Ridgewood Council agrees to ‘first step’ on potential parking plan
Thursday December 13, 2012, 4:24 PM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
Ridgewood will officially file a request for proposal (RFP) to determine the level of interest that a developer might have in turning an East Ridgewood Avenue parking lot into a two-story, 12,000-square-foot retail building.
A resolution passed by the Village Council on Wednesday authorized officials to spend no more than $15,000 to hire a qualified professional to draft an RFP that meets requirements established by the members of the governing body and the Chamber of Commerce. The RFP is the first of many steps that have been deemed essential to the chamber’s large-scale plan to build two parking structures in the Central “Business District (CBD).
Construction of the proposed parking garages, targeted for Hudson Street and another on Walnut Street, would be fully funded by a 99-year land lease and taxes on the property between The Gap and Gilsenan Realty.
According to Tom Hillmann, owner of Hillmann Electric and Light and president of the Chamber of Commerce, the village will not consider building the garages unless money from the land lease can support the parking project.
“The RFP tells us what we can generate from this property … what a contractor or builder would lease this property for. By finding that out, we’ll really know if [the lease is] a viable solution,” Hillmann said earlier this month. “Once we do have the income coming in, then we’ll go forward with one of the parking garages. We would not go anywhere unless we have these funds.
