the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, The “rendering” of new apartments at Broad and Franklin by John Saraceno’s architect leaves a lot to be desired, like a connection to reality for starters. So let’s break down the reality of what Saraceno is planning. Built on the former home of the Ken Smith car dealership, the 66 unit apartment with thousands of square feet of retail space is allowed under new village laws championed by Ridgewood resident Saraceno and then-mayor Paul Aronsohn.
Frontage:
Franklin St- 198 feet
Chestnut St- 119 feet
Height: 5 stories, putting it above all neighboring buildings and higher than the train station. Saraceno says his 5 story building is 50 feet high. The “tower” is 57 feet. The new Chestnut apartments several hundred feet away are four stories and 53 feet high.
Parking:
155 parking spots, the arches at the ends of the building on Franklin and Chestnut are the lot entry/exits. The Chestnut entry is near the new 43 unit high-density apartments being built on the old vehicle inspection station lot.
Reminder:
Saraceno and Aronsohn, who partnered to raise the density in this area to 35 units, said these two and three bedroom apartments won’t have a lot of school age families. The Ridgewood school budget has grown ~25% in less than 10 years on just about flat enrollment.
The Saraceno, Aronsohn, Hauck, and Pucciarelli dream of turning Ridgewood into high-density heaven is just a few months away. The most densely populated county in the most densely populated state in the union is about to get more crowded. Ridgewood used to be a place to get away from that, no more.
