Parking should be first priority

To the Editor:

The Planning Board meeting on Tuesday night was a firm confirmation as to why the board has to take back control of the future of this town. Sitting there, you might have thought we had all stepped into a Perry Mason special instead of a village meeting. The former Sealfons building developer’s lawyer came out like a bulldog in his “cross examination” of CBR’s [Citizens for a Better Ridgewood] hired planning advisor and was at times condescending, mean-spirited and outright bad-mannered. If he is the representation of the developers that hired him then we can only infer how they would be once they were to get any sort of go ahead to develop in this town. Kudos to Ms. Brigette Bogart, CBR’s planning advisor, for keeping her calm and not being coerced into answering the deliberately leading questions.

What this town needs to thrive is a good parking option to let those who already live here, as well as those from other towns, make use of all that the village has to offer. Walk into any shop and ask the owners. This should be priority number one in helping boost the Central Business District. After that, the Planning Board should decide how it wants to change the town plan and proceed with housing for the empty nesters. Let the village put out the requests for proposals and not be pushed into anything that is not appropriate for the nature of this town.

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