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N.J. judge: Ridgewood has 90 days to clear way for Valley Hospital expansion

Valleywood_theridgewoodblog

BY STEVE JANOSKI
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

RIDGEWOOD — A state judge ruled Thursday that the Village Council has 90 days to adopt an ordinance putting into effect master plan changes that clear the way for a vast expansion by The Valley Hospital, or else the hospital may “move to enforce” her decision through a court-appointed special master.

The ruling, issued by state Superior Court Judge Lisa Perez Friscia, said the council ordinance must be consistent with April Planning Board approvals allowing the hospital to nearly double in size, from 565,000 square feet to 961,000.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/n-j-judge-ridgewood-has-90-days-to-clear-way-for-valley-hospital-expansion-1.1624628

17 thoughts on “N.J. judge: Ridgewood has 90 days to clear way for Valley Hospital expansion

  1. AAAAAPPPPPEEEEEAAAAALLLLL!!!!! This is the most poisonous legacy of the tyrranic rule of the the three amigos majority.

  2. another fine job by our planning board. time for a change there as well. I say appeal

  3. I sold my house on Walthery a year ago. Over the last few years at least four o movf my neighbors moved anticipating that something like this would happen.

  4. Appeal this and pay for it by repealing Valley’s non profit status. Scumbags.

  5. We are all safe as long as the newly elected council does what they promised. Knudsen and Sedon have already stated they will do whatever it takes so I don’t believe any of us have to worry.

  6. 9:38: lolololololololol. The council has no power here. Candidates that ran on this issue lied to you.

    1. we will see about that

  7. Thank goodness our Planning Board at least had the prudence to vote for the new amendment. This decision leaves little doubt the Judge would have approved the 2010 amendment approved by the Planning Board which would have been over 1m square feet.

    Without any other facts it appears very likely that ultimately Valley will be able to build. But we still have leverage in the form of an appeals process which would cost both sides time and money. I would hope that the new Council will use this opportunity to negotiate with Valley to try to find a compromise to save both sides years of costly litigation.

  8. @9:38, they NEVER said that much less promised anything. They all felt the design is too big, and I hope will be tough with re: to taxes and overseeing construction but they have been pretty upfront that our ability to stop from a town perspective is limited. That is why there is a lawsuit(s) against our feckless planning board.

  9. The ONLY way the town of Ridgewood can benefit from this is by Valley renovating, not expanding, and the town collecting taxes. That said, continuing to appeal is a far better way to go.

  10. This is such a perversion of the beneficial use law.

    People want to go to Valley for emergencies like broken bones etc or to have babies. Generally people will go to a major hospital for anything serious. Valley is trying to put themselves in the “major hospital” category. The only reason why this is gone on so long is due to the beneficial purpose law that unfortunately does not take into account necessity. People have a lot of choices around here. The expansion might make sense in a rural underserved area but not Ridgewood.

  11. Those who feel the expansion will be detrimental should pay for any litigation initiated by the Village. Others who do not feel this way should not be burdened with what will probably be years of litigation and enormous legal costs.

  12. Property taxes from Valley. NOW!

  13. So please can we stop hearing requests for contributions to CRR for legal fees.
    Was always a total waste of money. But helped the lawyers get rich.

  14. re:
    Those who feel the expansion will be detrimental should pay for any litigation initiated by the Village. Others who do not feel this way should not be burdened with what will probably be years of litigation and enormous legal costs.

    Sorry.. that’s not how municipal taxes work… I’m paying for plenty in this village that I do not agree with.

  15. 11:23-So assuming you are a Ridgewood taxpayer, how does an expansion of Valley Hospital benefit you ? And, what is your definition of “enormous legal costs ?”

    Ridgewood Taxpayer- If you are, and the CRR has saved you one hell of a lot in taxes over the years they have been fighting this, how can you possibly say it’s been “a total waste of money?”

  16. Dedicated effort to reduce village negative impact? Seriously? 34,000 feet reduction from 995,000 square feet. BS! Sounds fishy to me. How can anyone see this as a reasonable reduction? If Valley wanted to modernize they could have years ago. This is about growing their profits at the neighborhoods expense.

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