he staff of the Ridgewood blog
Teaneck NJ, an amendment to the master plan that could lead to a complete overhaul to the current Holy Name Medical Center was approved by the planning board and sent to the council for consideration Thursday night. The changes could lead to a major expansion of the hospital’s facilities, complete with two nine-story hospital buildings near the existing hospital, three medical office buildings and other changes over the course of the next two decades.
Teaneck Township planner Keegan Hughes said the proposed amendment was the culmination of more than a year’s worth of conversations and research to “allow Holy Name Medical Center to expand to address capacity needs and provide space for reasonable institutional growth.
Holy Name is one of five Bergen County hospitals competing for patients . The five hospitals are Hackensack Meridian Health which owns its flagship Hackensack University Medical Center , as well as Hackensack Meridian Health Pascack Valley Medical Center in Westwood. Hackensack Meridian Health has proposed a merger with Englewood Health but that faces strong opposition from the Federal Trade Commission. Valley Health Systems is building an $800 million, seven-story new hospital in Paramus to replace its aging facility in Ridgewood and Bergen New Bridge Medical Center, which took over Bergen Pines, is the state’s largest public hospital also located in Paramus.
According to NorthJersey.com nearly 250 community members attended the planning board’s virtual meeting to express their opinions before the board voted. A group of residents that live in the surrounding area, known as the Good Neighbors of Teaneck, stressed that they were opposed to the amendment in its current form.
In a December 15th post on Facebook, “the Good Neighbors of Teaneck sent another letter to the Planning Board in preparation for the meeting tomorrow. The neighbors have been beyond reasonable while the hospital has just continued to try to move forward and ignore the neighbors. Please reach out to members of the planning board and support our neighbors in asking that the hospital be a good neighbor!
Joseph Bodner, Planning Board Chairman
Yitz Stern, Planning Board Vice Chairman
Kenneth Croonquist, Planning Board Member
Darryl Greene, Planning Board Alternate Member No. 1 Shahzad Hashmi, Planning Board Alternate Member No. 2 Yehuda Kohn, Planning Board Member
Anthony Parker, Planning Board Member
Jim Dunleavy, Mayor and Class I member
Mark J. Schwartz, Deputy Mayor and Planning Board Member Howard Thompson, Planning Board Member
Mark Zomick, Planning Board Member”
One resident, David Shapiro, noted that the hospital is an asset to the township and he would hate to see something similar to what happened with Valley Hospital, where the facility moved from Ridgewood to Paramus, happen in Teaneck.
