JUNE 23, 2015 LAST UPDATED: TUESDAY, JUNE 23, 2015, 1:21 AM
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
RIDGEWOOD — The Historic Preservation Commission wants to expand the downtown historic district as part of the Planning Board’s impending update to the master plan.
At the board’s meeting last week, Ridgewood’s planner, Blais Brancheau, outlined the Historic Preservation Commission’s recommendations for the master plan’s next iteration.
The commission suggests widening the Village Center Historic Zone to encompass Ridgewood’s entire business district as well as Doremus Avenue, Prospect Street, both sides of Franklin Avenue and the area surrounding the railroad station on Garber Square.
Such an expansion would promote consistency throughout the heart of the village.
The commission said the expansion would further en-sure “renovations and new construction conform to the his-toric streetscape” and increase scrutiny of proposed demoli-tions.
Discussion of the master plan update will continue for the foreseeable future at Planning Board meetings.
But members of the board did comment last Tuesday on the potential benefits and possible pitfalls of designating more of the village as “historic.”
Mayor Paul Aronsohn, a Planning Board member, said he was both “sensitive to the imperative of historic preservation as well as the needs and rights of property owners in the vill-age.”
https://www.northjersey.com/news/bigger-historic-district-proposed-1.1360939
