Tag: Urbanization

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Village Council and Village Boards Meeting Schedule

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Planning Board Amended Meeting Schedule – March 18, 31

PLANNING BOARD

AMENDMENT TO MEETING SCHEDULE

Special Public Meetings:March 18, March 31

In accordance with the provisions of the “Open Public Meetings Act,” please be advised that the Planning Board has scheduled special public meetings for:

• Tuesday, March 18, 2014, at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium at the Benjamin Franklin Middle School, 335 North Van Dien Ave., Ridgewood, NJ, at which time the Board will continue the public hearing on the proposed H-Hospital Zone amendment to the Master Plan and have discussion regarding the North Walnut Street Redevelopment Plan.

• Monday, March 31, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium at the Benjamin Franklin Middle School, 335 North Van Dien Ave., Ridgewood, NJ, at which time the Board will continue the public hearing on the proposed H-Hospital Zone amendment to the Master Plan.

The Board may take official action during these Work and Public Meetings.

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.

Village Council and Village  Boards Meeting Schedule 03/18/147:30PMPlanning Board Public Meeting H Zone Hearing at BFMS
03/25/147:30PMBoard of Adjustment Regular Public Meeting
03/26/147:30PMVillage Council Public Work Session
03/31/147:30PMPlanning Board Special Public Meeting – H-Zone BFMS
04/01/147:30PMPlanning Board Public Meeting
04/02/147:30PMVillage Council Public Work Session
04/08/147:30PMBoard of Adjustment Regular Public Meeting

1-800 Dentist

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Readers say ” Valley Hospital’s Current Expansion is of no benefit to anyone in this town except for Valley Hospital”

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Readers say ” Valley Hospital’s Current Expansion is of no benefit to anyone in this town except for Valley Hospital”

Let’s all hope it’s not judge , jury, and town executioner? If the council denies Valley, which they should. I don’t think Valley will sue and have it go to a judge? They will compromise and resubmit until they get closer to what they want.

A lot of articles state that the group of individuals who oppose Valley only live around Valley and are more impacted by this expansion. I so disagree with this view. All of Ridgewood should be against this current expansion. Why? Well here’s just a few good reasons: Valley, pays no taxes, not even PILOT. All Ridgewood Taxpayers will be paying for the additional strains on our services (Police and Fire). 7 to 14 years of construction will cause major traffic problems from beginning to end ( no way around this and will affect all of us). You won’t be able to get to those homes on the Westside!

Valley demonstrated that it had no interest in compromise when they submitted a “revised” plan that was a near twin of the original rejected one. It was so close that the PB should have refused to consider it, like a teacher with a “revised” essay that’s almost identical to the first one.

PB keeps hiding behind “laws” and “rules” but where is the responsibility to represent the people?

Have 7 figures already been spent in fees to attorneys and “experts” to keep discussing the same thing?

How many PB members do not know how they will vote? How many have known for 7 years?

Think about this statement: ” Valley Hospital’s Current Expansion is of no benefit to anyone in this town except for Valley Hospital”

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‘Save Ridgewood’ group protests new apartments proposed for former commercial area

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‘Save Ridgewood’ group protests new apartments proposed for former commercial area

Originally published: March 11, 2014 8:06 PM
Updated: March 11, 2014 8:48 PM

RIDGEWOOD – Concerns over increased traffic and school overcrowding have sparked a battle over several new apartment complexes in Ridgewood.

Some residents in the upscale community have formed a grassroots movement called “Save Ridgewood,” which is fighting to block three proposed apartment complexes from going up.

The group says the three- and four-story buildings would change Ridgewood’s small town charm.  They are also concerned hundreds of new residents could create traffic and parking problems.

https://newjersey.news12.com/news/save-ridgewood-group-protests-new-apartments-proposed-for-former-commercial-area-1.7360992

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COAH Meeting Canceled After State Supreme Court Issues Temporary Stay

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COAH Meeting Canceled After State Supreme Court Issues Temporary Stay

Appellate panel had ordered fair-share housing agency to hold its first meeting in 10 months.

Just 18 hours before the NJ Council on Affordable Housing was to hold a court-ordered meeting, which would have been its first in 10 months, the agency cancelled that meeting after the state Supreme Court issued a temporary stay of the order late yesterday afternoon.

The stay issued by the state’s highest court’s one-page order put a hold on last Friday’s extraordinary Appellate Division ruling that COAH meet by 9:30 a.m. today to begin working on rules for municipalities to provide their “fair share” of housing for low- and moderate-income residents as required under the state Supreme Court’s so-called Mount Laurel rulings.

Soon after the Supreme Court issued its temporary stay, the state Department of Community Affairs posted a that it had cancelled the meeting. Spokesmen for DCA and the state Attorney General’s office both declined comment. The meeting cancellation notice stated that the meeting “has been cancelled because the Supreme Court’s Order stayed the Appellate Division’s Order of March 7, 2014, which constituted the legal basis for holding the emergency meeting.”

Prior to early 2011, COAH used to hold monthly meetings. The council is supposed to have 12 members, but currently only half the seats are filled. (O’Dea/NJSpotlight)

https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/14/03/11/coah-meeting-canceled-after-state-supreme-court-issues-temporary-stay/

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Planning Board Amended Meeting Schedule – March 10, 18, 31

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Planning Board Amended Meeting Schedule – March 10, 18, 31

PLANNING BOARD

AMENDMENT TO MEETING SCHEDULE

Special Public Meetings: March 10, March 18, March 31

In accordance with the provisions of the “Open Public Meetings Act,” please be advised that the Planning Board has scheduled special public meetings for:

• Monday, March 10, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium at the Benjamin Franklin Middle School, 335 North Van Dien Ave., Ridgewood, NJ, at which time the Board will continue the public hearing on the proposed H-Hospital Zone amendment to the Master Plan.

• Tuesday, March 18, 2014, at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium at the Benjamin Franklin Middle School, 335 North Van Dien Ave., Ridgewood, NJ, at which time the Board will continue the public hearing on the proposed H-Hospital Zone amendment to the Master Plan and have discussion regarding the North Walnut Street Redevelopment Plan.

• Monday, March 31, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium at the Benjamin Franklin Middle School, 335 North Van Dien Ave., Ridgewood, NJ, at which time the Board will continue the public hearing on the proposed H-Hospital Zone amendment to the Master Plan.

The Board may take official action during these Work and Public Meetings.

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Leadership needed to establish goals

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Leadership needed to establish goals

FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS

Leadership needed to establish goals
Martin Walker

This letter was also sent to the Ridgewood Planning Board.

To the editor:

“Options ‘come down to economics’” (The Ridgewood News, Friday, Feb. 21, page A1) made good headlines, but Planning Board member objections to assisted living and parking facilities around building heights, location and aesthetics in North Walnut Street Redevelopment miss the enormity of issues affecting our community. Are we fiddling while Rome burns, or is there no leadership establishing goals and priorities?

The Organizational Development giant on leadership, Elliott Jacques, demonstrated that levels of institutional authority are correlated with the degrees of future time span awareness. Is no one in town governance articulating a vision for Ridgewood’s future? Doesn’t compromise require a shared goal in order to balance competing needs in the service of a greater good? Visionary leadership for Ridgewood requires a clearer articulation of where we are going.

The two perennial certainties, aging and taxes, provide the most stable variables around which to articulate any family community’s future. Every single one of us will age and the fact that tax revenue is tied to property values means our taxes will increase indefinitely. Visionary leadership must articulate what this means for our town.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/248948441_Letter__Leadership_needed_to_establish_goals.html#sthash.xjgQk81N.dpuf

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Planner for Citizens for a Better Ridgewood testifies before planning board

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Planner for Citizens for a Better Ridgewood testifies before planning board

THURSDAY MARCH 6, 2014, 4:57 PM
BY  LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS

The planner for the grassroots group Citizens for a Better Ridgewood (CBR) said at Tuesday’s packed Planning Board hearing that three high-density multifamily housing developments proposed for the downtown area are “out of scale” with their surroundings.

CBR planner Brigette Bogart also said the proposed rezoning requests “appear to be akin to spot zoning,” the application of zoning to a specific parcel of land in a larger zoned area. She advised the board to engage in a cautious process, asking it to think about a “vision” for Ridgewood’s future as it moves forward. She also urged board members to consider the reasons for current master plan restrictions, as well as how the developments fit in with village concerns about parking, traffic safety, open space and increased student enrollment.

“The boundaries of a district should be based on the existing conditions of the neighborhood. From a planning perspective, there should be a clear delineation of the zone boundary lines proposed, and how these lines relate to the adjacent land uses,” she noted in her presentation, which CBR provided to The Ridgewood News.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/248894861_Planner_for_Citizens_for_a_Better_Ridgewood_testifies_before_planning_board.html#sthash.SC6wotWe.dpuf

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Special Public Planning Board Meeting – March 4, 2014

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Special Public Planning Board Meeting – March 4, 2014

PLANNING BOARD

AMENDMENT TO MEETING SCHEDULE

Special Public Meeting: Tuesday, March 4, 2014

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, MARCH 4, 2014, in the RIDGEWOOD HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT CENTER, 627 E. RIDGEWOOD AVENUE, RIDGEWOOD, NJ beginning at 7:30 p.m.

The Board may take official action during this Special Public Meeting. The agenda for the meeting includes the following:

1. Continued public hearing concerning a proposed amendment to the Land Use Plan Element of the Master Plan, which amendment would recommend creation of new zone districts and changes in zone district boundaries within the Central Business District and surrounding area including AH-2, B-3-R, C-R and C Zone Districts.

2. Other Planning Board business per the agenda.

The proposed master plan amendment and related exhibits are at the office of the Secretary of the Ridgewood Planning Board on the third floor of Village Hall, 131 North Maple Avenue, Ridgewood, New Jersey and are available for public inspection Monday-Friday between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. The amendment and exhibits are also posted as a courtesy on the Village’s website at www.ridgewoodnj.net

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.

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“Save Our Village” lawn signs popping up in Village

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Photo credit:  Boyd A. Loving

“Save Our Village” lawn signs popping up in Village
March 2,2014
Boyd A. Loving
4:57 PM

Ridgewood NJ, “Save Our Village” signs are now popping up in the Village.  Most have been spotted in the Ridge Elementary School area, presumably because that school’s receiving area encompasses the Central Business District, where the high density housing is proposed to be located.
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Photo credit:  Boyd A. Loving

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Various options for North Walnut Street redevelopment in Ridgewood

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Various options for North Walnut Street redevelopment in Ridgewood

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2014, 4:33 PM
BY  LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS

After a three-month hiatus on discussion about the proposal, the North Walnut Street Redevelopment Plan was reviewed at a Planning Board meeting on Tuesday.

Village Planner Blais Brancheau noted that, with the village’s many aims for the site, “trade-offs” will be needed to attract a developer. Brancheau was asked to discuss the North Walnut Street plan again at the end of the March 18 Valley Hospital hearing.

The plan was drafted for the village around 2007 by the consulting firm The Metro Company to address concerns with two municipal parking lots and specific adjoining properties on Franklin Avenue, North Walnut Street and Oak Street.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/246404171_Various_options_for_North_Walnut_Street_redevelopment_in_Ridgewood.html#sthash.IL1vpBSF.dpuf

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Village should say ‘no thanks’ to high-density housing

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Village should say ‘no thanks’ to high-density housing

Monday February 17, 2014, 11:45 AM
The Ridgewood News

Village should say ‘no thanks’ to high-density housing
Francis H. Schott

To the editor:

Over the past decade, Ridgewood has made great progress in improving our citizens’ quality of life. Our schools have been enlarged and modernized to make them adequate for our 5,800 students, a number that has steadily grown over the decade. Our recreational space, although still below state and federal standards, has been substantially augmented for the first time in generations by the acquisition and development of Habernickel Park and the purchase of the Schedler property as well as the enlargement of Citizens Park.

Admittedly we are still struggling with parking and traffic problems downtown, but the positives outweigh the negatives of the early 21st Century by a wide margin.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/245838491_Letter__Village_should_say__no_thanks__to_high-density_housing.html#sthash.bUE3N6wk.dpuf

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Readers ask One question for Valley and its supporters: How is the Valley expansion good for the tax payers of Ridgewood?

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file photo Councilwoman Gwenn Hauck as Vice President of the Valley Auxiliary

Readers ask One question for Valley and its supporters: How is the Valley expansion good for the tax payers of Ridgewood?

So who works for who here? Valley pays no taxes, benefits from all of Ridgewood’s municipal services and taxes our infrastructure with patients and employees coming in from surrounding towns. Yet THEY drive the agenda at hearings about THEIR expansion that will use even more municipal services and tax our infrastructure even further. For still no taxes.

While Valley is Ridgewood’s largest employer, less than 10% of its employees live in town. Similarly less than 10% of Valley’s patients are Ridgewood residents. Valley’s plan is clearly to draw from surrounding towns for both employees and patients which is great for surrounding towns but terrible for Ridgewood. We get a 7 year construction project followed by traffic, over taxed infrastructure and a lower quality of life.

Valley does, on the other hand throw a great party so its socialite supporters can see their picture in the Ridgewood News and 201 Magazine.

One question for Valley and its supporters: How is the Valley expansion good for the tax payers of Ridgewood? Maybe Mrs. Hauck can tweet the answer…

wine.com

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Valley Hospital buying up string of properties near its Ridgewood site

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Valley Hospital buying up string of properties near its Ridgewood site
Friday, February 14, 2014    Last updated: Saturday February 15, 2014, 12:40 AM
BY  LINDA MOSS AND BARBARA WILLIAMS
STAFF WRITERS
The Record

As The Valley Hospital has struggled for years to expand its campus in Ridgewood, it has been quietly buying real estate in Bergen County, assembling a portfolio that includes a string of properties on North Maple Avenue in Ridgewood and the building that houses the New Jersey Children’s Museum in Paramus.

Over the past two years, the hospital, in some cases through holding companies, has spent at least $54 million to acquire roughly a half-dozen sites in the village and neighboring Paramus as potential future locations for doctors’ offices, along with outpatient and other services that would be moved from its main campus. Some of these newly acquired properties are already operating as off-site hospital facilities.

But the hospital’s plans for some of its other new properties remain unclear, and Valley’s real estate shopping doesn’t appear to be over. Recently, it has been in talks to purchase buildings that the global parcel deliverer UPS will be vacating on Winters Avenue in Paramus, as reported by The Record. If that deal closes, it would add another property to a medical-services cluster that the hospital has been creating in Paramus, near the Fashion Center mall.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/valley_paramus_ford_ridgewood_hospital_ups_real_estate.html#sthash.ETbswYzJ.dpuf

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Reader urges caution for Schedler development do to its uniqueness

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Reader urges caution for Schedler development  do to its uniqueness
Jane S

I didn’t ask them to build or not to build anything in particular. I only asked that the Council be aware of its geographical reality (for lack of a better description) before they decide on anything.

The property is right on the highway. A parking lot, especially if it has lights and no developed police presence, is an obvious spot for drug sales. You’d pull in, buy or sell drugs and be back on Rte. 17 and in NY in minutes.

It wouldn’t be like trouble at Vets Field or the high school. It’s a bit remote and off the radar. #4, I’d agree that people might use spike in crime, child safety, pedestrian safety, etc. to win other arguments, but this is one of the most unique spots in town and as such makes it worthy of extra caution.

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