Ridgewood planners may allow apartment buildings
Saturday, September 21, 2013
BY CHRIS HARRIS
STAFF WRITER
The Record
RIDGEWOOD — A subcommittee charged with answering lingering questions related to a long-sought master plan change presented its findings this week to the Planning Board.
The group worked with Ridgewood’s planner Blais Brancheau to come up with several recommendations that the Planning Board could vote on when it meets Monday at 7:30 p.m. in Village Hall.
These recommendations pertain to various project specifications, including lot sizes, building heights, density, parking and each project’s proximity to both the central business district and the village train station.
The subcommittee’s report — outlined before the Planning Board at its Tuesday night meeting — was sought as Ridgewood officials continue contemplating a master plan amendment that would permit high-density, multi-family housing complexes downtown.
At present, four proposals for such developments sit before the Planning Board.
They include The Enclave, a 52-unit, four-story building proposed for East Ridgewood Avenue; the Dayton, a 106-unit apartment building pitched for South Broad Street; the 50-unit Chestnut Village on Chestnut Street; and Ridgewood Station, a 114-luxury apartment and retail complex at the former Ken Smith Motors dealership.
The beginning of the end…
Where are all the Valley Hospital complainers ,this will be a much bigger problem for the village.
Finally dealing with reality planning…..
the doom and gloom thinkers contribute nothing to the Village’s future ……. even before a plan is presented.
When the change comes will we be more like Montclair? What do the planners envision? There must be a town that they have in mind.
They do not really have any vision…. Vision is being driven by Developers.
Our Mayor and his two running mates have no vision – only personal agendas. Mr. Aronsohn seeks higher political office, Mr. Pucciarelli wants to build up the CBD and Mrs. Hauck wants to build an enormous hospital.
This Valley Complainer, agrees with #2. No, this will be just as bad as Valley!
Let’s change the H-Zone, Change the Master Plan, and do what ever the hell else will ruin this town. It’s close to being over. I believe we’ll be more like Hackensack than Montclair…but both are not good.
Aronsohn, shoots his mouth off that “he objects to any such restrictions and HIS board should be guided “by what’s good for Ridgewood” Who appointed him King of Ridgewood? When did he become Judge, Jury, and Executioner of a town?
It’s been said before and I’ll say it again: The Master Plan and The H-Zone we’re put into place to protect Ridgewood. Now these three, Aron-shun, Puke-arelli, and Ms. Valley want to ruin it.
Enough said
This isn’t “reality planning.” This is called ,”take care of a few and screw the rest of the town.” You certainly don’t have to be all about doom and gloom to see that. There is a lot of money to be made by a minority at the expense of the majority on all of these projects, including Valley. But if Valley is allowed to expand, that will be, by far, the biggest mistake by a Ridgewood PB/Council during the 30 plus years I have been here.
When the town becomes a city we will need a bigger hospital. See, one issue helps the other. Then we will truely be like Hackensack – big city with a big hospital.
Only problem is that Hackensack has the best hospital in NJ and Ridgewood never will.
School taxes will skyrocket!
We will need more classrooms
All taxes will skyrocket. This town will be paying for this expansion forever…period !
The PB should be asking how these projects — apts and Valley– will benefit/cost residents and distribute their findings. Will residents have to pay more/less in taxes, will traffic increase/decrease, what is the impact on schools and how will the town deal with it. How can the Village ensure that the quality of life of those most directly impacted will not diminish and property values will not be hurt To date, all that I have heard is expert testimony paid for by the applicants and each applicant claims that their project will have no impact on community. That is BS!
Dom, they should put all those apt building right next to your house.
the end began (at least 10 or 15 years ago)
Developers only need to dazzle a handful of our planning board / council members to take over our community. Our Village is trying to build its way our of a declining budget. Development charges collected from developers and taxes collected from new residents will not even come close to offsetting the costs of new services that such development requires! This is like throwing gasoline on a fire.
It is important that new development disclose its true cost to the community. We need a study that includes traffic impact, financial impact, environmental impact, population and housing impact, schools impact, public facility impact and utility impact and a cost – benefit analysis. In addition, these studies, or analyses, should include a compilation of the cumulative impact of proposed projects along with other recently completed, current and proposed major projects.
Increased population and development create greater demands on a municipality to provide service to existing residents and and new infrastructure to accommodate growth. Towns and Cities throughout New Jersey are experiencing deterioration of their financial health as a direct result and are becoming increasingly unable to provide current levels of service. This will be Ridgewood’s future, more people, declining services, higher taxes. Who’s in?