Planning Board Amended Meeting To Discuss Master Plan Tonight
Schedule – December 16th at BFMS
Master Plan recommended changes in zone district classifications and boundaries within the Central Business District and surrounding area
PLANNING BOARD
AMENDMENT TO MEETING SCHEDULE
Special Public Meeting: Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Change of Location
In accordance with the provisions of the “Open Public Meetings Act,” please be advised that the Planning Board has scheduled a special public meeting and work session for TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2014, in the Benjamin Franklin Middle School Auditorium, 335 North Van Dien Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ – 7:30 P.M
The Board may take official action during this Special Public Meeting at which time the Board will continue the public hearing concerning a proposed amendment to the Land Use Plan Element of the Master Plan which would recommend changes in zone district classifications and boundaries within the Central Business District and surrounding area, creating the AH-2, B-3-R, and C-R Zone Districts and amending the existing C Zone District.
All meetings of the Ridgewood Planning Board (i.e., official public meetings, work session meetings, pre-meeting assemblies and special meetings) are public meetings which are always open to members of the general public.
This is a thoughtful letter but I have to disagree. Multi-unit housing is preferable to deteriorating empty lots, and environmentally makes better use of land and resources.
Today there are fewer drivers, smaller families and a huge baby boomer population who will find this an attractive lifestyle option. Presumably any expanded services needed to accommodate this growth will be absorbed by the additional tax base.
I’ve lived in a Ridgewood single family house 20+ years, kids done with college; would welcome some options to stay in town without the responsibility of home ownership/maintenance.
Excellent letter — most folks living here don’t want another 400 or 500 apartments downtown — or the other buildings that will follow these initial proposals.
To the person who commented “I’ve lived in a Ridgewood single family house 20+ years, kids done with college;” — you are in luck — i saw rental signs on the apartments in town today. Call a realtor and they will help you find a rental. Or, you can move ten minutes down the road to Hackensack where you will find abundant rentals.
December 12, 2014 Last updated: Friday, December 12, 2014, 1:51 PM
The Ridgewood News
To the editor:
Thank you to all who planned and worked, mentally and physically, to ring in the Christmas season, attract and please all the faiths in town, make everyone feel welcome, and spread friendliness and joy.
The music, speeches, tree decorated, Santa on his way, shops waiting a busy time … and then it rains.
My family and I moved to Ridgewood in 1950. I have led a very active volunteer life and was often involved with outdoor events, so I well know that awful feeling about the weather, so my heart goes out to all who were in charge for the lovely Christmas tree lighting event. Again, thank you to all.
After having raised a family in a house here in town, I moved to a then-brand new apartment near the railroad station and for years have enjoyed a view of the tree from my living room, so I have shared with so many the beauty of our village at Christmas.
Every week, I read your paper regarding the plans and dreams of the brave people who volunteer to tackle the past, present and not tested problems of the future. I would like to warn that going the way of a lot more apartments is going to change the feeling of the town, not only in appearance but the people whom would be interested in occupying them.
I do not know whether the apartments will be rentals or condos. They would draw different people. Really, neither would be particularly interested in the life of the town particularly if they commute to work. In many cases, if the tenants or owners are retired, there is a good chance they would have a second home some place other than New Jersey.
DECEMBER 12, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2014, 12:31 AM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
A developer proposing multifamily housing held an on-site public meeting to separate “fact” from “conjecture” on Tuesday night.
The audience of about 30 attendees included developers, the president of the Chamber of Commerce and several village seniors, who expressed interest in the apartments.
While most attendees appeared favorable of the development in their comments, a couple argued against points made by the developer, longtime resident John Saraceno.
Saraceno, who is proposing the 52-unit Enclave development at 253-257 E. Ridgewood Ave., touched on several “hot-button issues” over two hours, including: property taxes, schoolchildren, traffic, parking, architecture and how many units an amendment to the master plan that allows higher density housing might result in.
Saraceno was the first of four developers to make a multifamily housing proposal to the village. He began his quest for multifamily housing in 2008, he said, when he met with then-Mayor David Pfund.
Planning Board Meeting Schedule : Land Use Amendment of the Master Plan
Planning Board Amended Meeting Schedule – December 16th at BFMS
PLANNING BOARD AMENDMENT TO MEETING SCHEDULE
Special Public Meeting: Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Change of Location
In accordance with the provisions of the “Open Public Meetings Act,” please be advised that the Planning Board has scheduled a special public meeting and work session for TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2014, in the Benjamin Franklin Middle School Auditorium, 335 North Van Dien Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ – 7:30 P.M
The Board may take official action during this Special Public Meeting at which time the Board will continue the public hearing concerning a proposed amendment to the Land Use Plan Element of the Master Plan which would recommend changes in zone district classifications and boundaries within the Central Business District and surrounding area, creating the AH-2, B-3-R, and C-R Zone Districts and amending the existing C Zone District.
All meetings of the Ridgewood Planning Board (i.e., official public meetings, work session meetings, pre-meeting assemblies and special meetings) are public meetings which are always open to members of the general public.
DECEMBER 9, 2014 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2014, 1:21 AM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
RIDGEWOOD — The village has received seven proposals from four developers who are all interested in redeveloping a 2.07-acre portion of Ridgewood’s downtown.
The proposals are being considered as the Planning Board continues hearing testimony on a master plan amendment sought by three developers who want to build high density, multifamily housing complexes downtown.
Officials said the seven plans, which were opened last week, include provisions for much-needed parking. The parcels to be redeveloped are at the corner of Franklin Avenue and North Walnut Street.
Most of the proposals would augment the amount of available housing and retail space in downtown Ridgewood, said Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld. However, she would not provide specific details or costs “relative to the plans,” claiming in an email that doing so could “impact our future negotiations” with the four developers.
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.
The developers proposing high-density developments have said traffic shouldn’t be an issue and schools would experience minimal increases in enrollment. It appears that they might have succeeded in convincing some of the Planning Board members.
Before accepting developers’ conclusions, we need to decide on a proper analytical framework. To do so, we can employ the elementary concepts of statistics. The developers are showing us the average cases. Traffic should be fine most of the time. Schools should not be incrementally crowded for many of the grades. However, we know this is not the way to look at the problem. Instead of the average, we need to focus on the bottlenecks and the possible extremes the proposed plans could generate.
What the developers are telling us is analogous to a stranger telling us that it’s safe to walk across a lake because the average depth of the lake is five feet. Clearly, this piece of information is insufficient. What we should find out is the maximum depth of the lake, the worst-case scenario.
Using the worst-case framework, we can reach the following conclusions:
High-density development will exacerbate traffic when it counts the most — the commuting hours. These are compact few hours of the day, but the number of people affected and the amount of pain experienced will be exponentially higher.
High-density development will also create overcrowding at certain (not all) grade levels. Moreover, the volatility of student enrollment is likely to rise with ongoing tendency for spikes. Therefore, for students, being impacted by class overcrowding will be based on the luck of the draw.
Given these negative scenarios, why would we want high-density development? How could certain members of the Planning Board possibly think this is a good idea? Why are we playing a treacherous game of three-card Monte with the future of this town?
DECEMBER 5, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2014, 12:31 AM
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Enclave developer to hold open house
The development team proposing the Enclave upscale apartment building on Maple Avenue between East Ridgewood and Franklin avenues will host an open house beginning at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 9 at 257 E. Ridgewood Ave.
The meeting is open to all village residents.
Developers for the 52-unit Enclave complex, as well as those proposing the Chestnut Village and the Dayton luxury housing projects, are seeking an amendment to the Ridgewood master plan that would permit high-density, multifamily housing in and around the Central Business District.
The master plan application is currently in the public hearing process before the Planning Board.
Yet according to Ridgewood Waters recent FAQ posted on the Village website , we are told the vast majority of unexpectedly high consumption is due to lawn sprinklers and toilets .
So the new multi housing plan for the Central Business district will not involve flushing toilets ?
As for handling waste water no mention here.
Ridgewood Water – Quarterly Billing FAQ
Quarterly Billing FAQ
The following facts may be useful:
Each meter removed is tested for accuracy. If over-registering were to be discovered, we would follow the refund procedure New Jersey Board of Public Utilities requires.
New meters are similarly high in accuracy. They also have features that can be used to help determine the causes of unusually high consumption.
In certain circumstances where a customer had been receiving estimated bills, over/underestimation may have occurred which could result in an unusually high bill or credit.
Any customer receiving an unusually high bill after a period of estimated bills is eligible for a deferred payment arrangement with no interest charges. Any account that was improperly charged interest will be credited for those charges.
The new meters will provide actual readings remotely with no hindrance to the customer.
If you would like to obtain a reading yourself on the new meter, simply shine a flashlight on the display and it will activate. Two screens will then cycle. The first will be the current read and the second is a rate screen which shows the current gallons per minute passing through the meter.
The vast majority of unexpectedly high consumption is due to lawn sprinklers and toilets.
Many people do not realize or notice that water may be trickling from the toilet tank into the bowl and down the drain. This can really add up when it’s happening 24/7. Ridgewood Water has free dye tablets that can be used to determine if this is happening.
Verizon announced in May 2014 that they would be discontinuing the access to their system for meter reading by the end of the month. That deadline was extended to the end of December.
If you have any further question please contact our Customer Service Department at 201-670-5500 ext. 269 or 275 M-F 8:30 – 4:30. You can also contact us by email at [email protected]
Reader says It’s absurd that we would be considering a Master Plan change that would allow such a monumental increase
The property owners are already entitled to develop their property, but within the current zoning regulations. At this moment, a residential development may have up to 12 units per acre. The Master Plan Amendment is proposing 40+ units per acre (actual # depends on which development they are talking about). Quite a jump, huh? It’s absurd that we would be considering a Master Plan change that would allow such a monumental increase. I don’t believe most people are against some downtown housing, but the proposal on the table is for 200+ apartments and could be (according to Blaise) expanded to 300-500 units.
The problem right now is that the PB has been stringing these developers along for 2 years now and no one has the guts to just say no and rethink the whole issue from the viewpoint of “What do WE want Ridgewood to be in the future?” If we want it to be multigenerational, then how do we want to accomplish that? What can we do to assure that the intrinsic character of Ridgewood will remain? These are the conversations that need to take place. Instead, we are reacting to a proposed Master Plan change requested by DEVELOPERS. These developers are trying to maximize their return. That’s understandable, but it is up to our PB and our Village Planner to guide this conversation and protect OUR RETURN (the interests of the tax payers) and the character of our Village.
Reader says the first requirement for a town planner is to care about the town
The first requirement for a town planner is to care about the town and what it is and why residents don’t want high density development.
Blais has no affection for Ridgewood. He sings Ridgewood like a robot, comparing him to Bruce Spingsteen singing Rise Up.
If I were making plans for anything I CARED about I would not say the proposed huge change would benefit on one side of my mouth and on the other say the devil is in the details and there will be some (unknown) impact. I wouldn’t recommend unless I was damn sure for something so truly lovely, and charming as Ridgewood. Why turn Ridgewood into a high density town, Blais and company?
Ridgewood residents grow frustrated with planner’s housing testimony
NOVEMBER 21, 2014 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2014, 10:29 AM BY LAURA HERZOG STAFF WRITER | THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
Frustration with a lack of certainty was the theme of Monday’s Planning Board hearing on a master plan amendment that would allow high-density apartments downtown.
At the meeting, which at one point attracted more than 70 people, about 20 members of the public continued questioning Village Planner Blais Brancheau about the proposed amendment.
That questioning first began at a meeting earlier this month.
This Monday, many residents related their concern to the “speculative nature” of the benefits expected from the amendment – like an expected boost to business in the Central Business District (CBD) and the belief that many local seniors would want to move from a home to an apartment.
These concerns came in combination with what many consider to be a biased decision on the village’s part: to say that, on the other hand, factors of speculative concern to the public either were unlikely or should not drive the decision-making process for the Planning Board.
Some of these concerning factors for the public included the maximum units that could be built with the proposed amendment and associated costs. On Monday, Brancheau revised an estimate he offered at the last meeting – 500-700 units – to 325-545 units, calling this an unlikely scenario and a “very, very rough guess.”
“I just would like to know what the real numbers are … We have not yet heard any numbers in terms of extra costs, much less the projected revenue of the taxes on these buildings,” said resident Felicia Angus.
Gymboree on East Ridgewood Avenue now shuttered November 20,2014 Boyd A. Loving 9:22 PM
The Gymboree retail children’s clothing chain closed its store located at 234 East Ridgewood Avenue late last week. The building is owned by Milridge Realty, LLC of Tenafly, NJ. No word on whether the building owner has a new tenant scheduled to move in.
The Gymboree Corporation is a specialty retailer operating stores selling high-quality apparel and accessories for children under the Gymboree, Gymboree Outlet, Janie and Jack, and Crazy 8 brands, as well as play programs for children under the Gymboree Play and Music brand.
The nearest Gymboree store to Ridgewood is at the Paramus Park shopping mall
Reader says Previous Reports make it obvious that the densities being proposed in ridgewood are too dense.
So Brancheau doesn’t consider the extensive report prepared by CBR’s attorneys to be adequate planning? CBR spent tens of thousands on hiring a well respected law firm which prepared a 25 page report comparing densities of the most desirable municipalities in Bergen, towns comparable to Ridgewood, which have maintained densities per acre in line with, or just slightly higher than Ridgewood’s current master plan which allows for 12 units per acre in the business district…This report analyzed regs of 72 municipalities in Bergen..a quick review of this report makes it obvious that the densities being proposed in ridgewood are too dense.
The board also heard testimony from and received an 18 page report from professional planner Brigitte Bogart…who was also hired by CBR..this report details how the proposed development/amendment to the master plan would affect our schools, traffic, open space deficiency, need for additional resources such as police, fire, etc.,…Bogart also discusses in detail how any proposed amendment to the master plan should be reviewed with respect to open space and recreational facitilites…
Doesn’t sound like poor planning to me…I hope the board is considering this evidence it has before them and acts responsibly. We will remember come election time..in 2016 and for years to come… whether or not they acted to protect and preserve Ridgewood.
