Reader says Is that the “Village” that we want to live in?
Valley is a nonconforming business that wants an exception so that they can double in size in a residential neighborhood. The downtown developments are looking to build in a commercially zoned area.
I do not like any of the proposed projects and I object to them all because I do not want to live in a city. Imagine Ridgewood with 5 retail/condo developments and a doubled valley hospital.
Is that the “Village” that we want to live in? With no plan anyone can build. When we start having exceptions then the precedent will be set and there will be no stopping developers.
Readers says its time for torches and pitch forks since our public officials are clearly favoring personal agendas over the best interests of the town
It actually may be time for torches and pitch forks since our public officials are clearly favoring personal agendas over the best interests of the town. Residents are having the most implausible “expert testimony” crammed down our throats and the results of “studies” about the impact of all of this building defy all common sense. Then the Gail Price, in a surreal outburst against Valley opponents, dictates that the Planning Board can only consider two unacceptable options and can only use this patently unbelievable testimony to make their decision. So much for public comment and the voice of the people.
When the fix is so blatantly in and when all public opinion is ignored, it’s time for the angry mob to rally. Read your history books folks.
Reader says We do not need pitchforks to say NO to over development
Much like the valley hospital situation, these people need an exception to the master plan. We do not need pitchforks to say NO. We do not even need a middle ground. These entities are all looking to build/expand so that they can make more money. Nothing personal, it’s just business.
What is in it for the town? More traffic, more kids in the schools and even less parking?
Establishing commuter parking at Ken Smith (with some kind of bridge to the train) is a rare opportunity–a no-brainer that if not taken advantage of now, will haunt the village forever. There is no reason the owner couldn’t make money on it.
Whats the up side for Ridgewood for more commuter parking ?
Who are these extra parking spots for, residents or out of towner s?
Some folks believe more commuters using the train station equates to more people patronizing shops and restaurants in the CBD, the theory being when they get off the train, they will not go directly to their cars and leave town. I’m not sure I buy into that theory though.
But most believe that commuters will get in their cars and drive home. After a long work day most are not looking for retail therapy.
Reader says “Save Ridgewood” group should focus on solutions
Has anyone in the “Save Ridgewood” group thought about the impact of doing nothing. Three of the four proposed residential development sites are currently vacant. At the recent Planning Board meeting in which the Brogan site was discussed one genius suggested that the site be developed for Retail use. This would produce far more traffic, noise and clutter than any residential use. It is time for the Save Ridgewood group to stop complaining and come forth with some well reasoned suggestions for the long term use of what are becoming increasingly blighted properties.
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
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”
‘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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
“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.
Reader says Like Clock Work Valley Starts Traffic Study
Valley Hospital is doing their traffic study this morning at Van Dien and Red Birch. The end of a vacation week and on a Sunday. Come on, do they really think residents are that stupid?
