Letter: TID is a no brainer
TUESDAY AUGUST 20, 2013, 11:18 AM
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
TID is a no brainer
by Gary Muzio
To The Editor:
The issue of resident’s quality of life concerns versus developer ambition might be quietly hanging in the balance, as illustrated in last week’s Ridgewood News article “Plan for TID questioned” (page A4). This may be the last, best chance we have to put a governor on how much influence developers have in shaping what Ridgewood will look like in years to come.
A TID – transportation improvement district – allows a municipality to collect money from developers to fund infrastructure projects and upgrades to offset the increased density development will bring about. In effect, the village is asking prospective builders to address compromises residents will be making in terms of traffic, congestion and quality of life, now and in the future.
John Jahr, the traffic consultant hired by the village, recommended the Planning Board consider a TID before evaluating the four housing projects before them. This would fall under the council’s purview and that process starts by commissioning a comprehensive study on present and future traffic analysis throughout the village, as well as impact on schools, commuters, residents and pedestrians. These would be unvarnished studies, as opposed to the narrowly scoped, agenda-driven reports (from Valley Hospital’s “experts,” for instance), which routinely minimize impact and offer inexpensive, Band-Aid fixes from those seeking to maximize profits.
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I certainly share the author’s point of view as to the costs we will all incur down the line. We will collectively be paying for Valley and the 500 new households long after the developers and the three amigo’s have left town. But, from one of the meetings I attended, I thought the TID fund was a way to limit a developer’s obligations — in other words, you were guessing up front rather than holding them liable down the line once new traffic lights need to be installed throughout the Village.
A TID will not fix all that is wrong with Ridgewood. A TID will only collect money from developers to take care of new problems brought on by new development. A TID does not have to (legally) fix any problems that are pre-existing. A TID is really the best friend of the developer, not the community. By creating a TID, large scale development that should not and currently cannot be built, will easily get passed through our approval process. These proposals will easily pass through because we will all be focused on all the $$ brought in through the TID. Long after these buildings go up and the TID money has dried out, we will be stuck with large, out of character buildings abutting our railways and blacking out our skyline. Hundreds of new residents will increase demand on our services (fire, police, schools,etc), and our taxes will most certainly rise!
Another unintended consequence of this development will be probable school boundary re-districting and increased bussing costs due to safety concerns. Ridge and Orchard enrollment impact will ripple across the school district. Together with six years of Valley construction, two parking decks in the CBD, a big box store on Ridgewood ave and presto: the city of Ridgewood 2020. Who is really running this town?
Long-term planning is a dirty word in our town, county, state, and federal government. If we are lucky enough to survive, why can’t we think further than 10 minutes into the future? Do we really want traffic lights at every corner? Did we move here to replicate the traffic patterns of Manhattan?