>Surprise – it’s all about the money!

In the summer, the Planning Board hired an expert in hospital design to review their proposed H-Zone amendments to the Master Plan. While the draft wording was prepared by the Village Planner the text was almost entirely a copy of the details in the “Renewal” supplied by Valley.

To many people’s surprise, the independent consultant proposed a much more “community friendly” recommendation that included increasing setbacks to 120 feet and putting all parking underground.

The response from Valley, as reported in today’s Ridgewood News to the consultant’s recommendations, is that the hospital has concerns about the “constructability and financial feasibility” of the proposal. What this means in 2009 is that the hospital is concerned about some additional cost because anything is technically possible.

It is very surprising to hear this when Valley is one of the most profitable hospitals in NJ and has benefited from an additional $25 million windfall profit increase from receiving most of the former patients of PVH over the last 2 years.

These statements also seem to run contrary to Audrey Meyer’s statement in the Record of Dec 3, where she suggests that non-for-profit hospital’s like Valley use their profits to benefit the community.

https://www.northjersey.com/news/Second_expert_is_hired.html

https://www.northjersey.com/news/opinions/duchak_meyers_120309.html