Empty nesters have been selling their houses to families with young children for generations in Ridgewood and we’ve done just fine. Now the developers and their friends on our Council want to build hundreds of apartments in town for empty nesters. This is a pipe dream – we all know that these apartments will attract families with school children from nearby cities with school systems that lag behind Ridgewood’s.
A couple things are going to happen that nobody wants to talk about. 1. Kids who live in the apartments will go to Ridge, Willard and GW where class sizes are already beginning to tick up. 2. If empty nesters trying to sell their houses are competing with developers renting apartments to families with kids, the value of your house will go down.
We are being sold a bill of goods by special interest groups, specifically developers and labor unions, that are supported by 3 members of our Council. Their “studies” have produced laughable results – traffic will decrease and school population will stay flat. False and false.
No surprise the unions are involved. They have a nice little scam building state roads for $2 million a mile, I’m sure they charge double that rate for municipalities for even worse service.
Great post. I see it as you do and can only wonder where is the outrage? Are people actually fooled? Too tired of fighting to care?
Where’s the outrage?
From Ridgewood residents?
And is this post/complaint a little too late?
The apts. Are a done deal…get used to it and move out like I did…best thing I ever did…
It may seem like utopia to some, but a town full of young families is not sustainable.
We need a balanced population. Our schools are maxed out, parents are petitioning for full day kindergarten. The school census is outpacing the revenue from the current homeowners.
And the cycle will continue. I will not be staying. I have paid taxes for 27 years, many of these years without children in the schools. But I can’t continue to pay for progress. And the family that buys my house will probably have children to educate. The net effect for the town will be a loss of revenue. Three children will cost the town more than the taxes generated by my home.
I can’t afford to maintain the balance that the village needs. How about incentive for residents to stay and not use the school system? Maybe residents of X years (20, 25?) get a tax break.
“Maybe residents of X years (20, 25?) get a tax break”
I like it. Some sort of tax break, or discount on the school portion of the budget after x amount of year?
Where will you go? an apartment on the train tracks or somewhere else? Serious question… . .
Union are the blame for global warming.
I have no interest in living in downtown Ridgewood. I would rather move to another town.
If I move to a condo in 20 years it will be one with amenities. Pool, golf, tennis and clubhouse. Living by the tracks is not appealing.
Still, no one has put a price range on the condos, taxes and maintenance. How can anyone guess that people on a fixed income would move there. Maybe the only ones who will be able to afford them will be young couples with kids.
Please don’t think that you are “sticking it to” Ridgewood by selling your house to a family with young children. That is what has kept this town a great place to raise kids. What is not sustainable is selling out our future to developers and ambitious local politicians. You can’t go back after you build this stuff.
25 years and a 25% discount on taxes! Easy to remember.
I’ve been waiting for the last thirty years for the chance to sell my 5 bedroom home and move into an apartment next to the Railroad tracks where my children can all come visit me over the holidays.
Some towns freeze property taxes for qualifying seniors. Not everybody here is wealthy. Doing this would be a nice gesture and not cost the town that much money while enabling some people to stay (without moving to $3,000-a-month “downsizing” apartments in a less-than-vibrant downtown).
I’d bet that there will be lots of empty apartments if they are $3000 per month
City slickers mover here for the schools, but also the amenities such as a quiet street and a yard for the kids to play in
Van neste square isn’t quite Central Park and there are no subways h ere.
After living here for 45 years I’d guess that a few empty nesters might move into the proposed apartments, but doubt the expected demand is there. Lots of nicer places to live with more amenities than downtown ridgewood. (When a developer has investors, just like a hedge fund, they win, even if the project loses money. That’s why you see properties that have been purchased sitting vacant for years !)
For the first time in 32 yrs. we are starting to question why we are staying here. High taxes, no kids in school, watching services go south( have you ever seen the corner of Linwood and Maple look that bad on Mothers Day, or Ben Franklin the morning after it is used by whoever the night before ?)the garbage political games, developers going nuts (along with a non profit), etc. It was once the positives far outweighed the negatives as this being a top notch town in which to live; unfortunately, that gap has narrowed substantially.