The last thing Ridgewood needs is high density housing. Our previous “leaders” sold ridgewood residents down the river. I understand that ordinances going forward for high density have been changed, but the original ordinance which allows for the 4 high density projects still prevail. Shouldn’t the original ordinance be repealed to negate the 4 projects that are going forward? If the ordinance was passed under a cloud, it should be repealed, in it entirety.
Traffic on our streets is unbearable now. Ridgewood is a village, not a city. We don’t want to be Hoboken we want to be a bucolic village.
Please, current leaders, don’t let this happen! Trees NOT cement..
A group of Villagers filed a lawsuit to try and stop the sites but the current Village council refused to support the Villagers and chose instead to advance the interests of the developers. Not clear why this council did not have the backbone to support its citizens.
wrong , name the residents and case number ?
9:52 – you are dead wrong. The Aronsohn-Pucciarelli-Hauck trio voted to advance the high density housing. NOT the current council
A group of residents did file a lawsuit and it was sent to the COURT not to the council and the court turned it down and said they did not have a case against the developers.
once again names case what court when ??????
Read last paragraph of this article. The court eventually decided against the grassroots group that filed suit against Ridgewood’s planning board.
https://patch.com/new-jersey/ridgewood/re-zoning-ordinances-take-center-stage-wednesday
that was when Aronsohn was mayor , Aronsohn came to Ridgewood to plunder the town and build high density housing
https://www.questia.com/newspaper/1P2-38632574/ridgewood-sued-over-housing
They lost the suit. It was in The Record.
Knudsen and others were in the minority in voting against the high density housing. So was Voigt against the development. But the planning board as a whole voted for it.
The point is that the ordinances for high density housing cannot be repealed. The court will stand up for the developers. That was what the lawsuit was about when Aronsohn was mayor. The grassroots group tried to stop the development on legal grounds.
Residents have to accept it is a done deal. To blame current govt. or ask them to repeal is impossible. The current council can do nothing.
12:39. It is tragic to us home owners who have invested our family’s future in RW to get punished so brutally. We are the biggest stakeholders in this place and we don’t get to have a say in this travesty while we will suffer the most. We can only shake our head and move along. Disgustingly unfair.
And James, yes we know Aronsohn played a key role in this so please stop repeating.
not until the consequences have been mitigated
James,
Look at the cites posted by others for reference to the lawsuit. The concerned citizens filed the lawsuit when Arohnson was still mayor. The new council came in afterwards.
Yes, Arohnson and Pucciarlelli shoved a knife through the heart of the Village on their way out the door. But the Villagers who filed the lawsuit to stop the housing projects hoped that the new council would take their side in the litigation. Instead, the new council hired a lawyer from out of town who fought tooth and nail against the concerned citizens of Ridgewood. He and the council rebuffed every attempt to settle the lawsuit. The town could have settled with its citizens and then fought the developers. It chose not to do so. Instead, this current council made a conscious decision to oppose the Villagers and support the developers, including those from out of town who have no stake in the well being of our Village.
.Sadly, those are the facts. But, don’t take it from this poster or the articles cited by others. Ask the council why they did not settle with their citizens, why they chose instead to cut the legs off of their citizens in the lawsuit and why they chose to support enforcement of the statutes allowing the housing projects to go forward. Ask them why they took the developers’ side over the side of the people who voted them in.
Let’s hear their response.
the judge ruled for Aronsohn , once you voted for him you signed the village death warrant
There is a very good reason why the prior Village Council sided with the developers.because they had no other choice. The NJ Supreme Court ruled several years ago that EVERY city, town and village in the State of New Jersey has a definitive obligation to provide a quotent of Affordable Housing in thier community. EVERY municipality was assigned a quota they had to meet based on their population. It was fought long and hard by virtually every town but the court ruling prevailed and it still stands today. The Village of Ridgewood was assigned a quota and the Village must comply. The choice all towns face is either to allow some new development and require the developers to “set aside” a percentage of their units for Affordable Housing or the town must provide it themself. In exchange for granting permission to build new units Ridgewood wisely decided to put the burden of complying with the court mandate onto the developers.. The result is a somewhat less quaint Village and one with fewer trees and more concrete but in the end it will avoid the need for the Village to provide the required Affordable Housing and in so doing it will save the residents a ton of money. Frankly, since the new developments are all located in the downtown area the streetscape for the vast majority of residents will remain wholly unchanged. In conclusion don’t blame the Village of Ridgewood for allowing the new developments because it was forced upon the Village.by the courts.. .
4:45pm – that’s called an EXCUSE. Even current council is using similar tone of EXCUSES (HR, Courts, Policies, someone else approved it looong time ago) etc.
When there is a will to do something, these excuses have a solution. Looks like Aronsohn’s puppets are going to try to sell this excuse which you have provided here for next 3 months.
4:53pm If you think this is an EXCUSE perhaps you and those who feel like you should band together and hire a prestigious law firm who will take your case again to the NJ Supreme Court. Of course, there are probably very few law firms that would be willing to risk their reputation litigating a matter that has a snowballs chance in hell of being reversed but at least then you can take comfort knowing that you put your money where your mouth is and have done everything possible to maintain your perceptiion that Ridgewood is a quaint and very special town where the rule of law does not really matter..
“The new council hired a lawyer who fought tooth and nail.” Who paid that lawyer? I never heard that they did that. They could not have done that without the public being aware.
Planning board hearings went on for several years. The developers like Saraceno won. The Ridgewood Planning board sided with the developers because of David Pfund’s ordinance which changed the master plan of the village.
A grassroots organization , during the reign of the new council, tried to curtail the developments, to make them smaller at least, the judge sided with Saraceno and company. This is the sad truth.
We need to repave parking lots in the CBD. Cottage Street lot, Hudson Street reconstruction. Walnut Street,
Lest we forget, the name of FORMER MAYOR AND NOW VILLAGE JUDGE PFUND APPOINTED BY ARONSOHN should always be first among those who were to blame. Pfund pushed that ordinance through an innocent town, leading to a decade of grassroots efforts by CRR and others. Absolutely horrible. Should be drummed out of town or made to live in one of those friggin’ apartments.