Ridgewood Board Cannot Change Valley Hospital Expansion Plan, Attorney Says

Ridgewood residents who have spent a year fighting a proposed Valley Hospital expansion found out this week that the plan can not be amended by the village's Planning Board, NorthJersey.com reported.

The expansion plan, which calls for an amendment to Ridgewood’s Master Plan to construct a building in a residential neighborhood near the middle school, has been in front of the board for about a year.

According to the report, Board Attorney Gail Price told residents at a meeting earlier this week that the board can only accept or reject the proposal, but cannot make any significant changes to it.

Price did say that minor changes have been made, but that the Board cannot make substantial changes to the plan, pending a court case over it, the report said. What exactly qualifies as a substantial change, and what doesn't, is debatable, the report said.

Members of the resident activist group Concerned Residents of Ridgewood, who have been attending Planning Board hearings over the past year, said they were disappointed to learn that the plan would not be amended during the Planning Board process, the report said.

“To say I’m mad is an understatement,” the group’s president Pete McKenna told NorthJersey.com.

“I just wasted another year of my life here only to find out the board doesn’t have the latitude to make any changes.”

This is the second expansion plan Valley has submitted. The first was approved by the Planning Board, but vetoed by the village council. This plan calls for the hospital to nearly double in size, and includes the construction of a 94-foot-tall building.