Anti-Development? What Kool-Aid are you drinking. If you changed your thought properly to Over-Development, then you’d be 100% correct. Develop reasonable housing at 18-24 units, Valley can renew in Ridgewood with minor variances (not doubling in size-Ludacris). Parking garage, should be 2 levels on Hudson, then another 2 level garage at another location (Ken Smith, behind BOE building, or Hillman? Shoving overdevelopment down our throats is the reason all these are on hold. We need logical decision making and that’s what our new council will bring. Can someone please remove that illegal wall in front of the Greek Restaurant! Can anyone explain who and why this was allowed?
The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Toms River’s zoning laws affecting religious land uses, including the Board of Adjustment’s requirement that a rabbi obtain a use variance to continue operating his Church Road home as a house of worship. Jean Mikle, Asbury Park Press Read more
Ridgewood NJ, More or less all lawyers in New Jersey who are both intelligent and honest will freely admit that, even though the New Jersey Supreme Court has boldly declared and decreed that our state constitution mandates the ready availability of so-called “affordable housing”, the actual text of that document mandates no such thing. In other words, the New Jersey Supreme Court made it all up based on its policy preferences.
For its part, the New Jersey legislature subsequently failed effectively to fight against the Supreme Court’s usurpation of its constitutionally-bestowed power to devise and enact generally-applicable public laws. So why has the unconstitutional Mount Laurel regime survived and become so well-ingrained in New Jersey? Because the vast majority of New Jersey attorneys have regrettably maintained decades of strict radio silence on this issue, thereby allowing the Mount Laurel regime to develop the necessary patina of legitimacy. Some have done this because they fear the professional consequences of vocal dissent. In other words, they are ruled by political correctness. However most do so because they so heartily support the underlying affordable housing POLICY that they are willing to accept however much DAMAGE the Mount Laurel regime will unavoidably wreak on the integrity of our state constitution.
This is such a brutal attack on the New Jersey State Constitution that it arguably amounts to a violation of the United States Constitution. This is because the Mount Laurel regime is both judicially-created, and judicially-enforced, and therefore deprives New Jersey residents of the small “r” republican form of government the U.S. Constitution guarantees to all U.S. citizens. As a rueful result, New Jersey is now poised to be used by political progressives as a constitutional-law-based model for imposing a similar housing policy on the rest of the country, much like Massachusettes’ all-encompassing healthcare regime (i.e., Romneycare) was used by Obama and Ridgewood’s own Jonathan Gruber as a template for foisting the Affordable Care Act (i.e., Obamacare) on every U.S. citizen that currently draws breath.
The New Jersey Superior Court Appellate Division will hear arguments June 6 on whether municipalities have an obligation to zone for affordable-housing units that they did not allow between 1999 and 2015. David O’Reilly, Inquirer
The over-developers paired with the Paul V.s of the village are playing the long game to draw families here to multi bedroom rentals with our schools as the magnetic force. It is very simple. Problem is, our schools are over capacity and our high school is well past capacity. So, how will our schools stay at the top? They can’t. That doesn’t concern the local developer, he’ll have sold by then. It will be someone else’s problem. It is simple and undeniably true. They lie about Brogan and Ken Smith parking spaces needing to be replaced, spots that are not a part of the public parking inventory. “Smiling faces with hidden agendas”.
The garage is the Trojan Horse. The village now admits, we don’t need more parking, we don’t even utilize what we have.
The full day kindergarten should be voted DOWN in Nov. When studies were presented for multifamily housing, the ‘expert’ assumed new staffing for full day kindergarten was already in place. If we vote the full day Kindergarten down, then the schools will not have funding for new teachers needed to serve newly built apartments. At that point hopefully the builders will be charged an impact fee, instead of sneaking the higher cost caused due to apartments in the name of the KG program.
Ridgewood is where it is because our Council has been governing for the benefit of the few and not for the benefit of the many. The tax payers have been fed a steady diet of “take it or leave it”, oversized initiatives with no option to compromise. Why? Because the Council majority has been answering to Valley and the developer special interest groups. If Valley Hospital could have moved off of its completely unreasonable expansion plan 10 years ago, they’d be finished with their construction by now and we’d have a more modern hospital. Whose fault is that? Same goes for the CBD – not a single person who thinks 35 units per acre is too dense has ever advocated for vacant car dealerships. That is the rhetoric of the now-vanquished Ron Simoncini and his “Truth About Ridgewood.” The recent election has shown that two thirds of the electorate favor more moderate development projects. It’s time to undo what the last Council has put in place and start over. Smaller hospital, smaller garage, smaller apartments.
Towns facing these dilemmas have turned to professional planning groups and we need to do the same. One was outlined in the auditions at BF for the multi-family studies the village did. The professional planners from BFJ Planning https://www.bfjplanning.com/ came and talked about how they worked with places like Bedford, NY as they talk about here:https://youtu.be/FEfkeQQJn4I?t=2h5m20s
Our planner is outgunned for the jump, he’s part time, has limited experience and has not seen the scale of assault that this village is under. We need to redirect our spend in planning to real pros who do this work at scale, have far broader experiences and deeper expertise. The answer to the questions is not the same old pap that Al and Paul and others use when they site the 1967 study. The future is coming, our village is lacking the expertise in planning and far too influenced by the local developer and the big CBD landowners to get it right with out outside expertise.
Yes, the opening of Serendipity highlights the fallacy of the current council’s views on our downtown. Albert and Paul in particular kept talking about the parking surveys from 30 to 80 years ago. The “progress” and “2020” movements (which produced the 3 failed candidates) were similarly myopic. The leaders of these groups are all talking about and looking to solve Ridgewood’s problems from the 60’s and 70’s. Developers, land speculators, the owners of Fish and Greek to Me push for housing developments and parking garages solely for their own narrow minded view of increasing their profits over the next few years.
We live in the new millennium and we should plan for our century not the past century. Who and what is going to make use of our downtown. What brings in the most tax dollars with the least amount of expenditures? Is our future developing our downtown as the regions “restaurant row,” or should we be looking to bring more corporate dollars? Are massive parking garages and massive housing developments really the way forward or are they product of staid minds that don’t see or are afraid to look into the future?
This discussion has never been had because our current council “leaders” never asked themselves or challenged the public to debate what is good for Ridgewood as a whole and the future of Ridgewood as a whole. Instead, the “debate,” if one can call it that, has been over how many families should we squeeze into a downtown lot or should a garage be 4 or 5 or 6 stories tall. Let’s depart from this outdated way of thinking and move ourselves beyond the mire of the past. Let’s embrace our future. And to do that, let’s start by having a real discussion on what our future might be.
why are you so interested in Valley increasing it’s business? To bring more traffic, more people smoking on our sidewalks, more employees parking on our streets, more of our police and fire department time spent filing reports of theft and unruly behavior? Maybe you are looking forward to talking to the residents of Steilen Ave who have been dealing with noise and light violations from Valley for years or maybe you are just looking forward to driving into Ridgewood and seeing a 1700 car garage at the intersection of Linwood and Van Dien. Won’t that look beautiful! Maybe they can make the lights that will shine from it 24 hrs a day in a residential neighborhood color coordinated for the holidays. Maybe we should turn the houses on either side of you into high density housing in order to fulfill our fair housing. It will only take 8 months of construction for that, not 6 years. What’s the matter? Just because you bought a house in a residential zone that doesn’t allow hdh doesn’t mean things can’t change, right? In just the same way that Valley’s lot cannot be turned into apartments, Schedler cannot be a 7-11, so just stop with that stupid argument. And yes, the car dealerships should be developed, but changing the density in our cbd from 12 units per acre to 36 was unnecessarily excessive. 24 units per acre would have brought the same benefit without as much downside. Unless of course all you’re concerned about is maximizing the profits of developers. Here’s a word for you to ponder…moderation. Is that so hard to achieve? Bigger is not always better.
Ridgewood NJ, readers continue to takes issue with Gwenn “drunken tiriad” at village hall after the humiliating defeat of the Aronsohn slate .Many residents can’t get over the fact that Gwenn lost it the night everyone met at the Community Center to hear the election results. She certainly had been drinking but that really is a non issue( Many drunks are nice!) .
Gwenn literally went into the face of a resident screaming and cursing and saying, ” Are you fucking gloating” and other curses. Her extremely rude husband who,is known for his rudeness, grabbed her to take her away all the while smiling and saying, ” we have freedom of speech, she can say anything she wants!” A classy act .
All three of the outgoing council members have demonstrated serious narcissistic rage issues. So many have witnessed these rants or have been the victim of them.
They have held these anti free speech civility meetings for two years basically attacking everything and everyone but themselves.
If the new council is only better in this department, we are most definitely in a better place. The behavior has affected so many areas of village government including not allowing for real conversation about problems in the departments.
Add that to the fact that the village manager acted as a 6th council member and was encouraged to do so made it impossible for Susan and Mike to have the impact they tried so hard for.
Fortunately, for residents a perfect storm developed: so many citizen groups with a variety of issues speaking out at once. There was no way they were going to beat that and that it is why they tried to push everything through in such an aggressive manner so quickly.
Ridgewood NJ, after a landslide election and a historic rejection of Mayor Aronsohns special interest , developer driven , machine politics policies the best way to regain control of the Central business district is to repeal “Pfunds Folly ” or ordinance 3066.So what is ordinance 3066?
It was introduced by the Village Council under Mayor Pfund in 2007 (https://www.ridgewoodnj.net/minutes/07RPMJUN13.pdf ). Chapter § 190-143 of the amended Village Code is the kicker; it established procedures for interested persions (i.e. developers) to request amendments to the Village Master Plan or development regulations. Council members Mancuso, Ringler Shagin, Wiest, and Pfund all voted in favor of the ordinance. Chapter § 190-143 is here https://ecode360.com/6694062 and many residents argue that this should be repealed to ensure that we don’t see overdevelopment at Valley and in the CBD in terms of densities and building scale. It’s felt this will better protect our property values.
It is long, setting out the fees involved and procedures – the key part is
§ 190-143. Application to Village Council or Planning Board.
Any interested party may request that an amendment or amendments be made to the Village Master Plan or development regulations. The request(s) shall be made to the Village Council and/or the Village Planning Board https://theridgewoodblog.net/so-what-is-ordinance-3066/
Readers say time Repeal “Pfunds Folly” ordinance 3066!
We have former Mayor and now appointed local judge Pfund to thank. Without Ordinance 3066, passed purposely in July 2007 when many residents were down the shore, applications to amend the Master Plan would never have even been considered. Then the developers used an old anchoring by applying for 50 units, only to say they’d “comprised” down to 35. The anchor number used should have been the 12 in the Master Plan, and they should have comprised at 18-24, reflecting current Village densities. Development is surely need in the CBD – it’s an eyesore with too much dead space and decaying remnants of the past – but Ordinance 3066 and the 50 number should have never happened in the first place. That’s Pfund’s folly…. These wheels have been in motion since 2007
I had little hope going into last night’s meeting. I am so proud of everyone who came and stood up for our village. Bottom line, we have to repeal ordinance 3066. Also, say no to ordinances requesting our Master Planner. Our Master Plan should be treated with the respect it deserves. It has been in place for decades, protecting our village from the potential high density developments that are on the table now. Should development occur, yes, but within the safeguards of the master plan. Developers: get a variance and if appropriate for Ridgewood it will pass. If the densities are to low for your project and potential profits, to bad, come to the table with something else. But don’t threaten residents with statements “if you don’t give us this, we’ll do something you really won’t like”. That is not neighborly or nice.
We should have been signing petitions to repeal Ordinance 3066 five years ago or more. I agree that 35 units is too high, but that’s because developers are allowed to submit proposals to amend the Master Plan under Ordinance 3066 (passed by then Mayor Pfund under cover of July summer vacations in 2007 to help out his pals at Valley), and its easy to anchor the debate initially at 50 units and then say you’ve “compromised down to 35 units even though the initial anchoring of the discussion should have been at 12 units as per the existing Master Plan. https://theridgewoodblog.net/readers-say-time-repeal-pfunds-folly-ordinance-3066/
Ridgewood NJ , picked this up off of the It takes a Village Facebook page in a post by Marty Smith, In a post to Ann Loving today, Gwenn Hauck wrote “$50,000 of Independent Studies approved by all five council members confirmed (confidently) that the multi-family housing will significantly augment our tax base and will help our schools decreasing enrollment. Class sizes are diminishing so much that teachers are actually being laid off causing (ironically) higher class sizes!”
I thought the proponents of higher density housing were saying don’t worry, the apartments won’t be attracting a lot of new students. Now it seems they will be, and that the additional enrollments are what we need. Did I miss something? Dare we say vote of Hache, Walsh and Voigt .Poles are open till 8pm!
It has been a while since this group has communicated – I hope everyone is doing well. I received your email below and wanted to respond.
I respect Roberta. I think she has done a great job overall managing this Village. It’s not an easy job by any means. I personally know Roberta…she is a good neighbor and I like to consider her as a friend. She is smart, quick, effective – I respect her and admire her and from what I have heard she has done a better job of executing than previous VMs. However, I was shocked to see the full page ad in the news. I was even more shocked when I read your email and was targeted with a mass email chain from someone in my neighborhood (how she got my personal email is quite a mystery). I guess I am confused…why are we making this election about her or any village staff? Shouldn’t the election be about the issues at hand – high density housing, doubling the size of Valley hospital in the middle of a residential area? When did we turn this election into village hall staffing? You work for a corporation so you know very well that a new boss is entitled to evaluate the existing talent pool. So why is this even a concern? No company will hesitate to bring in the right boss for fear of cleaning up the existing talent pool. We shouldn’t either.
We have to remember, this election isn’t about any Village Hall staff. It’s about whether we trust the people we elect to represent the town fairly and responsibly. It’s about where they stand on the issues that we each find important to our families, to our property values, to our future, to our way of life.
It saddens me that you are trying to turn this campaign around and divert the attention away from the true issues. Not to mention make up deceitful lies. Not one candidate has made any statement about Roberta and her role. It’s simply not part of this election, nor should it be. It’s a non issue. It saddens me that we are not able to campaign with dignity and respect for one another. I hope that changes.
Respectfully,
Bonita Shimpfky
———- Forwarded message ———
From: Paul Aronsohn <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, May 6, 2016, 9:04 PM
Subject: Vote for Brooks, Weitz and Willett
To: <[email protected]>
Dear Neighbor,
Last week, I endorsed council candidates Rich Brooks, Evan Weitz and Janice Willett in a letter-to-the-editor, noting that they have solid experience, uncompromising integrity/ethics and a proven commitment to Ridgewood. I also noted that they are right on issues important to me, such as the budget, the parking deck, the special needs community and the Village Manager.
This week, several additional community leaders – past and present – have also endorsed Rich, Evan and Janice – community leaders who have helped shape Ridgewood’s traditions, while moving Ridgewood forward. And importantly, a group of residents took out a full-page ad in the Ridgewood News today, noting that “only 3 candidates are committed to keeping Roberta Sonenfeld as Village Manager – Rich Brooks, Evan Weitz and Janice Willett.”
Please see the attached list of endorsements and the full-page ad.
Needless to say, many of us believe that this year’s election is especially important, and as explained by the Ridgewood News Editorial Board, every vote matters. Remember, in 2012, there was a difference of only 15 votes between the 3rd and 4th placed candidates.
If you have any questions, about this year’s election, please feel free to email me. If you want to learn more about Rich, Evan and Janice — and their positive, inclusive vision for Ridgewood — please visit their website – www.Ridgewood2020.com.
Thank you for your consideration. Thank you for voting on Tuesday.
Ridgewood NJ, Reader challenges Ridgewood blog on “Free Market principles “claiming we are picking the candidates in favor of more regulation against “free market developers and development”.
“Ironic that “Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View” is in favor of a government that promises to be more restrictive than the alternative, but in this case, Jamsie, I agree with you 100%.
I hope you are learning the flaws in your Randian world view, specifically, left to their devices, the “job creators” would starve themselves out of existence. In the case of Ridgewood: motivated by short term benefit, the Job Creators (i.e. CBD restaurant owners and landlords) would overdevelop the CBD and surrounding areas to the detriment of our community, schools and way of life. In the long term, the quality of the schools would decline even more, the quaintness of the village would erode, property values would drop, and before you know it, you live in a version of Caldwell or whatever.
The judicious application of regulation is a good thing.”
Got to laugh on this one but the reader is a bit confused ;
The Free Market is ,”A system of economics that minimizes government intervention and maximizes the role of the market. According tothe theory of the free market, rational economic actors acting in their own self interest deal with information and price goods and services the most efficiently. Government regulations, trade barriers, and labor laws are generally thought to distort the market. Proponents of the free market argue that it provides the most opportunities for both consumers and producers by creating more jobs and allowing competition to decide what businesses are successful. ”
What we have in Ridgewood and New Jersey as well as on a National level is called by many Crony capitalism or Cronyism , “Crony capitalism is a description of capitalist society as being based on the close relationships between businessmen and the state. Instead of success being determined by a free market and the rule of law, the success of a business is dependent on the favoritism that is shown to it by the ruling government in the form of tax breaks, government grants and other incentives.”
Developers using the Village Council forcing tax payers to pick up the tab for a parking garage that clearly benefits certain businesses ie those that support the Mayor and his consorts is not in any way shape or form “Free Market Capitalism” but clearly a local example and the very definition of “Cronyism”. The negative issues associated with over development in the Village are all a direct or indirect cause be they foreseen and unforeseen consequences of government intervention ie.. 3066 , COAH, open space , and so on . These tax breaks, government grants and other incentives are all put in place to aid developers and to garner political contributions .
Crony capitalism is the marriage of the state and private special interests. Some people have called it corporatism, mercantilism, fascism, or even Communism.
Ridgewood NJ, Tony Damiano is the owner of Mango Jam , When the train station was renovated a lot of parking spots were taken away and because of his business’ location it is difficult to park near his business.Tony Damiano is also the President of the Ridgewood Guild .
We can understand how someone with a business interest in the central business district would support a garage but we question all the significant conflicts of interests on the HPC ,Historical Preservation Commission.
Tony was recently appointed a member of HPC. There was a vote at HPC for design D. He could not attend and send a letter saying since the new design ‘fits the lot’ he was voting for it. Another member who owns a building right next to the garage voted for this design. When this vote was later questioned, they just said it was a ‘poll’ not a ‘vote’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOCBptQJMcs
Published on Mar 10, 2016 this is all the footage Dana Glazer recorded at the Historical Preservation Meeting in Ridgewood. This is typical of how public meetings are currently in our town. We look forward to a time when ‘civility’ is more than just a political catchphrase and commissions like this do more than just green stamp massively inappropriate changes to our village.
Historic Preservation Commission Members: Vincent N. Parrillo – Chairman Joe Suplicki – Vice Chairman Lynne Brady Barbara Ferrante Tess Giuliani James Schimmel Tony Damiano Isabella Altano – Alt
