“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?”
is more to come.
Yes.
stop the over development commercially or residential. they are either spineless, quick at the trigger, or do nothing. there is no fluid road map, just reactive and plugging holes like the blue boy
Note: All the research shows that concentrating affordable/low income housing leads to worse outcomes. As it stands — there are strong NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) feelings about existing development. Can you imagine if there were a solely low income development? Nobody would want it next to them. If we want to make sure Ridgewood is open, welcoming for all people – spreading affordable housing units across sites makes more sense. There are tons of research studies on the matter.