file photo by Boyd Loving
Nicholas Katzban, Staff Writer, @NicholasKatzban Published 7:38 p.m. ET Aug. 29, 2017 | Updated 8:41 p.m. ET Aug. 29, 2017
A Superior Court judge in Bergen County ruled Tuesday that a former Ridgewood councilman was not in conflict when he voted to rezone areas of downtown for multifamily homes, a council move that caught the ire of some residents who decried the push toward higher densities in their sleepy bedroom community.
Following four major amendments to the village’s master plan in 2015 that nearly tripled the allowable density in certain municipal zones, a group calling itself Ridgewood Citizens for Reasonable Development sued the Village Council, looking to block the ordinances that codified those amendments.
The group alleged that then-Mayor Paul Aronsohn and Councilman Albert Pucciarelli had discussed and approved the ordinances despite two separate conflicts of interest.
Ridgewood Citizens for Reasonable Development wasted money on a useless suit.
The lawyer got paid.
Even worse than that: both lawyers got paid. This acronym-of-the-month managed to spend money from each and every one of the taxpayers in Ridgewood on this escapade. Where do we go for our refund?
Even worse, there were four major amendments to the village’s master plan in 2015 that nearly tripled the allowable density in certain municipal zones.
EVERYONE in town will be paying for that for a very, very long time (with the exception of a handful of developers and their buddies).
So what 539 do you want to file suit on that point as well?
When will the NIMBY’S get it through their sleepy bedroom community heads that this is no longer a sleepy bedroom community and it is not a village. Keep paying the lawyers and thinking of a new acronyms. The rest of us and the world are moving forward.
Justice prevails
Re-elect the 3 Amigos. Bring back the good old days.
@4:03, in case there is any confusion the lawyer (s) most definitely did not get paid. They were volunteers who gave hundreds of hours of their time and thousands of billable hours to try and make a difference.
Look at the three fools clapping for themselves!
12:00 hundreds of hours, thousands of billable hours. Sounds a little exaggerated.
No confusion on lawyer fees. Our Village lawyers were certainly paid to defend. This suit, which had no chance of success, cost your fellow taxpayers money and achieved nothing. Enough already with the litigation. We the people always lose.
Just wait until you see how much construction there is to turn Valley into a colonoscopy factory when they close down the hospital. It will be more construction with no urgency so it will take years. The result will be some really ugly buildings with endless cars in and out for procedures.
It cost countless time and money for Village to make sure it didnt get sued by either side of that one. In the end it will be worse for the neighborhood and the Village. We may seem to win but in the end we always lose.
Special interests have ruled the day this time. The developers are laughing all the way to the bank – on the taxpayers’ back. Justice my a**
@9:16, really not exaggerating. There were at least 6-10 resident volunteer lawyers at any one time. Plus all the other people supporting them. You have no clue how hard people worked…sadly it was fruitless but at least they thought it was worth the fight.
12pm is right. They put in a big effort and when you have to deal with the byzantine prescriptive local regulations, saying virtually thousands of hours is not a stretch.
Aren’t we all tired of seeing Gwen’s tongue? Surely there are other pictures available?
lets retire Paul’s mom jeans pants montage with Cory Booker at Starbucks too ..James.lets have a contest of the worse ones to be deleted forever from the blog …
Appeal. Please. Appeal this jackass decision.
The lawyers for RCRD did not get paid and the costs of bringing the lawsuit were borne by Villagers. In addition, there were a slew of volunteers who helped out.
The real costs now will be the slums being built at the Dayton site. Go take a look at the plans. Empty nesters are not settling there after living in Ridgewood no matter what that buffoon thinks.
And the real costs will be down the road as taxes rise to fund new school rooms, teachers, administration, police, etc.
And yes, the developers and the Brogan property owners are laughing on their way to the bank.
Make sure you thanks Paul and Al next time you seem them.
Right on @9:56…and before we hear the luddite name calling start a reminder for those who would: when Ms. Walsh was on the council and planning board the first go round, the planning board was on the path to approve apartments at a much lower density (about 12/acreI believe, which is current status). Developers pulled at the last minute….They knew they had to just wait and would be given a better deal and once Paul A stacked the planning board it became reality.
Does anyone recall a certain Jeffrey Voigt screaming and yelling about the council people who took the $1000 tickets from Saraceno to meet Christie? Now Aronsohn is Voigt’s mentor. Oh the times they have a changed.