Reader asks an increase of 300-500 new residential units how might affect Village Services ,Schools ,Water ,Recreation and so on
To ask them how an increase of 300-500 new residential units might affect their dept. Would they need to hire more staff? Would they need more equipment? What might these additions cost? Can our parks, both passive & recreational. handle more residents effectively? Would we need additional water treatment facilities? Would we have to float another bond to expand our schools? Would we need to hire more teachers? All of these departments are impacted by a potential increase of 300-500 apartments. Sure, our downtown would get more foot traffic, but we should also be researching how it will affect the village as a whole. That’s why you need reports.
The estimates of apartment renters with children is low. One developer used stats that were ten years old. Build a new two bedroom unit and who do you think will move in? It may be a starter residence but it still impacts the schools – the largest tax burden.
Make sure that the developers pay a school tax of 14,000 per bedroom.
The whole CBD and stores will be unbearable, with 1,000 more people or so. Imagine, the traffic.
They say those apt. dwellers won’t use a car.
They will walk to Midland Park to see a doctor. Sure. They will repair their own cars in their parking lots and carry gas to fill up. Sure.
They will all walk to super markets with shopping carts and never drive, especially on cold winter days or days of rain, sure.
They will never drive out of Ridgewood or drive their kids to school, sure.
They won’t use our utilities, sure.
Their won’t be more congestion, sure. The studies say so, and we know how accurate studies are that predict things.
And unlike people who live in houses they won’t buy things on the internet or climb into their cars and drive to stores on the highway.
Thats what the Council and the Developers what you to believe but we voters are not “Stupid ” not this time .
At a bare minimum, water and sewer will need upgrades. We have water restrictions every summer, so hard to imagine that problem goes away. There have been many articles in past year on need to upgrade sewers. As noted, traffic will be a nightmare, particularly at the Broad st intersection (now proudly sporting a nice bike lane) despite the experts believing these people will walk everywhere they go. Schools will have to be re-districted at minimum for elementary, and maybe middle school. I don’t know how close to capacity the HS is, but I suspect it’s close. I think the “experts” projected some ridiculously small number of students, but I think we all know better. The council needs to balance the costs of all of these upgrades with the benefit of the tax revenues the projects would generate. To a certain extent, it is likely an all or nothing proposition, as if they reject 1 and allow another, we’ll be in court fighting that, too.