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Neighbors form ad hoc group to challenge zoning decision
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
The Ridgewood News
Residents in Ridgewood’s South Broad Street area have formed a group to challenge the Village Council’s recent decision to pass a zoning change that will allow a large building which neighbors argue will be out of character with the area.
Rita Blacker, who lives on nearby Woodside Avenue, told The Ridgewood News that neighbors have formed the Ridgewood Ad Hoc Committee to Fight Spot Zoning in response to the council’s decision to allow West Bergen Mental Health to demolish and rebuild a home it owns at 234 S. Broad St. The home houses four adults with Asperger’s syndrome.
The new design may be about 42 feet high, and it will include 10 apartment units for adults with Asperger’s and one unit for a live-in counselor.
“There was a lot of unhappiness throughout the community with the decision of the town council,” Blacker said.
The committee has already met and reached out to state politicians, including N.J. Sen. Kevin O’Toole.
“Senator O’Toole wanted everyone to know that they could contact his office as well to show their disappointment with the spot zoning,” Blacker said.
Blacker said she was concerned that the council’s decision has set a precedent which could be applied to any property in the village. The issue is not about affordable housing of individuals with Asperger’s syndrome, she said, but rather how the situation was handled and how people were notified about the decision.
Dozens of residents rallied at a Feb. 24 council meeting to no avail, when the governing body voted 3-2 to allow for the zoning change on West Bergen’s single piece of property.
Blacker also mentioned how the proposed expansion at The Valley Hospital will increase the village’s Council on Affordable Housing obligation, and those housing units will have to be built somewhere in Ridgewood.
“The expansion of Valley Hospital affects more than the people who live around that area,” Blacker said. “I don’t think people really understand or know that. And there’s going to be a point when South Broad Street is not going to be able to absorb all of these housing units. It’s going to be physically impossible, and other areas are going to have to start absorbing these units.”
– By Michael Sedon
