“Don’t any of you realize the state of New Jersey. An and would force us to permit this type of construction or worse? Like them or hate them it is quite irrelevant who is in the town politics. It is our state courts from decades of liberal judges that have been forcing these stupid developments. The reason they are building giant apartments on top of train track is because the state has set tax incentives to do so : see Waldwick station and Allendale etc. The state of NJ thinks this will fight global warming (seriously). Also the developments are being forced on us ever since the mount olive decision in the 80s. See this as an example:
”The Council on Affordable Housing, which was set up in 1985 to oversee the state’s affordable-housing program, and the Supreme Court eventually stepped in to order towns to sidestep the council and deal directly with the state courts”
“More than 190 municipalities have already reached settlements that set their affordable housing obligations, according to the Fair Share Housing Center, while others are exempt because they are in urban areas or have environmental constraints“
File this in the election have consequences category. This is all a result of liberal democratic judges. Good kind hearted intentions with disastrous results”
“Kind hearted intentions”
Gotta throw the red flag. At this point in the game, based on the negative consequences of their actions under the Mt. Laurel regime, all of which have been readily observable for decades, to refrain from attributing malice is straight-up condescension and infantilization.
People. The affordable housing mess has not even started for RW. Do you know the obligation number for RW? Hundreds if not over a thousand and more. These first buildings do not even start to address that. If nothing changes then RW will turn into a construction mess for years and quality of life will be destroyed for all of us. Run away. Pity how many (the majority) are so totally oblivious about what is happening. Yesterday in one for the local FB pages there was a gentleman who has lived in town since 2006 and was trying to find out about why is this high density housing happening in RW. Do people just live inside their walls and do not care about their surroundings?
Can you say dirty business we can!
The point is that none of our councils, including the current one, have stood up to fight these problems.
Worse, they have never really spent the time to deal with these issues head on and try to find creative solutions.
They could support litigation with other towns against these proposals. They could figure out a way to satisfy the obligations in the meantime, such as by designating one site for purely low income rather than 10% of numerous sites. Then, you would have had one site with 35 units rather than 4 sites totalling a couple of hundred. They could focus on the fact we had hundreds of beutiful apartment buildings, catering to a wide range of incomes, and we didn’t need to build shoddy units on top of the rail road tracks.
Or, the current council could have joined in the citizens’ lawsuit against the building, instead of supporting the developers and fighting the citizens as they did.
Did the Ken Smith site need to be re-zoned to allow 35 units? Our council cowered in the threat of builder risk lawsuits threatened by the developers. But, the builder at the time was free to build 12 low income units, that would have afforded dignity and the Ridgewood life style to their occupants. But there was a rush to over building. And originally, the council was prepared to allow 50, not 35 units. When you drive past these slums, think about the buffoons who would have built even more units on the properties than are being built now if citizens had not spoken up in oposition.
Regrettably, our council people seem resigned to letting developers take over Ridgewood and do what they like.
As we go into another election cycle, people need to ask these questions of the candidates. What has their position been over the past four years to these developments? Do they stand to profit in any way by allowing more development? Who is supporting their campaigns? Do those supporters have an agenda to build more units? Do they have the courage to take part in opposing maddening state mandated practices that are totally impractical in a town like Ridgewood?
the 3 amigos courted the development and promoted it, they did not cower
I got out last year as I viewed this as having an enormous impact on Ridgewood’s quality of life and various other factors that will gradually decrease property values.
Maybe a lot of Ridgewood’s “specialness” was realtor hype, but there were things about Ridgewood that made it a cut above similar towns in the region.
If you plan to stay in Ridgewood, then I predict that come time to sell your home, you will not get what you thought you would and the days of selling Ridgewood houses in a couple of weeks are long gone.
FRANKLIN AVENUE MIDDLE OF TOWN COUNTY ROAD CONDITION IS A DISGRACE
https://www.crainsnewyork.com/politics/stinger-blasts-mayors-affordable-housing-plan-gentrification-industrial-complex?utm_source=breaking-news&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20200129&utm_content=hero-readmore