Tag: Developers

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Why not offer developers in Ridgewood incentives to provide public parking?

Parking Garage

December 5,2015
Boyd A. Loving

Ridgewood NJ , Here’s a question for those so eager to sink millions of taxpayer dollars into the construction of a massive parking garage in Ridgewood’s Central Business District (CBD):

Why not offer any developer who would like to build luxury (not high density) housing in the CBD, an incentive of some sort if public parking is included as a component of their project?

If the need for public parking is as bad as those promoting the construction of a taxpayer funded garage say it is, wouldn’t it make sense to have each developer offer public parking in their respective buildings?  Especially any developer(s) who want to build near the train station and/or concentration of restaurants along Oak and Chestnut Streets?

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Reader says Anyone pointing fingers at past Councils about conflicts of interest is clearly trying to divert attention away from the several conflicts with the current Council

3 amigos in action Ridgewood NJ

Anyone pointing fingers at past Councils about conflicts of interest is clearly trying to divert attention away from the several conflicts with the current Council. Mr. Killion is long gone folks. We have several critical issues before this Council and the 3 majority members all seem to have cozy relationships with the parties that have a lot to gain from their “YES” vote. Money has already changed hands from Mr. Saraceno to our Council majority in the form of $1,000 fundraiser tickets for them and their dates. Mr. Pucciarelli and Mrs. Hauck have clear conflicts on the Valley Hospital lawsuit.

Apologists for the Council majority cry “old news” when these conflicts come up yet they point fingers at past Councils as a convenient way to deflect any blame that comes their way.

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Parking Vote and the Renege

fly-on-wall_theridgewoodblog

…the fly has learned that many residents voted in favor of the parking garage , giving the council the benefit of the doubt as a result of the Village Council agreement to do in depth studies on the High Density Housing proposed for the central business district at the September 30th Council meeting in addition to the assurances that residents would have input into design etc. It now appears that the council majority is attempting to renege on that deal …

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Reader says Former Red Cross Building points out the problems with spot zoning

Projects_theridgewoodblog

I fully support using this structure for affordable housing. But it points out the problems with the spot zoning created by the planning board’s decision to open up downtown ridgewood to developers.. More and more property owners are going to seek to build apartments in downtown Ridgewood. If i owned a one story structure for which I got one rent from one tennant, i would be a fool not to want to build a four story structure and bring in 50 tenants like the developers have now been given the green light to do. This is the floodgate that the planning board foolishly or intentionally opened. While Gail Price said it wasn’t spot zoning, she was wrong on that issue as she has been on so many of her irrational decisions pro-development, pro-hospital rulings over the past four or five years.

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Reader says Ridgewood’s Village government will be co-opted

Village _council_meeting_theridgewoodblog

As sure as you’re born, a parking garage erected by Ridgewood’s village government will be co-opted for use by out-of-town commuters in accordance with the preferences of those seeking to dismantle New Jersey’s deeply ingrained “home rule” tradition and replace it with a new oligarchical style of regional government. Imagine a regional, multi-county board of overseers populated by Gwen Hauck-type cloned hand-puppets easily manipulated by nameless, faceless third-party wealthy power brokers. That’s what many forward-thinking progressive statists see in their dreams. They don’t give a whit about mere business owners and their parking concerns…

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Reader says if any members of the Planning Board are afraid of the developers, then they have no place on the Board

unnamed

If Thurston or any of the others are afraid of the developers, then they have no place on the Board. The future of the Village is not a game of chicken, its either build appropriately or not at all. I would hate to see his vision of Ridgewood if we spend the next 40 years giving in to developers.

I have heard this chicken stuff from our council members as well — everyone is scared to death of the developers. If our officials can’t stand up to bullies, they have no place in the Village. Elected officials should have backbone or they should step down and let others take their place who will put the interests of Villagers first and profiteers second.

Shame on those who would abdicate their duties because it is too difficult to do the job properly.

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Readers look to rename Village as council sells out to developers

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Readers look to rename Village as council sells out to developers

Absolutely dead on regarding the Village ( https://theridgewoodblog.net/ridgewood-will-pay-the-price-if-zoning-changes-are-approved/ )  — our so-called planner sat on the witness stand dithering about how the “devil is in the details” but how conceptually this is great for some undefined state goals about putting housing on rail road tracks. Its appalling and pathetic that we have a council in place that will allow the Village’s demise.

Perhaps we should have contest for the new name of the Village once our master plan is ditched because council members don’t have the back bone to stand up to the developers, or they are being guided by their own self-interest to sell out the Village.

Microsoft Store

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Developers eyeing Ridgewood’s North Walnut Redevelopment Area

town_garage_theridgewoodblog.net_1

Developers eyeing Ridgewood’s North Walnut Redevelopment Area

December 8, 2014    Last updated: Monday, December 8, 2014, 10:47 AM
By Laura Herzog
Staff Writer |
The Ridgewood New

Hope for a North Walnut Street parking garage, plus some area beautification, remains.

In the past few months, more than 30 copies of the village’s request for proposals (RFP) for the North Walnut Street Redevelopment Area were distributed.

Last Monday, when the responses were due, four developers returned proposals.

These developers are: Kensington Senior Development, Langan, M&M Development and D&R Ridgewood LLC, according to Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld.

And all have offered mixed-use options.

“We have taken a very rough look at the proposals – there are about six or seven options from the four developers. Each proposal has a significant parking component – we required this in the RFP. The proposals are mixed use with either residential coupled with retail and/or office, assisted living coupled with retail or retail alone,” Sonenfeld said in an email last week.

According to Sonenfeld, the team now reviewing these proposals includes herself, Village Engineer Chris Rutishauser, Village Planner Blais Brancheau, Councilwoman Gwenn Hauck and one or more members of the Financial Advisory Committee.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/ridgewood-to-review-plans-from-developers-1.1148511

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Liquor-license law needs reform, developers say

Clock_Ridgewood_theridgewopodblog.net_1

Liquor-license law needs reform, developers say

JULY 31, 2014    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, JULY 31, 2014, 1:21 AM
BY LINDA MOSS
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

* Real estate developer in North Jersey says make laws fair

NEW BRUNSWICK — Calling current liquor laws outdated and inequitable, members of the commercial real estate industry are working to reform the process in a way that won’t penalize business owners who already have a license, which in some cases can cost millions of dollars.

“The license holders are the beneficiaries of the monopoly,” George Jacobs, a principal of Clifton-based Jacobs Enterprises Inc., told an audience of about 100 real estate officials Wednesday. “We’re trying figure out compensation schemes where these guys will not be hurt, but economic development can be stimulated.”

Jacobs was part of a panel that the New Jersey chapter of NAIOP, a commercial real estate trade group, held at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University in New Brunswick.

Jacobs, who presented a 30-page report on restaurant-consumption liquor licenses in New Jersey in 2011 at the meeting, outlined what the industry is doing to bring change to liquor-license laws. He also explained why the status quo poses challenges to developers, supermarkets and restaurateurs.

“The law breeds corruption, inefficiency, delay and costs,” he said.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/business/liquor-licensing-faulted-1.1060238#sthash.F4GF958H.dpuf