SEPTEMBER 11, 2015 LAST UPDATED: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015, 12:33 PM
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
In response to a request by a local grassroots organization, village officials have decided to extend the public hearing on multifamily housing in Ridgewood’s Central Business District (CBD) to a second evening.
A statement submitted to The Ridgewood News on Thursday by Citizens for a Better Ridgewood (CBR) called for the Village Council to reschedule its public hearing on the ordinances that would approve the changes made to the master plan passed by the Planning Board in June.
The public hearing is scheduled for Sept. 16, which is the same night that four village schools – Hawes, Ridge, Somerville and Willard elementary schools – have their annual back-to-school nights scheduled.
On Friday morning, representatives from CBR sent the statement along with another message urging the mayor and council to reschedule or add more opportunities for residents to voice their concerns for the ordinances.
Mayor Paul Aronsohn replied that village officials could not have known about the conflict when the hearing was originally scheduled in June and noted residents were encouraged to speak on the topic at any meeting during the two months between introduction of the ordinances and the scheduled hearing.
The mayor hopes you won’t pay attention to the fact that hundreds of people spoke out publicly against his plan. The mayor hopes you won’t pay attention to the 1,000+ people who signed a petition pleading with the planning board not to approve the new higher density plan.
The mayor does not care.
The mayor’s election and reelection campaigns were subsidized by construction unions–it’s on the public record. Why should he care?
The mayor is such a liar. He acts like the idea of a second meeting is a new idea and he is jumping right on it due to the back to school night conflicts. So much bullshit from our egomaniacal leader. Boyd Loving spoke publicly in the summer and implored Aronsohn to have more than one hearing, stating that of course not everyone could make one certain date. In this instance the mayor stated that people could talk at other meetings during the summer (when it would not be an agenda item and when half the town is away). A woman from N. hillside spoke on Wednesday night and said she was there on the 9th because she has back to school night on the 16th. In this instance the mayor stared blankly at her and made no comment. This high density housing will probably go through even if a thousand people speak up. But those thousand people will never vote for Paulie Boy ever again.
There not the only ones10:44 look at the one or two developers and there are people like you who drank the Kool Aid and don’t give us the bullshit that you didn’t vote for the 3 amigos.
Don’t just blame Paulie Boy 11:51. All three of them speak with the same mind just like their block vote. That why come next election ALL three must go. To reelect one is like not cutting out all the cancer. It justs come back.
I don’t mind the developers. I don’t want their projects here, but they are trying to make money. As private businesses, it’s their right to pursue. But it’s our right to speak up and just say NO. What I cannot abide is our Mayor and his cronies, who plan to rubber-stamp everything that suits their agendas.
Why not have more public discussion, Mr Mayor? I am told you read the blog each day. How about some public discussion about this project, which will impact us all long after you are gone.
What say you?
It’s been said before and should keep being said, we all want seniors to be able to stay in town if they would like. Apartments currently exist for that purpose and a few more can and maybe should be built within the current density levels.
But the worst thing that could happen to seniors who would like to stay in their homes would be for hundreds of new apartments to be built. Either families would occupy those apartments OR the homes vacated by seniors moving into apartments. Either way the result is MORE children in school AND HIGHER taxes for services to support those children (school budget is by far the largest % of our tax bills). We NEED to find ways for people without children in school to stay in their homes and increasing the school budget is not the way to do it.
How does Deputy Mayor vote on any of this when he recused himself from planning board discussion?