Dear Mayor and Village Council,
Firstly, I wanted to compliment you all on an open and thoughtful first meeting as the newly constructed Council. For the first time in years, Residents heard truly open discourse between Council Members and real discussion on the topics before the board. That was so refreshing. Thank you.
I am writing today, as one agenda item put before you is cause for great concern: the request to dissolve Ridgewood’s in-house Construction Board of Appeals so that any relevant cases in the future will be heard by the County’s board. When this request was made, many Residents in the audience thought: “Oh no, here we go again.” In light of this request it felt clear that Residents, and the Council, will have to remain very tuned-in and vigilant even with the prior Council’s voting block gone, as elements of their agenda may remain.
There is no way that Ridgewood should dissolve the Construction Board of Appeals (CBOA) at a time when so much potential construction, and construction related reviews, disputes, and potentially even litigation, may stand before the Village. I was surprised that our Village Manager did not catch this and even appeared to support the request. The CBOA representative who requested the dissolution indicated that this board hasn’t had much to do for several years and so may not be needed. One of the reasons they have not had much to do is that many of the construction projects proposed in Ridgewood are of such a controversial nature that they’ve been held up for years. However, at least four of these construction projects filed site plans last month and hope to have construction permits asap. Despite the passage of the recent high density multifamily ordinances, promoted by the prior Mayor and Deputy Mayor, these ordinances and the related applicant construction projects remain controversial, due to their size, scale and density being at odds with the majority of Residents’ desires, as well as issue with the process by which they were passed.
Given this, Ridgewood absolutely cannot turn over any governance and or construction review to outside entities or boards. Ridgewood needs to control its own destiny and we are lucky to have so many Residents with the smarts, talents and experience to do that.
As such, please, do not dissolve our Construction Board of Appeals right at the time it may be needed the most.
Thanks for considering this request.
Best Regards,
Dave Slomin
Ridgewood Resident