Valley Hospital expansion plan raises many questions
Friday, August 2, 2013
BY BARBARA WILLIAMS
STAFF WRITER
The Record
RIDGEWOOD — It’s a murky task: Keep details such as truck traffic and air monitoring in mind, but don’t make a decision based solely on those factors when determining if The Valley Hospital’s request to nearly double in size should be approved.
That is the charge Planning Board members face when they are expected to vote this fall on a proposed amendment to the village master plan that would allow the larger hospital on the 15-acre site. They need to decide if the inherent benefit of an expanded hospital outweighs the hardship for neighbors and the effect of six years of construction on children going to school next door.
Residents opposed to the plan continue to attend hearings on the project, peppering experts with questions, hoping to illustrate how the construction and complex will affect their quality of life.
“We’re not really sure what Planning Board members can take into consideration when they make their decision,” said Marla Sherman. “We’re not sure how much weight members will give expert testimony versus public input. But I want to be at the meetings so the Planning Board doesn’t take everything Valley is saying at face value.”
Residents said they are fearful the village is on the cusp of having its small-town character permanently altered.
“I really think the Planning Board has to be very careful — Ridgewood could be a whole other town in another 10 years,” said Lorraine Reynolds. “It could go from a nice little town to a city like Hackensack with medical buildings surrounding the hospital instead of single-family homes.”
please remove the heading
Remember ” build it and they will come?” Just what you want in Ridgewood…a medical center to rival Hackensack and St. Joseph’s. Please don’t be dumb enough to think that can’t happen, because in both cases it did.
The photo with the “For Sale” sign is the real thing. Valley hasn’t even broken ground and people are already leaving—selling their houses for much less than they would have had Valley not been pressing this issue. Already homes are turning into rentals, and at least one owner has had to “short sell” his home. Others have been bought as second homes and are not maintained properly because the owners don’t spend a lot of time here. THIS IS HAPPENING, FOLKS. Those of us who actually live here know what this will do to our neighborhoods.
Sadly, Valley officials know it too—they just don’t care
They really have not scored a lot of PR points with this latest move. Then again, do they really care too ? Not at all. In fact, just based on the application itself it shows they could care less about this town.
Valley refuses to provide us with a scale model of their plan. Why? And we have seen no rendering of the view from Linwood Avenue. Hmmm….why?
The answer given at the most recent Planning Board meeting: it would be too costly. Pleeease!
Valley Hospital does not want us to see what their expansion will look like.
Too many questions for this to go through as presented.