N.J. tells Ridgewood to obtain open space or lose ‘green’ funds
OCTOBER 12, 2014 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2014, 1:21 AM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
RIDGEWOOD — The village is in the market for nearly 2 acres of open space — and it must acquire it to replace a playground that officials sold off some 30 years ago.
Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld said the state Department of Environmental Protection first noticed that the South Broad Street playground had been developed for low-income housing in 2012 — three decades after the Bergen County Housing Authority purchased the plot from Ridgewood.
Because the village receives funding from Green Acres, a state conservation program, the land it sold — under state mandate — had to have remained “recreational or conservational” in nature.
Sonenfeld said that until that missing open space is replaced in the village five times over, Ridgewood cannot apply for Green Acres grants.
Outstanding funding also is being withheld by the state for Habernickel Park on Hillcrest Road.
Village officials said last week that Ridgewood ended up netting $60,000 from selling the land to the county in 1982. Now, it will need to purchase 1.9 acres of new open space to rectify the situation.
Sonenfeld said last week that she “started looking for tracts of land that would work” as “pocket parks” soon after assuming her office during the spring.
– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/n-j-tells-ridgewood-to-obtain-open-space-or-lose-green-funds-1.1107617#sthash.bFvSLCDr.dpuf
This is what concerned residents have been saying for years–we do not have enough open space to meet requirements. But it took the state to make them act.
Turn the entire downtown into a park!
And whatever you do, council, don’t turn them into pocket sports fields, creating even more noise, traffic, litter, and lights for those living around them. Just green stuff that grows from the ground.
This time those pushing for development would not be able to say, “They knew there was a park near the house when they bought it. They should have expected noise, traffic, litter, and lights 24/7!”
Makes perfect sense — It IS gov’t regs…