Valley Hospital hearings focus on bed count, traffic solutions
Thursday May 2, 2013, 4:36 PM
BY DARIUS AMOS
STAFF WRITER
The Ridgewood News
Ridgewood Planning Board members on Monday took exception to The Valley Hospital’s claims that it needs more patient beds, but on the next night they gave preliminary praise to plans to improve the network of roads in and around the area.
Two consecutive nights of public hearing testimony offered several significant signs of discord between board members and representatives from the hospital, which is seeking an amendment to the Ridgewood master plan that would essentially permit a large-scale expansion at the 15-acre site along North Van Dien and Linwood avenues.
Valley officials are asking permission to grow from a 560,000-square-foot neighborhood hospital into a healthcare center that, including a five-deck parking garage, will inflate beyond one million square feet. Key components of the plan include the razing of several aging buildings and new construction of state-of-the-art facilities in their stead.
https://www.northjersey.com/news/205854201_Valley_Hospital_hearings_focus_on_bed_count__traffic_solutions.html
If valley had 40 acres or so this would be a wonderful plan. They only have 15 acres so this property does not suit their needs. They need to be told go find a sight that suites your plan. As far as the traffic is concerned they already have an intersection that rates an F why haven’t they done anything to fix that? Because they want to hold it as a bone to get what they want. In all of their traffic experts testimony there was hardly a mention of the hundreds of students that go and come to Bf each and every school day. Are they given any consideration? I don’t think so
Valley has paid PR consultants and experts untold sums of money and they are on the second round of hearings and yet they still cannot weave a coherent, convincing narrative about their expansion plan. If their leadership worked in in the private sector they would be long gone. How much donor and taxpayer money will they waste on this ill conceived plan?