The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ, Senator Joe Pennacchio and Senator Anthony M. Bucco voted against legislation today that they warned would lead to higher-density housing developments in many New Jersey towns.
Continue reading More High Density Housing Heading for Ridgewood and Surrounding Towns
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Trenton NJ. The Murphy Administration today announced a roadmap for spending $60 million in Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF) funding to advance affordable housing across the state. The funding, which was diverted in previous years, was restored as part of Governor Murphy’s FY2020 budget and is now available for pre-applications. The Department of Community Affairs (DCA) will administer the funds to create stronger, fairer communities in which people can afford to live.
by Ron Vradenburg
Park Ridge NJ, In speaking to folks from town I’m often asked about the Sony case ( fighting to prevent 1,000 apartments being built), the building going up in the center of town and general question about development in ours and neighboring towns.
In almost ALL cases, I find that people don’t understand the driving force behind towns agreeing to these large apartment buildings. Sometimes folks don’t even know how many other towns are being forced to do it and how many have already started construction on more apartments than a town can EVER support. And I don’t blame them one bit. We’re too busy with our lives to keep up with all this stuff. Most don’t even know how many AH units FSHC is saying Park Ridge needs to add by 2025. Or what round of obligations we are in ( round 3 btw) and that there is round 4 coming in 2025.
Continue reading People don’t understand the Driving Force behind Towns Agreeing to these Large Apartment Buildings
“how the builders got away with this misnamed group is beyond me. this fairshare is nothing but builders seeking to override local zoning for thei r own profits. they are coming in and desrtroying open space that we had saved for the nature that will save our lives. the trees go down, the animals have no place to live. teh birds cant sing anymore. it is horrible. we need to stop letting groups call themselves misnames. the judges in nj seem to not get it. this affordabe housing assault on towns is in teh fourth assault on towns or is it more than that. they will go on into eternity. they have no intention of ever stopping. there will be the tenth assault unless we get this changed now. stop the affordable housing assault on towns and on us. its against all of us. we are into more congestion when nj is already the most congested states in this union. we just are running out of room.”
TRENTON NJ, Assembly Republican Leader Jon Bramnick is calling for a special session of the Legislature this summer.
“Court-ordered, high-density housing is a crisis that costs taxpayers millions and must stop now,” said Bramnick (R-Union). “Schools cannot handle thousands of new students and infrastructure is not capable of handling the influx. The legislature must act.”
Continue reading NJGOP calls for a special session on high-density housing
“This is beyond ridiculous. FSH has taken hostage a whole state . The market should decide who can buy a house where. Government should not interfere here and neither should a ghost organisation such as FSH. If you can’t afford to live in RW go live in Waldwick or some other area that suits you. I would love to live in Saddle River but can’t afford so I found a place I could afford in RW. This kind of policy is destroying all the nice and beautiful suburbs in NJ. I just can’t get why FSH has so much power and why residents have no say in this but are threatened into submission. The only mayors who are vocal about this craziness are Scotch Plains and Englewood Cliffs. These guys have balls and speak for their constituents.
And yes all the new structures being built across the area are from the same exact set of drawings. They look like correction facilities.”
April 10,2018
John Hersperger
Ridgewood NJ, John Hersperger commented on the Ridgewood Master Plan on Facebook , “The master plan is the blue print for how all the land in the Village should be zoned and used. The Planning Board is the Village body empowered to write the plan, and to amend it. It’s vital we have the right people on the Council, since two council members sit on the Planning Board, and since the Council selects the other board members. Though the plan is already undergoing a major review, our planners’ job has gotten more complicated. Although the Valley Hospital, CRR and the Village have settled their law suit and have agreed that the Valley site at Van Dien and Linwood will be zoned to keep the Hospital the exact same size as it is now, a new issue has arisen that we all need to watch.
In a separate lawsuit between Ridgewood and Fair Share Housing (FSH), FSH is asking the Village to rezone ALL of the Valley Hospital’s Ridgewood properties to permit high density housing on all of them. This is called “overlay” zoning, which essentially means that all those sites could be developed into high density housing sites. For those who aren’t aware, Valley owns several large tracts in town, in addition to the Van Dien/Linwood main campus.
I have confidence that Susan Knudsen and Mike Sedon will have our backs on this. But I fear the other two candidates (Willets and Harwin), should they prevail, would put us back on the perilous path toward yet more high density housing.”
