file photo “Valley Renewal ” stopvalley.com BF view
Valley Hospital submits new plan to expand
Wednesday February 27, 2013, 12:05 AM
BY MARY JO LAYTON, BARBARA WILLIAMS AND COLLEEN DISKIN
STAFF WRITERS
The Record
More than a year after its plan to double in size was rejected in Ridgewood, The Valley Hospital submitted a new proposal this week that offers little change in scale or design.
The project filed with the Ridgewood Planning Board this week still calls for the hospital to increase significantly — from 570,000 to 910,000 square feet, excluding parking — and includes buildings up to 94 feet high on a site in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
“I was under the impression that if Valley came back with a change, it would be a substantial change,” said Councilwoman Bernadette Walsh. “I’m not seeing drastic changes.”
A leader for a residents’ group echoed Walsh’s comments and predicted a tough sell for many in the community that fought Valley’s previous proposal for a $750 million expansion.
“It’s still about 75 percent bigger than the existing hospital,” said Peter McKenna, president of Concerned Residents of Ridgewood, a group that has repeatedly called for a smaller expansion.
Valley officials say the project is essential to helping one of the state’s top-rated hospitals remain competitive with cutting edge technology and single-patient rooms.
“We look forward to presenting the details of the modified plan and to demonstrating how the changes we have made will positively impact the community,” Megan Fraser, a Valley spokeswoman, said on Tuesday.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/Valley_Hospital_submits_new_plan_to_expand.html
why is it not surprising that the new plan is pretty much the same as the old plan….
Fire up the lawn signs, boys. The enemies of the civil society never rest.
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that Ridgewood will(is?) go(ing?) the way of Hackensack if this goes through as planned. This town, and the surrounding area, does not need anything this big ! On top of that, your taxes go up and your assessments go down.
Eastside or Westside, IF this goes through as is we all lose.
As expected Aronsohn has no comment. Walsh is proving to be the best politician in this town with consistent comments and no bullshit attitude. She’s a Junior Marge Roukema.
Ridgewood is being turned into a “wannabe ” Hackensack
It is crucial at this point for anyone living in Ridgewood opposed to hospital expansion and overdevelopment tomobilize and attend PB meetings. There is a lot of pressure on the PB to amend the master plan and if that is done, there is no turning back. Ridgewood will become another Hackensack and lose much of its appeal as a wonderful place to raise families, educate children and be part of a community. It will be lost.
Same proposal, same question. What’s in it for Ridgewood?
“World Class Heathcare?” Please. Speak to us about issues that are important to us. What will this expansion do to our taxes and property values? How are we going to deal with the increase in traffic (or will this project improve traffic like building the 4 apartment buildings will?). What about water and sewer infrastructure? How many dump trucks will roll past Travell and BF every day for how many years? Will we need to expand the police force and fire departments (which we’re in the process of trying to cut)?
“World Class Healthcare” already exists in Hackensack and in NYC and Valley just doesn’t have the room to bring that to Ridgewood. Upgrade the emergency room and the maternity ward and call it a day.
Interesting and timely article at link below. No matter what your view about Valley there’s some revealing info in it. From Time Magazine. It’s quite long, packed with many details, but worth the read –though it will take anyone some time to go through whole thing.
https://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/
Why do we need single patient rooms? I know it is nice to have, but is it necessary? Your stay at the hospital is not a spa vacation.
But I live on the westside of town and I need my single patient room even if it hurts the property value of my “neighbors” on the poor side (I mean eastside) of town.
This brings out the inner child in some. Can’t focus on substance. My children also think that people’s income can be calculated by the size of one’s house.
Who said anything about the size of a home? The point is that if this was suggested for the backyards of those who live on the westside of town, the debate would have ended almost as soon as it began. You know there is no chance this would even be considered on the westside of town.
Come on, eastside residents, let’s come up with an intrusive use for the West Glen fire house near Morningside. Perhaps take over the tennis courts there too and put a large building complex there. Ridgewood doesn’t have any hotels. We need to modernize. Wouldn’t a Hilton be great!
# 10 I also live on the west side, have you driven on van dien or pleasant no poverty over there. But even though we live on the west side we will suffer if valley is allowed to expand. It will be a screwing of all the tax payers ther’es plenty of shaft to go around.
The first hearing is scheduled for Monday, March 11th. If you care anything about the future of this town, mark your calendars and plan on being there.
A 5 level above ground parking structure? They cannot be serious.
910k sq ft without the parking structure. How many sq ft is the parking structure?
I second that everyone read last week’s Time magazine (cover story -Bitter Pill).
It explains how all the non-profit hospitals make a fortune by substantially overcharging for just about everything. They then need to reinvest the profit in continuous growth.
Another interesting thing. If Valley is the same as the hospitals in the article, all those nice photos of fund raisers we see in the Ridgewood News every other week represent less than 1% of annual revenue.
We need to continue to keep Valley in check. If they really need to expand so dramatically, then move out of a residential neighborhood and find a nice parcel close by in Paramus in a more commercial zone.
#16 I think your point is well taken, valley serves alot of towns in the area let the other towns share the burden, both in tax and quality of life. Also this non-profit bull-sh-t has to stop. That hospital should be paying property tax at a commercial rate like any other property.
Agree with #18 (and also #17) above. Remember, last time it came out that way less than 10% of Valley’s patients come from the Village, actually more like 6%.
Read the Time article too. With a great many non profits, especially hospitals, things are not as they might first seem.
This has the potential to be a disaster for the immediate neighborhood and for the rest of the village, in terms of the halo effect on real estate values and God forbid, accidents or damage to property, there are a fleet of tort lawyers just waiting. Sniping under anonymous will do nothing. Don’t be afraid to post your names. Come to the meetings. Make your voice heard.
Sorry Paul, I don’t agree with the statement,”Sniping under anonymous will do nothing.”Although I would like nothing more than to sign my name to a comment on this subject, I have three very good reasons not to… and would be a complete fool if I did !
Unfortunately, there are legitimate reasons some in this dialogue will have to not sign their name. Something is better than nothing, at least in this particular case.
Although I certainly applaud what the CRR (and other opponents) has done, and continues to do, I am certainly in the camp that speaks to “improve,don’t expand.”
Of course there are some legitimate reasons to stay anonymous as even some Valley employees are questioning this massive proposal. But when some folks get into cheap shots and personal attacks, I’m curious to see if they would ever have the courage to do it in person or at least attach a name to a post. And I also agree they need to modernize and expand, but not the way it is laid out in this joke of a compromise. I just hope there are bodies in seats at the meetings, and not just the folks bused in from Valley.
Any posts that I have submitted have been nothing more than “opinions” that everyone in Ridgewood should take the time to seriously consider if they intend to stay. As a 30 year plus resident who does intend to stick around, and has had the “courage” to tell those on nothing more than ego trips what I thought about situations in the past that were ridiculously unfair, I felt I should add something to this dialogue…
By the way, I will certainly be at the meetings because it is a “joke of a compromise.”