New Ridgewood Parking Garage Renderings To Debut Soon

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — The newest renderings of the Hudson Street parking garage will debut later on this month.

Renderings showing the outside materials and finishes for the parking garage will be placed on display at 7 p.m. on May 22 before the Village Council work session.

The debut comes weeks before the Hudson Street lot will close so work can begin on the parking garage. The lot is slated to close in June or July and the garage should be completed by "early spring" of 2020, village officials previously said.

Village officials approved a $12 million bond in July 2018 to fund the project.

The $12 million bond is in addition to the $810,000 appropriated for the project; $100,000 was appropriated in 2014, $500,000 in 2015 and $210,000 earlier this year.

Parking meter rates will increase to help fund the project.

Building a parking garage at the Hudson Street lot has a long, and complex, history.

Voters approved a design of a 400-car garage on the site in a non-binding referendum in November 2015 by a 2-to-1 margin.

They also, by the same margin, rejected an $11.5 million bond ordinance in June 2015 that would have funded the building of a 325-car garage after a grassroots campaign by residents put the matter on the public ballot.

The Planning Board last year voted to recommend the Village Council designate the Hudson Street parking lot as an "area in need of redevelopment" in order to move the project along.

Former Mayor Paul Aronsohn and ex-village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld were fined due to a video they appeared in urging residents to vote "yes" on the original referendum in 2015. The fines were the result of a complaint filed with the Local Finance Board in 2016. The board enforces the Local Government Ethics Law. Six residents also sued the village over the video.

Email: daniel.hubbard@patch.com