Tag: quality of life

Posted on

Quality of Life Issues Abound in Bergen County

maple+field1-300x19911

Battle over Northern Highlands Regional district’s field lights heading to court

NOVEMBER 15, 2015    LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2015, 9:59 AM
BY MARINA VILLENEUVE
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD

ALLENDALE — The Northern Highlands Regional High School Board of Education is going to court to defend the new electric-powered light trailers on its athletic fields.

Three neighboring residents are suing the school district, claiming it’s unlawfully using the mobile trailers with lights up to 72 feet tall in defiance of state and local statutes and past court rulings.

On Thursday, the school board, the Northern Highlands Regional High School Sports Association and the Allendale Planning Board and Board of Adjustment filed a civil action in Superior Court in Hackensack asking a judge to dismiss the neighbors’ lawsuit and declare that the school’s use of the lights is legal.

The school has been using mobile, diesel-powered light trailers ever since the late 1990s, after the Planning Board denied the sports association’s application to build permanent 70-foot-tall light towers with a concrete foundation.

The board is arguing that mobile light trailers don’t require any kind of zoning variance or site-plan approval because they don’t fall under state and local definitions of “structure,” “fixture” or “development.”

The school says that it’s used the new electric-powered light trailers about 30 times since they were delivered in September, and that they’re less noisy and smelly than the previously rented diesel-powered trailers.

“As a result, hundreds of children have been able to safely use the turf field at Northern Highlands after dark,” reads the counterclaim filed Thursday.

The school “shall continue to utilize mobile light trailers in connection with its lawful lighting of the athletic fields on the property,” reads the counterclaim, which seeks compensatory, consequential and punitive damages.

In two counts of the neighbors’ eight-count lawsuit filed in October, they claim the new lights will be a public nuisance harming neighbors and that the Board of Education will be liable for damages.

“The development will give rise to a continual invasion of adjoining property by reason of light trespass and light and noise pollution,” reads the lawsuit, which also claims the taller lights will lead to lowered property values and a worse quality of life.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/crime-and-courts/battle-over-northern-highlands-regional-district-s-field-lights-heading-to-court-1.1455826

Posted on

People are fleeing N.J. faster than any other state, moving company says

DSCF3118

file photo Boyd Loving

People are fleeing N.J. faster than any other state, moving company says

By Jeff Goldman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
on January 05, 2015 at 1:30 PM, updated January 05, 2015 at 4:56 PM

Nearly two of every three families making an interstate move involving New Jersey last year were leaving the Garden State, the highest rate in the country.

New Jersey had the greatest percentage of outbound moves of any state nationally last year with almost 65 percent departing, according to a company which bills itself as the largest transporter of household goods in the country.

The Garden State has led the nation in outward migration for the fourth time in five years.

In all, United said it tracked 4,003 moves out of New Jersey in 2014 compared to 2,169 inbound.

Nearly half of those leaving New Jersey were bound for Florida (15 percent), California (14), Texas (9) and North Carolina (7.5), spokeswoman Melissa Sullivan told NJ Advance Media.

Retirement and jobs were the top reasons to leave the state last year, according to a United Survey of departing New Jerseyans.

About 42 percent reported leaving for a new job or company transfer. Forty-one percent attributed their move to retirement. More than half (56 percent) of people leaving New Jersey were over the age of 55, with 22 percent older than 65.

https://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2015/01/people_are_fleeing_nj_faster_than_any_other_state_moving_company_says.html

Posted on

Chris Christie in no position to slam Colorado on cannabis

images

Chris Christie in no position to slam Colorado on cannabis

Pity the poor saps who live in the beautiful Rocky Mountain State, where voters decided in a referendum that marijuana should be legal, beginning this year.

Now their quality of life has deteriorated, according to our governor.

“See if you want to live in a major city in Colorado, where there are head shops popping up on every corner, and people flying into your airport just to get high,” Chris Christie said on a radio show Monday. “To me, it’s not the quality of life we want to have here in the state of New Jersey. And there’s not tax revenue that’s worth that.”

Of course, if Christie were truly concerned about quality of life, he would not have sabotaged our medical marijuana program with his foot-dragging, as patients wallow in chronic pain.

But let’s put that aside for a moment. We are talking about marijuana legalization here — an idea most New Jerseyans and even municipal prosecutors support.

A New Jersey lawmaker has proposed a bill that would legalize, regulate and tax marijuana like liquor, predicting we could raise $100 million a year in revenue. That’s certainly a big plus. Colorado collected more than $2 million in recreational pot taxes in January. (Star-Ledger Editorial Board)

https://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/04/christie_in_no_position_to_slam_colorado_on_cannibis_editorial.html#incart_river

Posted on

Downtown Development guidelines the “big picture”

CBD_theridgewoodblog

Downtown Development guidelines the “big picture”
January 13, 2013
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ  Looks like the Ridgewood News has brought their A game to Village Central Business District development debate by proposing the planning board consider the big picture ,not only the impact to the CBD but the impact to the whole town , the schools,services ,infrastructure and commuting  in their latest Ridgewood News editorial: Developing guidelines ( https://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/186420401_Ridgewood_News_editorial__Developing_guidelines.html )

According to the News , “Ridgewood officials are considering the potential impact on the village. A draft ordinance is being drawn up that contains specifications each developer must follow, such as floor area ratio, setbacks, sign usage and minimum parking. That’s an important first step, but we believe much more must be considered.

Then the good stuff ,”In addition, the impact on traffic downtown – already a concern for many, especially regarding pedestrian safety – must be an important factor for Ridgewood’s planning board. The draft ordinance will guide officials in decisions such as units per acre and appropriate maximum building height. But we hope Ridgewood officials will consider the “big picture” and the impact of so much potential housing in one small geographic area.( https://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/186420401_Ridgewood_News_editorial__Developing_guidelines.html )

What is the “big picture”, the “big picture” is the is the overall impact on the community as a whole , the schools, Village services, ,parking, infrastructure, commuting , medical , traffic, EMS , fire, safety and of course the over all  viability.of  Ridgewood’s downtown  .With Urbanization comes added costs to the whole Village as well as quality of life issues that are very hard to put a price tag on .

If the Ridgewood Station project , the Dayton, Chestnut Village and the Enclave it will add over 300 new housing units within five blocks of each other forever changing the Village and the nature of the Village itself.