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.”
