Ridgewood NJ, if you are opposed to COAH/Fair Share Housing in NJ? Being overrun with developers taking advantage of its unfair, unconstitutional formula? Express your protest at the voting booth on Election Day! One of its major funders is the Philip and Tammy Murphy Family Foundation and, as we know, Phil Murphy is the Democratic nominee for NJ Governor.
FOUNDATIONS
Bridge of Books Foundation
David L. Kirp Fund
Eustace Foundation…
Lauren Rose Albert Foundation
NJ SIM Foundation
100 Who Care
Pennsylvania Automotive Association Foundation
*Philip and Tammy Murphy Family Foundation*
Robert P. Kelly Family Foundation
Siegel Family Fund (a donor-advised fund of USAA Giving Fund)
Walsh Family Fund of the Community Foundation of NJ
Parking 31 % Unelected Special Interests 6.9 % Urbanization 11 % Taxes 33.1 % CBD 2 % Development 7.3 % Cost of Living 8.7 %
September 16,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, the long running Ridgewood blog poll gave us an interesting take on what residents feel are the biggest issues in the Village . As expected taxes garnered 33.1 % of the vote , trailed by a close second Parking with 31% .Urbanization came in a distant 3rd with 11% followed by cost of living 8.7% , surprisingly development at 7.3% ,unelected special interests 6.9% and last the Central Business District (CBD) with a mere 2%. The CBD number may be more of a parking issue and a cost of living or Urbanization issue but despite all the hub bub from certain sectors ,no one seems to think its an issue .
While our crack staff concluded that even if you combined Urbanization and development it still only came in with 18.3% , which was still a distant 3rd . Adding unelected special interests ie developers and out side political interference that would still leave it in 3rd place with a 25.2%.The conclusion being that most residents do not object to development but perhaps its the size and scale that seem to raise the ire .
Taxes as expected is the number one issue in town and in New Jersey and its also the number one reason for people leaving the state , the assumption being residents vote with their feet and see no evidence that taxes will even stabilize anytime soon. Feeding the say yes to everything because your moving out on graduation day and most likely meaning that all the “Age Friendly” Ridgewood stuff is just a complete waste of time.
We don’t think the polls told us anything different that we expected , but given all the talk from local officials about trees, ball fields , schools , the CBD, quality of life issues , most readers seem ready to park their cars in a new state as soon as soon as the graduation pronouncement is made.
Tomorrow begins the hard core campaign season in New Jersey. People oftentimes ask me, particularly in this current climate, why did I agree to run for office? I am an accomplished businesswoman, attorney, wife and mom. I have survived a bout of melanoma and a recent brain aneurysm. I have worked at the local truck stop flipping burgers and at a premier NYC law firm handling multi billion dollar transactions. I made more money prior to running for office than I do now. …I ran for office six years ago because I care. I grew up here and I chose, as an adult, to return. I am not a career politician. I became involved because I am passionate about trying to save our state from the bad fiscal policies enacted by mostly one party control over the past 15 years. I have watched my property taxes almost double, my take home pay shrink, our insurance premiums skyrocket but yet I stay because I love the state I grew up in. I have been the loud voice on difficult topics (and have subjected myself to horrible name calling as a result) because we must address a better way to govern this state. I am certain you will hear nasty, mostly untrue, things about me over the next 60 days but please remember leadership takes a spine of steel. Real leadership involves discussing and listening to all sides on the most sensitive topics. Leadership is voting no on bad legislation regardless of how much a special interest group may want it. If you ever have a question on why I voted a certain way or what my position is on a particular topic please reach out and ask. I also will be going door to door in all 23 of the towns I represent. I’m taking all volunteers for the journey.
Let me know if you’d like to help out.
Holly Schepisi New Jersey State Assemblywoman for District 39
Updated on September 3, 2017 at 8:02 AM Posted on September 3, 2017 at 6:30 AM
With an election coming up, we’re hearing a lot about consolidating towns and school districts as a means of solving our property-tax problem.
Before this goes any further, let me warn all involved about the nature of such transactions.
Consolidations are like weddings. There are two types: weddings of attraction, into which both partners enter willingly; and shotgun weddings, in which one party takes part only because of compulsion.
The latter describes one Monmouth County town that I covered in the waning days of the Corzine administration, Loch Arbour.
The elected officials of this charming little town by the sea entered into a mutually beneficial pact with nearby Ocean Township when they set up a shared-services agreement. They would send their kids to Ocean schools in return for a per-pupil payment of about $15,000 per year.
River Vale NJ, In this interview the founder of Fair Share Housing stares that municipalities aren’t being forced to allow builders to build 5 market rate units for an affordable unit and that the narrative is “totally false.” For my friends around the State facing lawsuits from builders and Fair Share, are his claims accurate?
“Municipalities that don’t want to do their fair share claim that they’ll have to do five units for every affordable unit,” said Fair Share Housing Center Founder Peter O’Connor. “So, if their fair share were 200, they’d have to do 1,000 units. If it were 500, they have to do 2,500 units. That is totally false. The Supreme Court has given great deference to municipal decision making. And towns have a laundry list of 10 categories they can choose from to implement fair share. Only one is the development of market rate housing.”
NJ’s affordable housing crisis: how are towns meeting demand?
BY Briana Vannozzi, Correspondent | August 30, 2017, 3PM EST
The State Supreme Court’s Mount Laurel decision on affordable housing has confounded municipalities and complicated urban planning since it was handed down. There is still widespread dispute over the number of homes each municipality is required to provide. In the meantime, towns are finding creative solutions for those still Chasing the Dream. In the final part of our series, Correspondent Briana Vannozzi went to Mount Laurel where it all began.
Fair Share Housing Center’s Rev. Eric Dobson showed NJTV News cameras a newly constructed road to see the latest housing development inside the original Ethel Lawrence neighborhood of Mount Laurel. The affordable units of single family and town homes will be ready within a year.
“Many aren’t aware this affordable housing facility exists. So it seamlessly integrated into the town,” said Dobson.
Our quiet, serene, beautiful and peaceful neighborhood on Van Emburgh Avenue stretching from Washington Township into Ridgewood and made up of 100 percent single family homes is about to be shattered by a court-ordered imposition of a 44-unit apartment complex. This mandate is to satisfy some nebulous rules about complying with Affordable Housing politically-correct social engineering forced on our town by the state.
I spoke against this mandate at a recent Township of Washington Planning Board for the following reasons: Many of the Township and Village residents moved here specifically to get away from densely-packed areas which have multi-family complexes.
The construction mud and noise pollution will disrupt our peaceful lives and enshroud us in a cloud of dust and dirt probably for something like two years. The now-empty land parcel they are plopping this monstrosity in is practically across the street from Immaculate Heart Academy High School. This will mean that the dozens and dozens of parents who drop their daughters off at school each morning will now be competing in traffic with arriving construction workers — excavators, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, roofers, painters, sheetrockers and landscapers, etc.
Since most people nowadays have two cars, and are two-worker households, that will mean that 88 more cars belonging to potential residents will join the traffic during the early mornings; and that number of cars doesn’t even include arriving faculty.
The loud sounds of earth movers, bulldozers, backhoes, bucket loaders, cement trucks and dump trucks as well as huge rigs delivering lumber, massive sanitary and storm pipes, roofing supplies, siding and landscaping materials will disrupt our peaceful existence.
Even if 12 of the residents of the 44-unit apartment complex have children, that means 100 brand new instant neighbors on our street.
The trouble with politically-correct mandated solutions to social concerns is that they don’t take into consideration the impact on the existing local governments. The prime example being the local school system population, police, fire, street sweeping and snow removal.
I want to urge the Township of Washington and The Village of Ridgewood to join Park Ridge and Hillsdale to put the question of “Affordable Housing” rules on the November ballot and put pressure on our state Legislature to straighten out the rules and regulations of these mandated nightmares.
Nicholas Katzban, Staff Writer, @NicholasKatzbanPublished 11:22 p.m. ET Aug. 16, 2017
RIDGEWOOD — The president of Bergen County’s United Way this week offered details on special-needs housing that could be coming to downtown Ridgewood.
Thomas Toronto testified before the Planning Board on Tuesday about an agreement his organization has brokered to include special-needs housing as part of an expansive market-rate redevelopment proposal at the former Sealfons site.
Even if one were to wave a magic wand and make these business-friendly changes, it’s way too late. NJ is operating in a state of virtual bankruptcy and servicing its debt is beyond anything changes like these could address. The world is changing, and location is no longer an issue. Businesses can be anywhere now and will always seek the lowest possible cost in terms of employees and real estate. It’s hard keeping anything in the USA, even in its lowest cost areas, when these businesses (or really competing businesses) can operate in places in China, the Philippines, India, etc. If NJ didn’t have such a massive debt load, it could probably ride this transition for many years, but we do have it, and the can is only kickable for so long until financial reality kicks in.
Carl GoldbergPublished 6:47 a.m. ET Aug. 10, 2017 | Updated 1:49 p.m. ET Aug. 10, 2017
A new study suggests that New Jersey could expand its economy by $150 billion and create a quarter-million new jobs over the next decade by making a number of policy changes regarding business operations in the state. The report by consulting firm McKinsey says that the state needs to nurture young businesses, improve roads and mass transit options and better tailor incentives to promote growth.
This is correct as far as it goes, but the report barely scratches the surface on why New Jersey is struggling to gain younger businesses and misses a looming economic crisis. The why is best explained by Rutgers professors James Hughes and Joseph Seneca. They write about how New Jersey successfully evolved from an urban manufacturing-based economy to one that made the state an economic success story based on suburbanized information and research-driven employment.
“The baby boom will soon be yesterday’s workforce. Tomorrow’s workforce will be dominated by a new, expansive generation… such young creatives… currently do not find the car-culture suburbs in which they grew up an attractive place to live, work and play,” according to Hughes and Seneca.
“Suddenly, New Jersey’s greatest core advantage in the late twentieth century — a suburban-dominated, automobile dependent economy and lifestyle — is now regarded as a disadvantage,” they add.
Judge ruled South Brunswick must build 3,000 units of affordable housing, but township wants decision set aside due to ‘appearance of impropriety’
New Jersey’s only municipality to receive its affordable-housing obligation from a judge’s order is continuing to appeal that number, even as construction is underway on the first new developments since the Supreme Court got back in the middle of the Mount Laurel housing controversy. The township is claiming the Superior Court judge was compromised by a relationship with the developer.
It’s been almost two-and-a-half years since the state’s highest court took control of affordable housing matters away from the “moribund” New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing and tossed it back to the courts, which had been the original deciders of low- and moderate-income housing claims following the Supreme Court’s landmark Mount Laurel rulings. In those cases, which date back to 1975, the court ruled that municipalities must zone for their “fair share” of their regional need for affordable housing.
The cases have been slowly winding through the Superior Courts throughout the state. The Fair Share Housing Center, the Cherry Hill-based organization leading the legal efforts to get more homes built, has reached settlements with 120 municipalities to construct more than 36,000 units from Bergen to Camden counties. Construction has even begun on projects in Woodbridge, Cherry Hill, Westfield, and Edison, welcome news to housing advocates after the process had been stalled by lawsuits and lack of action by COAH for about 16 years.
Other municipalities remain in the courts. For instance, a Mercer County judge is expected to rule within the month on the obligations for several communities in Mercer.
“For the naysayers who don’t believe court-forced overdevelopment in New Jersey impacts environmentally sensitive areas please read this article.” , Assemblywomen Holly Schepisi
APPEALS COURT APPROVES HOUSING DEVELOPMENT IN HIGHLANDS
TOM JOHNSON | AUGUST 7, 2017
Court defers to DEP’s expertise regarding wetlands, endangered species, and impact of proposed sewer connection on water quality
A state appeals court approved a much-contested plan to build a housing development in the Highlands, setting aside concerns by opponents that it would adversely impact environmentally sensitive land and habitat at the 85-acre site.
The court found the state Department of Environmental Protection acted properly in approving a scaled-down 204-unit housing development in Oakland on High Mountain, a scenic vista in the heart of the Highlands.
The project initially goes all the way back to 1987, when the Bi-County Developers brought suit against the borough to build the development as part of a builder’s remedy to erect some low- and moderate-income housing.
The court’s ruling on Friday is the latest twist in a dispute that predates the 2004 enactment of the Highlands Act, which sought to more closely monitor development within the region. The New Jersey Highlands Coalition and New Jersey Sierra Club, which brought the suit, argued the project should not have been exempted from the act due to being grandfathered in.
The environmental groups also argued that permits for the project should not have been granted because of concerns about wetlands, endangered species, and a proposed sewer connection’s impact on water quality.
In siding with the DEP and the developer, the court deferred to the agency’s expertise on those issues in reaching an agreement in 2014 to grant permits for the project. That decision reversed a ruling by the Corzine administration, which had blocked the project, until contested by the developer.
My hat goes off to her but she seems to be lonely in this fight. I don’t see any uproar from anybody else on the Republican side at least. Democ-rats agenda will continue the path of destruction in the name of socialism. Socialism tries to narrow the gap by destroying the rich so they can come come closer to the poor levels instead of trying to bring up the poor and increase their standards. In the end Bergen County and Ridgewood in particular will suffer terribly. We live in times of sadomasochism. These libs don’t care that even their living standards will go down and that of their children as long as their brain is happy with bringing “equality” to the world.
Edgewater NJ, One year ago today, a fast-moving fire sparked by a maintenance worker’s blowtorch climbed up the walls and through unsprinklered spaces of the Avalon Edgewater apartment complex.
The blaze was first reported at 4:22 p.m. on Jan. 21, 2015, sending 500 first responders to the Russell Avenue complex.
Ridgewood NJ, For the second time in 28 days Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi’s attempt to get the State Assembly to relieve municipalities from over development arising from court-mandated housing requirements was denied.
The court mandated over development endangers Bergen County quality of life and will require many towns to build unneeded housing in a state with a declining population .
Schepisi said , “I’m very disappointed that the speaker again blocked my efforts to relieve municipalities of this incredible burden. The only roadblock helping our communities is Democrats’ continued refusal to take action,”
Earlier Schepisi asked Speaker Vincent Prieto to post her bill package addressing court-mandated affordable housing before today’s special voting session, but was again denied.
From the Assembly floor at 1 a.m. on July 4, Schepisi urged the legislature to suspend all affordable housing litigation until the end of the year so the legislature could address the issue. Her effort was voted down 44-26 along party lines.
“This is a bipartisan issue that has turned into a potential disaster for our towns and our constituents. Just ask the mayors from Democratic towns outside of my district who have asked me for help instead of their own local Democrat legislator,” continued Schepisi (R-Bergen).
“Maybe Democrats aren’t listening to their mayors, councils and constituents because Phil Murphy funds the non-profit suing our communities and forcing unwanted development. It’s not what is best for towns, our environment and our schools; it’s what is best for their party.”
On June 19 Schepisi introduced an eight bill package shifting all municipal obligations to the state and recalculate obligations based on reasonable need. It also makes changes to how affordable housing is administered to best help communities.
“I have introduced a package that addresses all of the concerns I have heard from mayors on both sides of the aisle. And it ensures that affordable housing will be built to accommodate the needs of the residents of this state,” concluded Schepisi.
Schepisi’s affordable housing package includes:
• Amending the state constitution to require the state calculate affordable housing obligations (ACR250).
• Increasing the numbers of senior and special needs housing that can count towards the affordable housing obligations in the State.
• Requiring COAH and Courts to take into account environmental considerations, municipal infrastructure, school and emergency services department capacities
• Allowing municipalities to provide preference to their own residents in need of affordable housing
• Requiring COAH to administer affordable housing obligations (A5025).
• Allowing municipalities to challenge obligations administered by COAH (A5026).
• Requiring COAH calculate obligations based on reasonable need factors and imposing a population increase cap (A5027/A5028).
• Eliminating the exclusion of urban aid municipalities from obligations (A5029).
• Amending the state constitution to prohibit exclusionary zoning and clarify municipal affordable housing obligations (ACR249).
• Prohibiting the builder’s remedy in exclusionary zoning litigation (A5030).
Ridgewood NJ, no surprise here that state Democrats are funding over building in Bergen County and looking to destroy the quality of life ,turning the county into another borough of Manhattan .
“Anyone who follows me knows I have been fighting to bring rational discussion to the over development crisis impacting most of our communities. As a result I have been labeled a racist, xenophobe and a whole host of awful and untrue things by a non profit organization Fair Share Housing Development. Imagine my surprise today when I saw that their top donor list includes gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy! And we wonder why our communities are receiving no help from their representatives in Trenton.” , Assemblywomen Holly Schepisi .
In Ridgewood this blog has long warned of over development , even warning residents to not vote for a Hudson County Mayor .
Unfortunately the warnings went unheeded and after the “3 amigos ” reign of terror in the Village is now faced with 4 major high density housing developments that will deplete the Village of Resources , pressure water,sewer, fire ,police and education as well as lower property values and increase tax rates.
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