Pro, Anti-Expansion Resident Groups Each Say Citizens Are On Their Side When it Comes to Valley

As the Valley Hospital expansion project reaches what could be its final destination, two resident groups are behind the scenes, rallying the troops, fundraising and gearing up for what could be the last battle.

Both Concerned Residents of Ridgewood (CRR), the powerful grassroots group formed in opposition to the proposed $750 million 1.1 million square foot expansion on a 15-acre campus, and the anti-opposition Ridgewood Residents for Valley (RRV) say they believe the majority of town are on their side.

In a quaint village of about 25,000 people there doesn't appear any middle ground. After four years in the planning board, which approved an amendment to the Master Plan, it seems minds by now have already been made up. The line in the sand has been drawn.

"We support the hospital, we support the hospital modernizing, which is reasonable," CRR head Pete McKenna said in a phone interview late last week. "But an increase of approximately 100 percent on the site is inconsistent with all precedents at that site and all land use precedents in Ridgewood."

The construction during the first phase of the operation is estimated to last about seven years. Phase One calls for a new parking deck over the current Linwood parking area, a demolition of the Phillips Building and subsequent construction of a parking lot on that site, as well as the addition of the North Building. 

Valley maintains it's planning for a ten-year break before starting Phase Two, which would see the Bergen Building replaced with a West Building and a South Building. Construction, ultimately, could last decades. The plans also include an intensity of use model, by which adding to one element (say, for instance, parking) would require a shrinking of another. 

Valley, grassroots supporters out to show majority favor expansion

In a statement, Valley Hospital spokeswoman Megan Fraser remarked that evolution "is necessary."

"Just like our schools, the library and other Village assets, we have to evolve to meet ever-changing times," she said. "This year Valley is celebrating 60 years of caring for the community. But to be the hospital that Ridgewood residents continue to choose for their healthcare in the future, we have to move forward with renewing our facilities."

Fraser said the hospital is "looking forward" to having its "many supporters" advocating at the H-Zone hearings.

Some of those supporters are quite public in their support, too.

In a telephone interview with Patch late last week, Ridgewood Residents for Valley (RRV) head Gene Cornell said the new stakeholders are hopeful the voices in support of Valley are heard.

"We're hoping they'll [the council] move forward and pass the ordinance," Cornell said Friday. The head of the new grassroots organization, which counts Valley employees and their spouses among their membership, said they've been happy so far with the process and believe the village experts that vetted through the various aspects of the plan for years "did their due diligence" and appropriately endorsed the "Renewal."

"It's clear modernization is needed," Cornell said. "Our goal is to show that the majority of residents are in favor of the 'Renewal.'"

Concerned Residents of Ridgewood: An approval would be without precedent

That's certainly not the contention of CRR.

Ideally, McKenna said, the council provides a semblance of certainty and allows the hospital to be grandfathered in at its current size. "A second prize for us would be that the 2006 Master Plan reexamination be reinstated," he said. "Make that the law of the land at this property."

This would allow Valley to expand–if approved–by 15 to 20 percent, a far cry from the 100 percent it's gunning for. McKenna called that figure "an adequate" amount of growth to allow modernization, though he conceded he was not an expert in hospital management.

"A 100 percent change to me sounds more like a massive renovation than a modernization," he remarked. CRR has hired a land use attorney and site planner that will speak at the upcoming hearings.

Cornell, in turn, said the 624 members of his organization–who are public in their support–are steadfast in their belief that denying the hospital an expansion would ultimately be a disservice to Ridgewood.

If Valley declines because it can't modernize, he said the palpable effect will be very real. "Businesses in the downtown will suffer and they're already not faring well," Cornell said.

"When Valley last expanded the personal computer wasn't even invented yet," he said. But today, according to Cornell, given the need for modern technology and single patient rooms, an expansion is clearly necessary.

It's a point made time and time again by Valley, who maintain that today's industry standard is single room care. 

Installing medical and surgical technology equipment requires more space, meaning larger operating rooms and diagnostic procedure areas, Valley says.

"Renewal also means more space for our patients," the hospital wrote on its website. "The single greatest square footage increase of the plan calls for single-patient rooms, which have become the state-mandated healthcare standard for new healthcare construction."

These single occupancy rooms, Valley says, reduce medication errors, and hospital-acquired infections while allowing for more privacy and visits from loved ones.

"The residents of Ridgewood and the surrounding community deserve the highest level of care, access to advanced diagnostic and therapeutic technology and comfortable single-patient rooms in which to recuperate.

"To ensure Valley’s future ability to care for you, your family, and all residents of Ridgewood, the Hospital must renew."

On the issues

The two grassroots group leaders predictably had different takes on some of the particulars cited as concerns. McKenna said the long-term construction of Valley next to B.F. could have an equally long-term impact on education in general, though he said its immediate effects "are not to be trifled with." He also commented that Valley's assertion that traffic wouldn't increase was laughable.

Cornell held the line, saying there's been heavy construction with the referendum and to his knowledge, students are managing well. Traffic-wise, he said experts are comfortable with the plan and he'd defer to their established opinion. McKenna, on the other hand, said it "defies logic" to think more people and more staff won't create greater traffic. They need to make money, and it won't be with the increase of three beds, he said.

Valley maintains that traffic would not increase because the added space is for storage, large diagnostic equipment, expanded operating rooms, and for transforming existing double-occupancy rooms into single-occupancy rooms.

McKenna, whose group has hired a land use attorney and a site planner in anticipation of the seven hearings, isn't buying it.

Given Valley's position as a business, McKenna said there must be incremental revenue and that has to come in the form of increased traffic.

With outpatient services being the trend in healthcare and stay cycles shortened, he says logically, the argument doesn't hold water.

The first of the seven village council meetings will be held at 7:00 p.m. at the RHS Campus Center on Tuesday, September 13. It can be seen on television at Cablevision Channel 77 or streamed live from a link on the village website.