Ridgewood Planning Board Meeting Ordered adjourned
The Ridgewood Village Planning Board meeting which was held at the Sydney Stolt Courtroom at Village Hall on August 20′ was ordered into adjournment by the Ridgewood Fire and Police Departments. The audience packed the room. The Chairman interrupted the residents’ attorney while he was making his opening statement. For the next 45 minutes chaos reigned. Mayor Aronsohn was seen trying to manage the situation as was Charles Nalbanthian and Gail Price. The residents were pretty much ignored and the Valley officials smirked. After all, why wouldn’t they? The meeting was postponed to September 30.
Why was this meeting not held at BF? Was this another Valley ploy to delay, delay, delay? The mayor and the planning board officials demonstrated their incompetence or was the “fix” in?
Blame valley for everything but not the citizens who go to these meetings.
No seriously this is not accurate. The crowd overfilled the room and fire and police had no choice to address the situation. PB Chairman and Aronsohn tried very hard to come up with a solution for 45 minutes. There are legal issues here and the right decision was made. Gail Price was not even there. I agree Valley representatives and attorney are smart a***s.
Please don’t overlook the real news here. Valley’s attorney, Jonathan shrill drill, was forcefully objecting to CRR standing and forcefully objecting to CRR using Valley’s own documents to support opposition to the huge expansion. Preposterous as it is, Drill objected to his own clients legal position and reasoning on PVH reopening.
Pete McKenna presented himself as a true gentleman. I hope the board took to heart his words about the seven year nightmare, the burden this has placed on their fellow residents, the turmoil and uncertainty suffered through daily. Residents like McKenna should be able to find comfort and peace at home in Ridgewood not a 2,651 day nightmare.
What was that 1983 PB quote? 30 years ago “valley needs to find another solution other than expansion”?
Agree with number 1 — how dare the taxpaying citizens of the Village show up to express their point of view?
The Planning Board always seems to let the ball bounce Valley’s way. Their guy “Mr Drill” (that must just be his stage name) gets to object for 20 minutes and then as soon as the CRR’s guy stands up to speak the meeting is shut down. Valley is clearly running the show here. Once the Planning Board approves their expansion, Valley has one of their VP’s on the Council waiting with her rubber stamp.
The citizens of Ridgewood should be aware that they are being outgunned by Valley’s big money tactics. What was very refreshing last night was that the number of residents who appear to be people with young families were in the room. This is a major change. Their presence suggest an awareness that Ridgewood people are catching on to the enormity of this six year nightmare.
Why are these proceedings not televised? I agree with # 4 that Valley is controlling the show. Is their influence the reason why these proceedings are not televised?
Should have been televised if only to allow people on vacation to watch and a video to be posted for later viewing. This was going to be an important meeting.
To my knowledge nothing stops residents from bringing a video camera to record and place on YouTube.
I saw a very good mix of both young and old last night. I think people who really care about this town are starting to see the light.
Let’s hope there is an even bigger showing next time by those against this. You can bet Valley will.
I saw a very good mix of both young and old last night. I think people who really care about this town are starting to see the light.
Let’s hope there is an even bigger showing next time by those against this. You can bet Valley will be doing something( last time at GW ring a bell ?)
I agree this does not quite accurately represent what happenned. First of all, Sept. 9th was proposed as the next date. Many people (moms) in the audience objected as it is the first day of school, the PB listened and changed it to Sept. 30th. That was not Valley’s doing at all.
Also, Paul was out talking to the Police and Fire even when Mr. Drill was talking, so I don’t buy the argument that this CRR was “shut down”. there was a lot of whispering and confusion while Drill was talking also.
I am against the expansion, but also have some symphathy for the PB on this. I attended the last 4 meetings and the town hall court room has been plenty big enough for everyone, unfortunately.
I agree, I hope this encourages more people to come out on Sept. 30th! Come and support CRR!
I agree. Support the CRR and saving this town !
So who is to blame for picking too small of a space for a meeting that they knew would (or at least had the potential) to draw a large crowd? I understand this was not the first time this has happened in connection with a Valley related meeting. So again, I ask, who should take responsibility for this failure? I have to assume it is the Mayor (who is not only the Mayor but is also on the PB) who should take responsibility, but please feel free to correct me.
I do not think that it was intentional, but the PB should have expected a big turnout towards the end of the hearings as occurred during the lead up to the first PB vote.
The meetings have been poorly attended. I don’t blame anyone for that. You can only take so much of the one sided attack. Valley’s experts never admit that they might be asking for more than the property can hold, or that their reduction in size and intensity just don’t measure up.. So, the first time that they can hear things like this the residents came out. The PB should have anticipated this but they didn’t. That said, one does wonder if the timing of the meeting was planned to cut down on the numbers of residents since it was clearly during some of the more popular vacation weeks. Nalbantian, Arohnson’s and, Ms. Risen did a lot of scurrying about trying to figure a way to squeeze everyone into the courthouse to no avail.. They did listen to the residents about Sept. 9th being a lousy day and rescheduled for the 30th. I don’t think that any of them wanted to end up looking as clueless as the previous chairman.
The blame lays squarely on the Mayor. He saw first hand what happened the last time there was an overcrowding. He was on the council during the George Washington school fiasco. He is a very poor planner.