Ridgewood planner sees broad benefits to downtown housing
NOVEMBER 6, 2014 LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2014, 3:02 PM
BY LAURA HERZOG
STAFF WRITER |
THE RIDGEWOOD NEWS
The issue is not whether new housing should be allowed in Ridgewood at all, emphasized Village Planner Blais Brancheau on Monday.
In his long-awaited testimony on Monday night, the near-end of an almost year-long hearing process, the village planner endorsed the many “broad public benefits” of a master plan amendment that would allow high-density housing in the downtown.
And he noted that “the issue should not be whether multifamily housing should be permitted at all, but to what extent and with what standards.”
Speaking at length to a crowd of about 50 people, including proponents and critics of the three high-density housing developments that have been proposed in and around Ridgewood’s Central Business District (CBD), Brancheau came to this conclusion in part by citing the state redevelopment plan, an NJ Transit document and the non-profit organization Sustainable Jersey.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/planner-sees-broad-benefits-to-multifamily-housing-1.1128450
There is only one problem. HE DOSN’T LIVE HERE.
At this same meeting Blais said that this new high density zone, when fully built out, could result in 500 – 700 new apartments. Why would the newspaper leave out that information? What will happen once the language in our Master Plan is re-written to encourage more development at a higher density over a large area in our CBD? The vague recommendations of Blais, our town planner, will be permanently written into our Master Plan and any developer moving forward will be able to use that language to argue for higher density on their properties.
Our Village Planner does not plan – he reacts. His role during the entire Valley process was to react to their plans, their assertions and their experts. Now during this process all he seems to be able to do is say “it’s not such a bad idea”. Does he have any opinion at all about how densely populated the Village should be? Has he done any homework at all? Has he been to any of the meetings in Upper Saddle River? He says that “the devil is in the details” but isn’t knowing the details the primary part of his job?
Never has a man with “Planner” in his job title been so devoid of foresight.
He is Milk Toast.
He just wants to keep his job. He knows what happens if he doesn’t tow the line with the three Amigos
That’s milquetoast. Milk Toast is actually kind of a comfort food. A milquetoast is a shy wallflower who does not speak up and gets nothing done.
For months CBR has been trying to get Blais, our Village planner, to opine on what this new high density zone will look like if and when it is fully built out. On Monday night, he stated that this new zone could result in 500 – 700 new apartments in our CBD (we think this is a conservative estimate). The Ridgewood News failed to mention this in their reporting. Surely touching upon this piece of information was more important than reporting on an audience member who could not stop clapping?
#7…to be fair, she was pretty annoying…
and blais’ report was nothing more than a lot of copy/paste…his job is clearly not to think or have a real opinion but to simply say “yes, we could stuff that into the space”
Get ready !
Here it comes!
Lots of apartments!
Lots of cars !
Bigger hospital!
All in what you people like to call a village.,..
Good luck with that…..
Re-elect Paul, Albert and Gynn for 2016