the staff of The Ridgewood Blog
Ridgewood NJ, “No money; no money; no money!” “Forget about it!” “It isn’t going to happen this year!”
Those are the responses Ridgewood’s taxpayers pleading for safety improvements (e.g., sidewalks and a pedestrian bridge repair/replacement) have been getting from Village Council members for the past few months.
Despite their cries of municipal poverty, Village Council members are proceeding with their plan to purchase the former Town Garage property near Ben & Jerry’s. Word is that in lieu of demolishing the existing building, encapsulating contaminants present on property and constructing a pocket park, Mayor Paul Vagianos wants instead to demolish the building and add additional municipal parking (maybe even a parking deck) on the lot.
Although funding for the property’s acquisition has been previously set aside (or so they say), and contaminant remediation expenses are the responsibility of those who contaminated the property, our staff strongly believes that no funding is currently in place for the construction of a parking facility. Granted, Council members could choose to negotiate with a private development company, who would be required to construct a parking deck/garage in conjunction with whatever building plan is proposed. However, such a partnership would not come without many, many strings attached.
In light of the Council’s continued focus on this property, The Ridgewood Blog is prompted to ask this question: “How is it that the Village is allegedly broke to the point of having to postpone vital safety improvement projects, yet is proceeding full steam ahead on purchasing a property currently assessed at over $975K with plans to add capital improvements (a pocket park or parking facility) with a currently unknown price tag?” [Doing this would also remove $27K in guaranteed annual property tax revenue from the municipal tax rolls.]
Couldn’t funds currently set aside for the purchase of this contaminated property be reallocated in the budget? Maybe used for much needed safety improvements? Is there really a need to purchase the old Town Garage just to add more parking? Spaces in the current parking garage are going unused most days of the week, are they not?
Adding more green space to our downtown seems okay though. But no more parking lots/decks/garages, please Mr. Mayor!
Yet the East Saddle River Road Footbridge is neglected.
For Paul Vagianos, it’s all about CBD and his properties valuation at the expense of tax payer!!
Isn’t this a conflict of Interest for Paul? He owns many businesses in town.
He DOES NOT CARE.
He KNOWS we are
RICH and STUPID
and will vote him back into office…
Historically the most incompetent Village Council Ridgewood has ever had. Lead by the most self-centered, egotistical crook man.
Paul, the definition of crook is a person who is dishonest or a criminal.
“the man’s a crook, he’s not to be trusted.” You can’t cry broke and spend tax payer’s money to benefit your business investments out of the other side.
lets build another garage in town to sit empty!
with 9 barber shops and 11 ice cream/yoghurt shops in less than a mile stretch, there is lack of quality businesses to attract shoppers. This is a huge problem and negates the need to consider additional parking.
Agreed. However, small shops and boutiques that sell consumer products rarely survive due to the expidience of shopping online, rent being too high to sustain a profit and not enough people go into Ridgewood to “shop”.
Is Pam the Camilla Parker Bowles of Ridgewood?
Stop with the not so subtle innuendos. It’s disgusting. These people have families that you are hurting with these unsubstantiated accusation. Just stop.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks.
Important safety concerns continue take a back burner approach to leveraging and borrowing (or applying for grant money) all the while there are bonds not being used etc, etc. Residents need to start coming to meetings and demanding accountability. You cannot just continue to live in your bubble and write a big fat check every quarter with little to no clue about what it going on. Many people are very unhappy with this Council and the complete lack of transparency. Everything eventually comes out but all of the projects are cloaked in a veil of secrecy to the residents. Are other towns like this. Does anyone care. Also, when many residents come out in opposition to things like putting a giant ballfield on Route 17 at Schedler and turning it into another 3 ring circus like Habernickel where Ridgewood isn’t really reaping any real benefits and a supposed not for profit conducts private events/parties outside of posted hours, now this garage, Lord only knows what other surprises are in store for this once great Village. But we will have great looking garbage cans along the pedestrian plaza, that much is for sure.
Only reason to develop it is if we can finally get a good Greek restaurant in this town.
Only reason to develop it if we can finally get a good Greek restaurant in this town.
In addition to the the money they will spend to purchase this property, they will lose tax revenue every single year going forward. But this will pale in comparison to what they are going to assuming in environmental liability when they buy this place. According to a July 2020 Remedial Investigation performed by ELM Asosociates on behalf of the property owners, Ridgewood 120 LLC , the on-site soil is contaminated primarily with Benzene (and some other PAH’s to a lesser extent), and remediation will need to be undertaken. NJDEP Residential Standards for Clean – Up of Soils will apply and that wont be cheap. And, my understanding is that the Remedial Investigation did NOT include groundwater impacts so that is a HUGE potential liability the the present property owners are snow-jobbing the Council on.
So unless a groundwater investigation is performed and this site is cleaned up (soil and groundwater) as a condition of sale, or they negotiate the price to include the cost of clean-up, or Ridgewood 120 LLC gets a Surety Bond to guarantee cost of clean-up, they will be rewarding the speculators who purchased this property in 2006 and neglected this property and made it into the eyesore it is today. Relieve them of any and all of the environmental liability that has accrued!
this eyesore needs to be razed
This latest project has nothing to do with this mayor and council, this has been on the books the plants for a long time. There’s so much more to come you talk about this latest project with the town garage that will include the parking lot next-door, and a few more locations on that street are in the plans. The bank across the street the gas station that is all part of that plan. The next plan will be on Maple Avenue the old village Ford site. Then comes the Valley Hospital site, and then a few more only a few people know about these things because you need to have a seat at the table. The mayor and council they just follow the plan book there are people that sit in the back they are called the bogeyman you don’t know them you don’t see them but they see you and they know everything that’s going on in the town. And they have a seat at the table , you can get rid of this mayor. This counsel put a new mayor new counsel in to play from the outside. Guess why the playbook still goes on, it’s the powers to be, that’s how business works.
Yes, the idea of buying Town garage has been floated for a long time. And every other council has passed on it. With good reason. It’s only this one, where Paulie wants a garage, that is seriously considering moving forward.
And people can we talk about a major project that should go forward. That is the bus station, that bus depot is a disgrace, it’s filthy, it smells like piss, it’s disgusting. It’s unsafe, it’s extremely dark inside and all around that location. Ridiculous. Talk about an eyesore. That’s embarrassing. And to top it off. It’s actually extremely unsafe. All the wood is rotten. That place is going to collapse. The village owns that site, it’s not owned or controlled by New Jersey transit. why is it that most village owned buildings are a disgrace. Look at the old taxi stand, which is on by the village not the train station but the village owned building on Broad Street is another disgrace inside. What the hell is going on. They are worrying about spending money on parks building more ballfields is all well and good, but let’s worry about the structures that we own that have fallen into disrepair, no maintenance. The list goes on and on. Four Atown that’s supposed to be so rich, no money put into Villa Joanne buildings. Do you really want me to start, it’s such a long list and you probably need millions of top of millions just in repairs, I’ll have a list for you soon, you don’t have to believe me go look for yourself, you would be shocked. You would think these buildings are in the slums, and yet , no one’s doing anything about this. Bubble gum, Band-Aid, on top of Band-Aid.
Yes, the idea of buying Town garage has been floated for a long time. And every other council has passed on it. With good reason. It’s only this one, where Paulie wants a garage, that is seriously considering moving forward.