Developer envisions Ridgewood’s version of St. Mark’s Square
Tuesday January 8, 2013, 7:15 PM
BYÂ DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
A local developer presented conceptual plans Monday night for a sprawling luxury apartment and retail campus to be built atop the former Ken Smith Motors dealership in Ridgewood.
The preliminary design of the Ridgewood Station proposal, developed by the Wood-Ridge-based Dinallo Construction Corp., includes the construction of 114 luxury units and roughly 7,250 square feet of retail space at the northwest corner of Franklin Avenue and Chestnut Street. The development, bordered on the west by NJ Transit’s commuter railway, also boasts 166 “hidden” parking spaces, 22 of which are designated for retail patrons.
The proposed development is the fourth downtown housing plan to officially come into public light. Long rumored to be the location for development even before the auto dealership closed last fall, the Ridgewood Station now joins the Enclave, the Dayton and Chestnut Village as proposals that, if constructed, will forge a dramatic change to the face of the Central Business District (CBD).
The Dayton, which would be located at South Broad Street on the former Brogan Cadillac property, comes with 106 units, while the Enclave and Chestnut Village have approximately half the number of apartments.
Attorneys and architects pitched Ridgewood Station to the Planning Board this week and requested the creation of a transit village district, a form of overlay zone. In general, an overlay zone gives flexibilities to a municipality, allowing a town to protect certain areas while encouraging and discouraging specific types of development.
Looks huge in the pictures and do we really need more retail space while many spots sit open? I can’t believe the town is considering multiple housing units like this.
Th town isn’t considering multiple housing units ,the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor are with their little “Tagalog” Gwenn
Redevelopment is inevitable, especially for this site, and this sounds like an interesting proposal. What’s needed for this and all pending proposals is full transparency. I hope we learned something from the way the Valley Hospital proposal was managed by the PB.
St. Mark’s Square is often under water. Looks more like Jersey City than Venice to me.
It looks great. We need the ratables. Those of us empty nesters are tired of paying taxes of 30k per year so the newbies kids can go to school.
So by that logic they want to pay $4,000/month x 12 = $48,000 a year to do what?
Too many cars and too little road
way too much congestion — must be very careful about restricting development of this type — lawyer for developer waxes on about aesthetics of project — caveat emptor, ridgewood residents! too many people and will not help with tax burden! so many vacancies in town now — why more retail needed?