Ridgewood NJ, In a long planning board session Tuesday night residents and planning board members expressed concerns over John Saraceno’s 5 story apartment and retail complex coming to Broad and Franklin. Built on the former home of the Ken Smith car dealership, the 60+ unit apartment with thousands of square feet of retail space is allowed under new village laws championed by Ridgewood resident Saraceno and then mayor Paul Aronsohn.
At issue to planning board members, the large increase in traffic at one of the village’s most congested and dangerous intersections of Franklin and Broad. Falling back on the Saraceno/Aronsohn modifications to the village’s master plan, the planner for Saraceno said any traffic impact had been anticipated by the new master plan and was not an issue.
A traffic expert for the village pointed out the negative impact the traffic, expected massive increases in pedestrians and school children crossing Franklin at Broad as a ripple effect that would stretch from Garber Sq to Maple and E. Ridgewood Ave.
Residents who took part questioned Saraceno’s planner under a continuous stream of objections from Saraceno’s attorneys. Residents focused on traffic and assumptions about parking. During residents turn to question planners and experts alike, loud sighs and some negative comments could be clearly heard from the back wall of the courtroom where Saraceno stood alone most of the evening.
The 5 story mix of retail, affordable housing, and market rate apartments would rise stories above the adjacent train station and all nearby buildings. An artist’s rendering took great liberties with the actual look of the Ken Smith area, adding a building where a bank parking lot sits and removing the iconic “ridge” stretching to the north behind the train station.
The hearing continues May 16.
The rendering is looking down Franklin towards the train station on the left and down Chestnut towards another new apartment complex on the right. The building on the left does not exist, it is a bank parking lot.
I can’t see the train tracks
You can’t add people and shopping to that busy intersection and not expect more congestion.
He should rethink the need for retail space.
People will not rent at that congested place. What happens if it is a financial failure? Does the town pick up the tab, if it goes bankrupt. Or does the owner. Do taxes have to be paid on it regardless if it is not rented?
Taxes are paid on assessed value, so as long as space is rentable taxes are due, regardless of whether they are rented. But there will certainly be a market for this residential space assuming it is priced right as the rental market is tight in Ridgewood. If the owner goes bankrupt the lending bank will take it over. Expect an inordinate number of families with kids to move in as those are the families that dominate the rental market. Focus should be on traffic, parking and pedestrian safety. The right level of development is preferable to an underused former car showroom.
Don’t forget the bus route that” Bike Lane ” Rutishauser has suggested. He must have a Woddie looking at all this construction
Remember that the former Mayor and Mr. Saraceno conducted studies that showed that there would be LESS traffic and only 4 additional children in the schools as a result of this project. No really, they did – and expected us to believe it. The studies assumed that only empty nesters with no cars would be moving in to these apartments. They further assumed that apartment dwellers would simply walk to get everything they needed in Ridgewood and take the train everywhere else. What could possibly go wrong by trusting a real estate developer and a disgraced politician?
Does it require any variance? Can’t the planning board deny variance?
If they were truly representing residents..then they would deny variance.
Hey why not make it 6 or 7 stories. That would make the numbers great on his spreadsheet.
They are not seeking any variances.
12:41, I can understand that people will not look at the developer’s studies objectively, but the Village’s Council engaged their own professionals and they concluded that there would be minimal school children added to the system and minimal traffic impacts.
It is so fascinating and also depressing to witness crooks proposing “development” plans which are clearly totally out of the question. Is Ridgewood the only place where crooks believe people are complete idiots and don’t understand anything about “development” impacts? It is obvious the site needs to change as it is eyesore on its own but these plans aim at turning CBD into Brooklyn or Jersey City.
Members of the public suggesting that the proposed development project, when built, will produce unavoidable, intractable problems with vehicular and pedestrian traffic at the intersection of Broad Street and Franklin Avenue, reflect common sense and need not be deemed “out of order” by Saraceno’s henchmen. The idea that we need a developer’s attorney to tell us what is and is not a fact, and what to think of a given fact in terms of what it portends for our lives as Village residents, and that we can’t legitimately rely on our own minds and common sense, is insulting, preposterous and condescending. This is too reminiscent of the Valley travails before the planning board and we shouldn’t be so willing to put up with it now that we are familiar with the tactic.
They will rent though…..
12:55 – The Village Council were on the same team as the developer when those studies were conducted. Same team, same studies, same unbelievable results. Do you really think that there will be no families with children moving into those apartments?
12:55pm, your comment is demeaning and insulting and will hurt Saraceno’s cause. Residents are entitled to employ rank cynicism in this case.
Nice artists rendering. Humans are larger than cars and at least two of the people depicted are crossing against the light.
60 unit apartment building in the middle of town…
.
Lets formally change our name
from the “Village of Ridgewood”
to the “City of Ridgewood”
……but we don’t have enough water!!!!
Well done, that is a perfect spot for this kind of unit and would clean up the eye sore we have at this time. Must be the same group of people with the same issue’s afraid of change and they just love to complain about anything new that could move this town forward.
I say build it,
541…I think some residents want a sterilization policy to make sure we don’t add children to the town so we become the ultimate over 55 community… And yes, more housing that is reasonable is a sane idea…
What a horror. How I detest developers. “I want to make money” after leaving public office. –Chris Christie. Birds of a feather.
I see only one car in the picture.
Change is good. Please build this unit, redo graydon pool and build the parking garage. Please put this town back on the right track.
6:29 Also no buses in the picture
please pave oak’st in the c b d,
12:55 – If that turns out not to be true in 3 years time, how do you think with Saraceno and co apologize and atone? Will they?
I am NOT against progress. But, is this huge monster along with the accompanying traffic problems and definite student additions to the schools, really progress? OK, put something there, but not something this excessive. I truly think the builders have come up with the absolute maximum size for this project in order to negotiate with us later and show how “they really want to work with the village”. They’ll be so agreeable until they get what they actually wanted in the first place!
We don’t have enough water for the current residents.
Looks very nice and certainly better than an empty lot. Same people complain about anything new that’s why we have empty lots, empty stores and no parking. Time to move forward people….
What is likely the final planning board meeting on this development is Tuesday, May 16th at 7:30, village hall