Why A Garage NO VOTE on Tues 6/21 is Important to Limiting High-Density Housing & More

Here is a letter from Dave Slomin, who has sent it on belahf of CBR:

Subject: Why A Garage NO VOTE on Tues 6/21 is Important to Limiting High-Density Housing & More – PLEASE VOTE 6/21!

URGENT REQUEST: Ridgewood Citizens for Reasonable Development (formerly CBR) urges you to Vote in the Garage Referendum THIS TUESDAY, 6/21. Vote at your normal polling place. While we always want you to vote upon your own beliefs, HERE IS WHY WE SUPPORT A “NO” VOTE in this election:
PLEASE VIEW THIS VIDEO, BY RCRD SUPPORTER, JIM McCARTHY:https://youtu.be/3MSgIMYcfyA
WE BELIEVE…
1. The Garage Design D developed by the outgoing Mayor and his Voting Block is TOO BIG, CREATING FUTURE DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING PROBLEMS. “TOO BIG” IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE:
a. It will set new size and scale guidelines that will be used by developers to enable them to build bigger and denser in our Village.
b. It offers opportunity for high density developers to seek ‘parking variances’ enabling them to build bigger denser properties. Without garage related variances, these developers don’t have enough parking to build as big as they want under the new High-Density Ordinances passed by the outgoing Mayor’s Voting Block.
2. Location of this massive garage does not solve the parking problem throughout Ridgewood.
a. Puts all new parking in one corner of town and will not help shoppers and businesses in other areas.
b. We need a better plan for improving parking throughout our downtown.
c. AND… in an essay written before the Mayor aligned himself with the High-Density Developers the Mayor himself said: “I am not convinced that we need a large, potentially expensive garage in our downtown area… In fact, the more I learn about the situation, the more I believe that a garage now would be a big mistake.” https://www.paularonsohn.com/writ…/time-for-action-on-parking
d. RCRD believes that before we sign contracts for a poorly-designed, over-sized, over-scaled, very expensive garage, we should make other parking improvements first:
i. Investigate the purchase of additional ground level lots, like the one behind the movie theater, to spread parking around
ii. Improve signage, alerting drivers to existing lots like the underused Cottage Street Lot
iii. Evaluate making CDB cross streets one-way with all angled parking to add many spaces
iv. Remove the existing archaic buffers between existing parallel spaces to add many spaces
3. Garage Financing Has Not Been Adequately Tested and may become a Tax Burden on Residents if untested projections fail:
a. The garage does not and will not fund it self
b. It will be paid for by raising parking rates in other downtown areas by up to 300-400% and increasing parking hours from 6pm until up to 9pm.
c. The last time Ridgewood tried increasing hours, the Chamber of Commerce themselves complained and hours were reduced back to 6pm
d. THIS NEEDS TO BE TESTED FIRST… AN $11,500,000 BOND IS TO MUCH TO GAMBLE ON!
SPENDING $11,500,000 ON A PROJECT THAT SHOWS EVIDENCE OF INADEQUATE PLANNING IS BAD GOVERNMENT AND BAD FOR RIDGEWOOD’S FUTURE
A NO VOTE WILL ALLOW THE NEW COUNCIL THE LEEWAY TO GET PARKING RIGHT FOR RIDGEWOOD!
LET THE NEW COUNCIL GET THIS RIGHT!