A garage is needed. I’m willing to accept that the size of such a facility is up to debate but in my opinion, as unpopular as it may be in this echo chamber, it is needed. It’s presence will not destroy the character of the town but will improve the quality our visits to downtown and the health of our businesses.There are plenty of other wealthier towns that have such a facility and their characters and/or home values have not be eviscerated.
As to the size of the proposed housing developments. I think there is room for good debate there as to whether the scope of the developments is appropriate for the downtown or whether they should have been allowed in the first place. I will say however that the empty lots that exist now are eyesores.
1)Ridgewood needs high-end apartments
2)Ridgewood needs a performing arts center
3)Ridgewood needs parking decks/garages
4)Ridgewood needs to be more business-friendly
Many view this “Vision” as a vision to destroy the Village of Ridgewood and turn into just another New Jersey overbuilt dumpy town .So now for ever more the Current Village Council and Village residents are stuck with the mess they created .
Unfortunately the high density housing was approved with the idea that a garage would pick up the slack with parking and allow the developers to offer less parking spaces . The fact that the developments will create a need for more schools, more water, more parking and generate more congestion in an overly congested central business district is left for the Ridgewood taxpayer to pick up the tab.
One wonders if some those who suggested there was enough water and that parking and congestion were not issues could and should be prosecuted ?
Clearly the garage is primarily for the benefit of the business community. It will help keep retailers and restaurants stay in business however it is equally clear that only those residents who commute to NY stand to benefit from a garage. Since many residents do not want or need the garage perhaps they shoulkd not be forced to help pay for it. On the other hand the business community should not be forced to bear the cost of items or services it does not need or use. Specifically, a SIGNIFICANT portion of the rent paid by tenants to their landlord goes to pay real estate taxes of which a large portion are used to pay for the school system. This begs the question why should the business community pay for sending residents kids to school ? Each should only pay for the services they use or need.
In conclusion, the residents should NOT be forced to underwrite the cost for a garage and the business community should NOT be forced to help pay for costs relating to schools or the Board of Ed.
In order to build the garage there must be increased meter rates and increased meter times.Even with that, the garage will not pay for itself and will cost additional taxpayer dollars.
how does posting at 7pm on a Saturday negate any of the points made above? Does one have to be in town every night to have an opinion on the parking needs of this town? It’s this type of response that makes the argument for a garage so painful. A very small minority think that only those that own shops or restaurants in this town have the expertise to judge what the actual parking needs are in this village. Transference…now that’s funny. I guess your over active social calendar, which allows you to be in town every night makes you the preeminent authority on the traffic and parking issues that we may or may not face. Given we’re going on the time stamps of posts now, should we assume that you were just back from bellying up to the bar at Park West, monitoring the traffic flow through the window as you lectured the other patrons on how much better this Village would be if we had a parking garage? Maybe ask how many of your drinking buddies would use that garage if they had to walk more then a block to and from, my guess would be that none of them would….
The thinking behind building a large garage is “if you build it they will come”. That’s the unbiased logic. There’s also the opportunistic logic of those who stand to financially gain from building a garage (e.g. the lawyers and the various parties who will be involved in the construction project). Then there’s the ultimate beneficiaries, the business owners (mostly restaurants) who believe that they will get more revenue as a result of increased customers). Even if there will be increased customers, which I highly doubt, then why should the Ridgewood taxpayers be on the hook for increasing these business owners net worth?
Parking in Ridgewood right now is no problem, other than Friday and Saturday evenings The dinner rush. Even then there’s enough parking. The folks who think there isn’t simply want to park within a block of their restaurant of choice. Do you honestly think that these same people are going to park their cars in a parking garage?
I ask again. Why am I paying tax dollars to improve the net worth of a select crowd of business owners?
Does The garage allows developers to count the parking spaces there as required parking for the new developments? Since we are screwed by former council approvals the only way to cover the added costs of these new units is to charge ongoing annual “impact fees” for every unit above the usual permitted density. If 50 units are built where 25 is the usual permissible then the additional should bee charged for each bedroom multiplied by the cost of annual student expenditure . So if It costs $20,000 per year per student in the BOE budget,, and a unit has 2 bedrooms,then an annual impact fee of $40,0000 plus assessed real estate taxes. So 25 extra units have 50 extra bedroom require $1,000,0000 annual fees to the village.
Ridgewood NJ, the Village received 4 proposals for the Hudson street garage project. At last Wednesdays council meeting Village Manager Heather Mailander made it clear that the Wednesday review was a quick once over with more in-depth review to follow.
Reader says , “Several months ago Councilman Hache publicly (during an open public meeting of the Village Council) voiced his strong opposition to the construction of any sized parking garage that would result in either increased parking fees, expanded metered parking hours (he cited both of the aforementioned as simply “another form of taxation), and/or an increased property tax burden for homeowners.
Now, all of a sudden, he’s Gung Ho on proceeding with the review of parking garage designs even prior to the financials being discussed. He went so far as to publicly chastise Mayor Knudsen for “stalling” when she suggested that financing arrangements should be discussed first.
WTF Ramon? What gives? Why the sudden about face?”
Many readers pointed out that Councilmen Ramon Hache seemed very focused on pushing the garage project forward for both design and financing . While we are not sure we would agree with that assessment .
The garage issue has be bandied about for the better part of 30 maybe 40 years although some would trace it back to the time when parking meters were first introduced to the Central Business District in Ridgewood making it more like 60 years .
Frankly we think the issues should be moved forward or finally put to rest once and for all .We now 4 proposals coupled with proposals for financing . Either the garage makes sense or it does not .
An anti garage reader summed it up , “Why are we still arguing every week about a garage we don’t need.It’s become the national pastime in Ridgewood. It’s been happening for over 20 years.At this rate it will happen for twenty more. We voted it down and it refuses to die.Politicians continue to ignore the voice of the people and make side deals with developers.There are much better uses of our tax dollars that can be made in our Village’s infrastructure.Is there anyone on the council with some real vision?”
Ridgewood NJ, the Village reported that a total of 267 cars were parked during the trial period for the centralized valet parking in the central business district of Ridgewood .Leaving the Village with a tab of $23,000 to pay the vendor. While we commend the Village Council for trying as many options as possible we are wondering why the CBD restaurants did not support the project ? One can only conclude from the results that the CBD does not need more parking .
Hi, I made that complaint and continue to send emails as there was no follow up regarding my issue. Someone asked for details…. happy to provide…. On 3 sepeate incidents over the last 2 yrs my wife received a parking violation for either not having a sticker or parking in an employee lot without a sticker. In all cases the vehicles are registered to me and the tickets, (which are either mailed or placed on the windshield – with no consistency for either method) are issued to the vehicle owner requiring both parties to show up in court should you wish to fight the ticket. Those are the simple facts…. Here are the details as I see them: Town requires all employees (including business owners) to purchase a monthly or yearly parking pass and you must affix the sticker in the driver side rear side window. Most windows are tinted making it difficult to see them. Note Mayor and Council: You are providing a parking pass to the employee, not the car, so it should be a hang tag that follows the employee regardless of means of transportation. What if the car is in the shop, rental, borrowed a friend or family members car…. What… buy more stickers? Then you must park in designated lots and use the park mobile app…. no coin option. So what happens when the app doesn’t work….ticket thats what…. What happens when the enforcement mule decides its raining or snowing and or too busy checking Facebook to bother getting out of the car to check for the sticker…. ticket thats what…. or his admin app doesn’t work or fails show the vehicle as paid even though it has. Again ticket…. Again, if the car is a rental, borrowed from a friend or registered to someone else its an issue because the driver isn’t issued the ticket the vehicle owner is. This now required both individuals to go to court to have it dismissed. (loss of wages and time) Observation: Enforcement salary, benefits, fuel, insurance and enforcement vehicle cost how much a year?? Guessing has to be easily 100K or more. Then factor in admin staff, utilities, salaries and court time maybe all total 200 – 300K? Too fed up with this abuse to get actual numbers but I bet im close. Calculate How many tickets are dismissed monthly against number written? After all he has to write so many a month based on borough statistics…. how else would they know if he is effectively doing his job…. But noooo its not a quota.. It’s a performance review. Subtract how how many went to court and were guilty and paid…. you are left with a quantity of unknown violations of which a percentage were just paid regardless of guilty or not. So what’s to stop him from writing erroneous tickets or being directed to? After all most individuals wouldn’t waste precious time for a 30.00 ticket…. You now have legal extortion if you ask me. Just like red light cameras which were banned and how hey wanted to issue speeding tickets using distance calcs between tolls based on easy pass. Faceless violations issued to the registered owners of a vehicle regardless if they were operating it or not. With internet sales increasing every hour, downtown rents through the roof… merchants are barely surviving and without employees and shoppers those businesses will cease to survive. So really what is the incentive for fee based parking….. The Answer I received….. other towns do it….. My response…. if I told you Billy jumped off the bridge you should too… would you think it’s a good idea just because someone else did it? Seems an incentive for people to seek employment and people to shop in Ridgewood would be achieved by not charging for parking. If you cannot fiscally manage the town with the taxes you accumulate you should look at your spend and if need be raise taxes to cover the losses for parking at it benefits the community by having a floursihing downtown area with employment opportunities. I am ashamed of the town council and mayor in their dismissive attitude towards this issue which has now cost me approx 1K in lost wages dealing with this administrative nightmare. I have offered to help solve the issue… so I am not complaining without offering to resolve it but again…. no response. Now it comes to light that the Park Mobile solution, which was put in place due to officials stealing quarters, costs more in fees than the town earns…. We call this TCO (true cost of ownership and Return on Investment in the IT world where I have domain expertise.) If this is true…… how do you all still have jobs…… If I screwed up this bad I would be terminated….. This isn’t rocket science nor is it a Democrat – Republican conversation…. its common sense and logic…. Stop charging for parking…. sell the enforcement vehicle(s) layoff the parking officials which saves salary and benefits and I bet there isn’t much of a deficit after it all nets out if any at all… Who knows you may actually be positive….. I may not have all the numbers correct because I don’t have the time or inclination to use the freedom of information act to request records which will cost the town money as well as myself for copies etc just to prove I am right …. ( a ducks a duck – it is as it appears) What are we left with? A poorly managed system which easily lends itself to corruption and or costly mistakes. Let’s level the playing field… for every erroneous ticket issued and found not guilty and or dismissed in court, there should be a $100.00 charge back to the town for lost time and wages per individual affected. Then see how many tickets get issued.
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood business district employee parking in North Walnut and Cottage Place lots permits and tags are available.
Cottage Parking
$20 sticker permit – 25cents per hour
you can pay for parking by coins or get a prepay tag for parking.
North Walnut parking
$20 sticker permit – 50cents per hour
you have to get a pre paid tag for your car.
Best paying parking for employees.
For more info and permits go to
Ridgewood Village Hall Monday-Friday,
8:30am-4:30pm,
must bring proof of employment, vehicle registration and driver’s license.
Imagine how many opportunities were possibly lost, while they were flogging the Garazilla Ark to hell ,, meanwhile town and roads etc going to seed..while the Blog screaming bloody murder
to right the Ship…was beat down by the hacks , who could not believe that the little people just cried for one honest day a week , even if declared as Sunday while the town manages were not eating our cheese…like the coin boy crime ,so many of the cover ups being aired in all their rot.
The Fact that another parking issue surfaces tells us so much ,that they didn’t care one fig..that they knew better, and history does not tolerate endless alt-facts,Owners will just move..
Ridgewood NJ, The Village Council voted to terminate its contract with Parkmobile this week, after it was discovered that the Village had incurred huge service fees with the parking app they have used since 2015.
The Fee issue was first raised publicly during an October meeting when CFO Robert Rooney told the council that the parking utility loses about 30 cents on the dollar every time the smartphone app is used. He said that since signing its contract with Parkmobile in February 2015, the village has paid $140,000 in service fees to the company.
Resolution 15-52 , the resolutions granting ParkMobile a 2 year contract ,clearly states that the Village will incur no additional service fees or contract fees .
Most of the blame has fallen on Roberta Sonenfeld who was the Village Manager, although she thought she was an elected official. The fact is she should never EVER have signed that contract when she was only authorized by resolution to sign a contract with NO ADDITIONAL FEES.
Reader stated , “that She bragged about her business prowess and being a Six Sigma expert. Based on her acrimonious, arrogant and ignorant behavior, she proved to be a Five Phi Failure!”
Glen Rock NJ, No injuries were reported following a crash in which the driver of a older model, 4-door Geo/Chevrolet Prizm drove up the front steps of a Bank of America branch located at 208 Harristown Road, Glen Rock on Friday morning, 12/15. The wrecked vehicle was removed by a flatbed tow truck. No structural damage to the building was evident. However, damage was observed to some concrete steps and ornamental hand railings. Glen Rock Police responded to investigate and file the required State of NJ accident report.
Ridgewood NJ, Simply put, the situation involving Parkmobile constitutes a blatant case of FRAUD.
Officers of Parkmobile convinced elected officials to adopt a formal resolution that approved the signing of a contract with their company. The adopted resolution stated in plain English that the Village would not be charged in any way, shape, or form. All costs were to be paid for by users on a per transaction basis. Then, Parkmobile somehow convinced former Village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld to sign a contract granting Parkmobile a percentage of the parking revenue from every transaction involving their app.
Bait and switch, plain and simple. One bill of goods was sold to the Council, another was sold to Roberta Sonenfeld.
FRAUD I say. I maintain the contract is invalid because it is in direct conflict with what our elected officials were told, and what they approved via resolution.
I’m about to call up that attorney who is handling the case against the Board of Education (Rosemarie Aronold of Fort Lee) and ask her to file a class action suit against Parkmobile for triple damages, court costs, and attorney’s fees.
