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Done Deal – Village of Ridgewood is new owner of former Town Garage Property

Town Garage
the staff of The Ridgewood Blog
Ridgewood NJ, On Wednesday, May 1, 2024, Village of Ridgewood Attorney Matthew S. Rogers announced that the Village of Ridgewood now legally owns 120 Franklin Avenue, Ridgewood. The property was last actively occupied in the early 2000’s by an automobile repair business, the “Town Garage.”

Attorney Rogers provided scant details during his public announcement. No information was provided as to the property’s intended use by the Village. Some on the Village Council say pocket park; the Village’s mayor says parking lot. Regardless, the site is reportedly contaminated up the ying-yang. Years of cleanup/site remediation may be ahead.
Stay tuned folks. Ka-ching!
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29 thoughts on “Done Deal – Village of Ridgewood is new owner of former Town Garage Property

  1. Remember folks that street used to be called gasoline alley. That whole block is contaminated from the trestle right down to Maple Avenue who is going to pay the cost of the cleanup. I’m sure that’s going to be in the millions. I’m sure whatever leaked into that ground is underneath the parking lot and next-door at the ice cream shop, and remember right next-door that used to be a repair shop too

  2. Another smart move by this council, they now have invested into a money pit which will take years to clean up the soil that it sits on.

    1. We’re pretty RICH and STUPID

      We’ll happily pay and pay and pay.

      …and they know it.

  3. Might as well make it an artificial turf field since the ground is already toxic.

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    1. Actually not a bad idea to put a turf sports field there once it is spruced up. Then everyone can go shop and dine in the CBD and parents can park in the garage while they watch the kiddies play. Problem solved.

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  4. Put Healthbarn there. It’s a business and belongs in the business district. Give us back our park and use your own money for your success not tax payers money. Great idea!!!

  5. Something shaky going on.

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  6. Taxpayers are now going to be expected to foot the bill for this toxic nightmare? Paulie PFAS stands to benefit once again. This Mayor, who wants to be re-elected to ruin this village for another term, is truly such a piece of garbage and should be ceremoniously walked right out of the front door of Village Hall. If he isn’t lying, cheating or scheming, he is rubbing his greedy little hands and must really marvel at how everything is about his personal gain. This is truly the worst council with the likes of Weitz and Whinograd but Paul Vagianos is really the absolute worst mayor that Ridgewood has ever encountered.

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  7. this is a step in the right direction. property is an eyesore. It will be remediated. This is a good thing.

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    1. Except that the current owners should have remediated it prior to sale. You cannot get a mortgage for a house with an underground oil take because of potential environmental liability . . . Why would the Village purchase a property with such a high potential for lasting liability. We will be one the hook for the groundwater remediation in this area for years and it won’t be cheap.

  8. The space has been an eyesore and dormant for long enough. Nobody was going to purchase it and everyone complains about it. They bit the bullet and did something about it.

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    1. They should have forced current owners to comply with existing codes for property maintenance. They should have had the site remediated by the sellers prior to sale. When someone sells their home, they have to remediate asbestos, lead paint, knob and tube, etc and remove underground tanks (even if they are NJDEP approved closed).

  9. Hey people don’t blame this mayor and council this has been on the books for an extremely long time that is following protocol. Remember, there’s a playbook in action and they are not sharing it with you or I this proves what I’ve been saying for an extremely long time there are Folks behind the curtain that run the village. As you can see it, it doesn’t matter who the mayor is or cancel or village manager, these things are still occurring, so who is the individuals behind the curtain all the money?

  10. “Taxpayers are now going to be expected to foot the bill for this toxic nightmare?” Not only that but they took that property off the tax rolls. I wonder what they were paying for property taxes?

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    1. Looks like we will be missing out on approx Taxes: 27439.94 / 0.00

      https://taxrecords-nj.com/pub/cgi/m4.cgi?district=0251&l02=025103806____00002_________M

  11. My understanding is that the cost of remediation COMES OFF THE SALE PRICE. So, I ask the idiots on this chain who are losing their minds, what is the harm? The answer is there isn’t any. We don’t need an empty lot in the CBD. We need a business.

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    1. Where does the tax money go as the property would no longer be on the tax roll anymore? You seem to be in the know, so can you enlighten us? Also just curious that there could even be an estimate of how much a toxic remediation would cost and since ridgewood has already purchased the property, how does the money come off of the top. I can’t seem to understand how this works and I have never heard of such a deal, so Ridgewood buys it and then gets money back??? No residents were informed prior or during the purchase, so this was all done behind closed doors.

    2. You UNDERSTAND wrong.

  12. Between the school budget and this. It may be time to move sadly. Can’t afford to live here

  13. How much will soil remediation cost for this lot..?

    1. You are an idiot. Remediation comes off the sales price.

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      1. Really, prove it. If you are wrong, then maybe you are the idiot. The village bumbles said nothing about remediation costs of the project and the property has already been purchased. I would like to see the clause in the contract where monies from the sale will go to remediation. TY.

      2. Wrong. In the case of industrial or commercial sale iof otentially contaminated property, clean up happens before sale since no one can determine the cost of remediation and long-term monitoring until it is complete. No mortgage company will give a loan for a site where there is an undetermined amount of remediation to be done. The seller usually has to post some sort of exorbitant surety bond to cover future cost of remediation. It is NEVER built into the sales price unless the buyer is a complete dummy and there is no financing in play.

  14. tear down that building asap it is a horrible eyesore at this point

    1. Why not have owners comply with existing code requirements instead? Why, for years, have they been allowed to thumb their noses at existing code? Because they are well connected in the Village.

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  15. Let’s not clean it up only to pave it again for another parking lot.

    Not only is more green space needed overall and downtown in particular, but only grass and trees can help to reduce the absurd amount of impermeable surface that developers keep getting away with as they build, build, build. Flooding is increasing, as we all know.

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    1. Ben and Jerry’s and Starbucks would like that idea

  16. From song big yellow taxi
    They paved paradise
    And put up a parking lot
    With a pink hotel *, a boutique
    And a swinging hot spot

    Don’t it always seem to go
    That you don’t know what you’ve got
    Till it’s gone
    They paved paradise
    And put up a parking lot

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