file photo
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, on Wednesday, September 11th, the Ridgewood Village Council reached a final resolution in the long-standing eminent domain litigation concerning the Town Garage property at 120 Franklin Avenue. Village Manager Keith Kazmark confirmed that the council approved a form of final consent judgment, bringing years of negotiations and legal battles to a close. With this agreement, the Village officially takes ownership of the property.
Mayor Paul Vagianos expressed satisfaction with the outcome, stating, “We are pleased that this litigation is over and that the prior owner is meeting their responsibility to clean up the property. It is a win for the Village and will further revitalize our downtown.”
As part of the settlement, the Village will pay $1,557,500 for the property. In addition, the former owner is required to perform all necessary environmental remediation, including testing for the next two years, and to immediately demolish the existing structure on the site.
The Village has already deposited $1,106,000 with the court, with an additional $451,500 to be paid 30 days after the building is demolished. Out of the initial deposit, $362,185 will remain in escrow until the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) completes its required testing over the next two years. The payments and litigation costs are covered by a 2017 Village Council bond ordinance, which authorized more than $1.8 million for the project.
Village Manager Keith Kazmark emphasized the significance of this development, noting, “The issue has lingered for many years. In the next month or so this eyesore will be removed from Franklin Avenue, and the property will be well on its way to being remediated.”
The resolution of this legal matter marks an important step in the Village’s efforts to enhance the downtown area, paving the way for future redevelopment.
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This looks like a fair resolution.
“This looks like a fair resolution.” Thanks for posting Mayor.
$1.6m for the property and no cleanup liabilities?
No-brainer. Damn good deal.
The site will be vacant for the next 10 years.
GUARANTEED.
You think this is going to be an easy sale? Brownfields stay dormant for a reason.
Idiotic. The town just dropped $1.6 million for a lot that no one is going to touch.
Why would you buy/build there-and not on East Ridgewood Ave- when 20% of the downtown is commercial vacancies?
I would remove the soil and move it to Schedler.
Wait…I didn’t mean that…
Worst place in the world for a pocket park.
What about pocket park and free vaccination center? Hmm?
Migrant housing would be ideal. Time for Ridgewood to pitch in.
I think we have our post of the day !
Parks are great, but there is a nice big one just a block from there. Free vaccination center? Really? How about a Blockbuster Video?
Put Healthbarn there. It is the BUSINESS district
Yes, Healthbarn should be close to Paul’s IGTM. He can pop over whenever it suits his fancy and play with the kiddies. Great idea.
Can we get youth-sized HAZMAT suits for the kiddies?
They may need them at Habernickel already. So just move them over in their suits
But it’s probably the BEST place in town for the original parking garage.
this is excellent – I know the readers like to crap on everything but this is good PROGRESS. No one wants that decrepit building in our downtown and the previous owner is responsible for environmental remediation.
How’s the Performing Arts Center in the old Warner coming along?
Fighting off the bids from prospective buyers?
I wonder why someone always looks find the problems and not the solutions.
reality… not fantasy
Agreed, we can put a pocket park there and name it Pee Wee’s Playground
and put his beloved health barn there and all the buses can drop off at the bus stationed be close to Ramon at the YMCA
Yes because he was/is a huge HB fan!!!
He got $ from FTFL, you do the math.
. It seems like a lot of food for 4 million dollars of tax payers money. Where did it go???? Who got a piece?
Ideal sport for a 46×90 baseball field…we’ll call it Methane Park !
Should be an artificially turfed outdoor space that is really beneficial for the health and well being of our residents. Maybe call it “PFAS 4 Everyone Park” and PFAS PauLIE can do the ribbon cutting with Kaz-shark doing a photo op. It is a win-win.
Can we also ensure multiple water-fountains that deliver ice cold PFAS H20 on site?
Nothing like washing down a crappy gyro with thirst-quenching 3-Mile Island filtered aqua.
What a waste of money, and who is going to benefit from this. The ice cream Company next-door. The plan was to inquire the building knock it down, clean it up and extend the parking lot, that was the plan, because the parking lot next-door is a shit hole, and that would cost nothing to extend that lot to parking. Compared to 1.5 million for some bullshit Park Again park on a main road. Who comes up with this shit? How About this, they wanna park, ok . do it other places to cross the US, make it into a park/place where people can sit down and eat their lunch with tables, there’s no place in the CBD to pick up food and sit outside anywhere with a table. Yes a few park benches at citizens on the other side. Just a thought, it’s amazing other worrying about this, and no talks about redoing the bus station, that’s a disgrace.
Nice but will never happen. Paul probably has his eye on it for something. He is a tricky dicky, just blink and you’ll see.
if the village is so transparent, how come no one knows what is intended for this space?
The prior owner may end up failing to pay for or accomplish (finish) whatever remediation ends up being deemed necessary.
Then the new owner will be fully on the hook.
uh the court says he’s obligated to remediate. he kinda has to like its a court ruling.
like really? whooooah
open to your suggestions on what the village should have done with the property. . .since cleaning it up on the previous owners dime and removing the building is such a poor idea.
Let’s pat ourselves on the back when they actually do it. I agree with the previous commenter it will take forever. If everything in life were so easy and people did exactly what they were supposed to or legally bound to, then life would be a bowl of cherries, which we know from experience, it is not that easy.
Does anybody do anything they’re supposed to any more? Get a lawyer and delay, delay, delay.
Educate yourself. Read the court documents.
Kazmark has reached an all time high as the Real Manager of the Village of Ridgewood, only 433 days in. His digital newsletter on the Town Garage has been distributed and Mr. Kazmark even quotes himself as an authority on the topic in his own newsletter. This just goes to show you that he really is real and what he has to say is important.
The villager Ridgewood is so full of shit. I wouldn’t trust anyone from village . Everyone voice, your opinion, it’s your right no one from the village will take that away.
I think we should build low-income housing on the property…satisfy our requirements and move on.
All I know is those guys did a great job with my car years ago
The comment made by “Wake Up” is spot on. The town fought to acquire the property since the ‘70s with the plan to incorporate it with the lot next door. Of course, now they have their blessed parking garage-you know, that empty building that wasted a lot of taxpayer money, so parking at Franklin and Walnut is no longer a priority.
And just to clarify the northjersey.com story, Town Garage never occupied 2 lots. The corner lot was purchased by the Village long before 1989, and was a Texaco station. The fuel oil tank on that property was never emptied or decommissioned, and some of that contamination leeched over to the Town Garage property. The oil used to bubble out of the ground on hot summer days, but the Village did nothing about it because at the time they didn’t care that their contamination was leeching onto my property. Also, if anyone is concerned with contamination from gasoline storage tanks on Town Garage property, the tanks removed from the ground were like new, they were pumped dry before removal, and all the soil was tested. NJDEP approved everything. I have 80 photographs of the entire process from start to finish, and all the soil test documentation. So, when the digging starts, the Village will find their contaminated soil, and can then sue themselves for the oil that came from their property onto the Town Garage property.