holiday_party_to_be_held_in_Hawthorne.html#sthash.QDbkZMCf.dpuf
Court orders Hawthorne Mayor and Developer to be deposed by July 29th
Court orders Hawthorne Mayor and Developer to be deposed by July 29th
6/13/13
A Sign of things to come in the Village ?
Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Graziano has ordered the depositions of Mayor Richard Goldberg and developer Gerald Bedrin by Hawthorne Deserves Better to be completed by July 29th. A complaint challenging ordinances passed in 2011 was consolidated with a separate case challenging ordinances from 2000 and 2008.
Hawthorne Deserves Better has claimed that the Borough illegally adopted ordinances in 2011 to benefit a single developer proposing to build a Walmart supermarket on Wagaraw Road in Hawthorne. Walmart has since decided to back out of the deal, but the ordinances written for the developer remain on the books.
A New Jersey Appellate Court agreed with a Superior Court Judge that Hawthorne Deserves Better’s challenge to two ordinances furthers the interests of justice and is in the best interests of the public and should not be dismissed. The Borough wasted taxpayers’ dollars in filing appeals which lacked merit and which were denied by both the Superior Court Law Division and the Appellate Division.
Hawthorne Deserves Better looks forward to exposing what really happened with the adoption of these ordinances. HDB advocates for zoning laws that reflect input from the community, provide badly needed tax relief and preserve our quality of life.