A surveyor has been working all morning at the intersection of Van Dien Ave and Linwood Ave. When asked who was paying him and why, he answered, “the hospital in relation to the road widening.”
It looks like Valley Hospital has unilaterally decided that the intersection WILL be modified and the road widened. The puzzle is that the spray markings are only on the length of Linwood Ave facing the hospital, along the residential side of the street not the hospital side? A quick check with the neighbors of the hospital revealed that they were not informed that any work would take place.
The Ridgewood Blog 
good do it.
Can all you neighbors please come together… hire an attorney. You can STOP VALLEY in their tracks. Simply file an injunction with the County. Then when Valley pays off someone else… you appeal it, and so on. With very little money, especially shared across many neigbors, you can tie this jerks up in court for YEARS. The Village is in their pocket? Just appeal at the County level. When that goes thru… 7-8 months from now? File for a review at the State level. That will take over a year. STOP VALLEY is as easy as hiring a zoning attorney.
I don’t know how this can be done without the knowledge of the County and Council. hmmm…
If any of the Village Council members put an addition on to their house then we will know Audrey means business…
Does our Village Council know about this?
Can’t neighbors just get along?
There’s plenty of room and an obvious solution — get rid of the sidewalk on one side of Linwood to Route 17. There might even be enough room for an emergency lane for exclusive use of ambulance and hospital personnel.
Don’t yhey already own all four corners?
9:03 – Why not let the residential neighbors take out the sidewalks by them so they can expand their houses? Getting along does not mean one side gets to do whatever it wants.
What about all the children who walk too and from BF for school and sport or to Travell? Is anyone thinking about them in all this?
Shouldn’t our children’s safety come before big business?
I would like to see someone standing up for the children for once!
Valley owns three corners of Linwood & VanDien. The fourth corner is an historic house. Who is surprised that local neighbors were not informed. That is par for the course with Valley. Deception is a way of business it appears. Where is the Council?
4:45 PM – and where is the money going to come from to pay the attorney? In 1983 the residents paid $1000’s to an attorney who spent his way through all the money and achieved zero. Are you a sugar-daddy like Mr. Bolger? If you are then please start writing checks.
Is it right that residents need to PAY to defend themselves from the hospital – shouldn’t the Village be defending them?
I have little confidence that our elected and appointed officials will say no to VH. I am no sugar daddy but I do have a checkbook and will contribute to what will almost certainly be a protracted legal battle.
Valley is moving ahead with their plans. They have already rolled right over the spinless council and zoning board. Let's appoint a new zoning board, one with intelligence and no ties to valley.
We should look at the "six degrees of separation" between out council and boards and valley. The business & personal ties are close.
The Village should be protecting our children. Who is doing that? It is a fact that cars go faster when the road is wider.
The hospital has overstepped its bounds by even attempting to touch the road situation. It is a Hospital and not the owner of the road.
The Hospital is not being a GOOD NEIGHBOR.
If the hospital wants the road widened it should do it on its own land and not use neighbors.
Anything it does is going to bring down the property values of the neiboring houses. It should show some good will and help those people it is hurting.
11:20 and 5:45 — yes, it would be nice if we could accomodate walkers and homeowners equally with our local health care provider. But we can’t. No solution is perfect and we need that community hospital complex. What’s the problem with driving your children to school compared to not having the hospital there? Neighboring towns get along just fine without extravagent sidewalks, and the earlier post was simply suggesting getting rid of one side of the street’s sidewalk, not both of them. We should think about alternatives such as overpasses or underpasses that could alleviate congestion. Do we really need one sidewalk on each side of the street? It would be lovely if we could have tree lined and sidewalk lined streets in all parts of town, but we can’t. Its not the 1890’s anymore. We need to move forward with progress and I support the Village Council on this one. Lets just get rid of one of the darn sidewalks and give the hospital an extra traffic lane, just one way, mind you, allowing quick access to the hospital.
Notices must be served to all propery owners within 200 feet of the proposed changes. Just be careful who you hire as a zoning attorney. Mr. Bolger’s attorney does lots of zoning in Paramus and surrounding towns and his donation made Valley’s dreams of expansion come to life. All that is a little too cozy for my tastes. Although Mr. Bolger has been very generous, I personally do not think Valley should be allowed go expand. Maybe Mr. Bolger can open his own hospital up in Westwood, where they need one desperately since Pascack Valley shut its doors.
5:28 Yes lets let everyone get to Valley Hospital but not leave.
All road expansion should be on the Valley side of the street or on its properties that it bought for that purpose.
The other home owners that would be affected should be compensated not only for the land that is taken but in reduced land taxes because their home will now be significantly reduced in value.
You try selling a house when there is pending road changes or a massive and invasive building program going on next door.
5:28: I am simply stunned that you suggest that VH’s expansion is more important than our children’s ability to walk safely to and from school. The more I hear this point of view, the more I am convinced that VH needs to leave Ridgewood.
Valley expansionists love to use the argument that the hospital was here already when the neighbors bought their houses. Therefore, the neighbors should have known what they were getting into when they bought their houses. The same argument should be made against Valley and its expansion. When Valley opened its doors, the sidewalks were here already. Keep the sidewalks or we will be filling the new emergency room with injured pedestrians.
11:20 “We should remove the sidewlks and all drive our kids to school”…are you crazy! I moved to Ridgewood from NY years ago so that my children COULD walk to school. This is OUR town NOT the Hospital’s! The hospital needs to move if it has gotten too big!!!!
8:04pm I live within 200 ft and I did not get a notice – the Village does not force the hospital to conform to any laws – they just do what they feel like or they can get away with.
Widening Linwood means that cars coming off Rt 17 into town do not have to slow down at Van Dien, and they’ll be able to continue through the intersection at high speed.
These drivers are probably not even from Ridgewood and have no idea that BF is a block away. It’s very scary considering how many children cross that road every morning and afternoon.
To 5:28 PM
The road widening is not Valley’s decision to make. Unless they have paid someone off they seem to have jumped the gun on road widening.
And FYI – Valley won’t leave town if the road does not get expanded. No one ever said that Valley would close down if they don’t get their way.
5:28 WHO ARE YOU? I bet you do not have children, I bet you do not like the actual character of Ridgewood and can care less about its future. Pathetic comments…
Valley is paying everyone it can to get what it can for itself.
It is a selfish commercial concern.
The people who raise money for it and most of the management is more interested in its social life than in the people at the address it loves (Ridgewood – a prestigous address to many)
It has always been about the address! Valley Hospital can operate any where in Bergen County.
Why does it have to be Ridgewood.
Welcome to Valleywood
i think we should let them just do it,we will need them very soon,can you say july ,4.oooooo,yaaaaa.the town has no money or this so gess what can you say make valley biger or no money for you.yea thats the story my little bird.
731 – Jim, that you?
Council do your due diligence and check the facts for yourself instead of being spoon fed by Valley.
Valley Hospital only has its own interests at heart and cares nothing for Ridgewood other than the address.
If it keeps doing what it is doing it will ruin Ridgewood.
Get Valley to reveal its plans and then make Valley make all the concessions.
If you would have been at the Planning board meeting last Tuesday night you would have learned that the Valley people, the Village engineer and Ms. Price (Planning Board Attorney) met with the County officials regarding the road widening. Please note that there is no mention of a resident being asked to attend this cozy conference. Why do you think that was?????
To those who are concerned about the students who have to walk on the streets surrounding Valley, The planning boards’ answer is that they should walk on the other side of the street. How thoughtful of them.
They have also suggested a “Pedestrian Island” for Linwood Avenue – So how wide do you think they are going? Also being considered is a 4 way stop for the corner of Van Dien and Glen… Again, no input is being asked from the people who have lived in any of the areas for years… The yes people on these boards and council need to be run out of town.
What’s wrong with the Board of Ed. regarding these safety issues? They have been silent. I wonder what they are going to get?