Letter: Don't Approve Downtown Housing Developments

Editor's note: The following letter was sent by resident Ellen McNamara to the Ridgewood Village Council. It is unedited, but ran following the Thursday, Feb. 28 planning board meeting referenced in the last paragraph.

Dear Members of the Village Council,

We, the loyal citizens of Ridgewood, need you to respond with common sense and foresight to the attempt by developers to change the zoning of our downtown, allowing for the development of the multiple apartment complexes being considered. You must realize how negatively this will affect our town. Every person I speak to understands the impact these buildings will have on our village (first of all, who will consider this a "village" with these structures in place?). Our town, its services, and its schools, are already functioning at full capacity. We are literally busting at the seams.

Our schools are growing at an insane pace. Thus far, our wonderful teachers and administrators have handled the growth fairly well. These 350 new apartments, like all the other apartments in town currently, will not be filled with "empty-nesters," as the developers insist, but with families with at least 2 children (and a car or 2), trying to take advantage of our top notch school system without truly immersing themselves in our community. Classroom sizes at the high school could reach 35 kids per class, programs could be dropped from the middle school. Who will move to Ridgewood for it's great schools if this happens? Who will buy our homes when we are ready to move? The very reason people move here (for our schools), will be the very reason they don't move here in the coming years. And, if we are ever able to sell our homes, I assure you, we will NOT want to move to apartments in a town that is NOTHING like the town we moved into, grew up in, fell in love with.

Traffic is horrific! Pedestrians are being hit by cars right and left. Not only are there too many cars, but drivers are circling, looking for open spots, rather than focusing on the people who dare to cross the streets. I can't imagine what it would be like with 350+ cars added to our streets! What we really need is a parking garage. This point has been discussed for decades - what are we waiting for? The Ken Smith dealership site would be an ideal location for a parking facility. It would serve commuters, as well as shoppers, and free up parking in the westside train station lot, allowing the shops on that side of town to prosper once again. Why can't we consider such a purchase in the same way we would consider an open land purchase? It would be for the greater good of our town, as important as a park or athletic field at this point. Of course, that would barely make a dent in our parking problem, but we need to start somewhere.

Thank you for considering my point of view. I know it is shared by many of our citizens, although I understand there hasn't been a large turnout at the meetings thus far. Please know this has more to do with the fact that many of us have young families, with kids who are either doing homework, playing sports, rehearsing for plays, or down for the night, depending on their ages, at the time these meetings are conducted. then it does with our lack of concern about the future of our village. Truth be told, we are SCARED that these apartments could actually be approved, we are OPPOSED to them, and we will try our best to get babysitters and/or carpool to activities Thursday night in order to be there to voice our concerns. But if there aren't thousands there, please don't misinterpret our absence as approval or disinterest.

Sincerely,
Ellen McNamara