Ten Reasons to Welcome The Master Plan Amendment (With questions and rebuttals)
•Additional housing choices will retain residents who outgrow their homes (But your study says that owning a $550,000 house costs about the same. Is this place for families that are downsizing or upsizing?)
•The proposed developments create lesser traffic than any other development option (Please cite specific references and back your claim up with actual data)
•Minimal additional school children (Really? I believe that this comes from yet another less-than-believable “study” funded by the applicant. Please we all just sat through 7 years of Valley “studies” and we’ve kind of had it)
•Height and mass would be the same if commercial use (But commercial buildings don’t house as many people with cars and school children as your proposed building does.)
•Parking self-sufficient (Based upon how many cars per unit and how many cars per resident? If there are no kids in your building there will be more grownups with cars. Pick one.)
•No requirement of town services (Great – then you’ll agree put down a sizable deposit against which the town can draw if you’re wrong?)
•Contributions to traffic improvement (Isn’t this from that other less-than-believable study that said that traffic will improve if we allow this building to be built?)
•$1.5 million annual net fiscal benefits to school budget and general budget (Seems light. I’d like to see the math here)
•Planned parking structure will ease clog (How does parking ease whatever “clog” is?)
•Resolves affordable housing threat (Sorry, you don’t get this one both ways either. Affordable housing will draw families with school age kids.)
•Solidifies land use in the town with minimal yield (Really? How?)
Good post.
Thank you for taking the tome to write what I was thinking.
I went to their website and had problems with the “data” that they presented. They think that someone in stupid.
The P&I on my mortgage is $1,800. I have a large 5 br 3/3 bath home. My taxes are $2,500. I am not looking to downsize to a much, much smaller rental for a higher cost. This development does not solve my tax problem. It just gives me an expensive alternative. I think that I need a smaller house or townhouse, but not in Ridgewood.
BTW. How many parking spots do I get? We have two cars.
#2…hmm, will you have visitors? will they have cars?
Right. It will be more expensive for people to downsize into the apartments…
#2 How about your cost for lawn maintenance, snow removal, repairs and the set-aside for major repairs (new roof, new AC etc., etc.) I know a former Ridgewood resident who had a house that is probably similar in size to yours. He and his wife are empty nesters and they decided to move to an apartment in Manhattan. They have a 2br, 2bath unit with a doorman and pay $6000/mo. When I commented that it appears that it would have been less expensive to simply stay put in Ridgewood he laid out the cost for me and guess what they totaled about $6000/mo. The Ridgewood developers are talking about $3000/mo for 2br/2br. Granted Ridgewood does not compare with the Big Apple but for the difference in rent a couple could easily afford to go into the city several times a month …..and still have a few bucks left over.
#4. Moving to 1/4 the space for half the price. And when all is said and done you are only in Ridgewood.
9. 09.14: Click here to view the Opening of School Report, presented by Dr. Fishbein to the Ridgewood Board of Education on September 8.
https://office-of-the-superintendent.ridgewood.schoolfusion.us/modules/locker/files/get_group_file.phtml?gid=955169&fid=26205105&594473
James, that says there are 67 less kids in Ridgewood public schools YoY… population decline ? More kids in private schools ? And what’s up with new courses at RHS in Humor and Literature and Beat Generation (both CP & Honors courses) ?
The negative 17 students at Glen School is misleading as they have a rolling admissions process as children turn 3 years old and become eligible for the preschool disabled program. Compare the numbers June to June to see the real differences, to see a trend.