State to Take Up Ridgewood’s PSE&G Petition This Week

The state’s Board of Public Utilities is scheduled to take up discussion this week of Ridgewood’s petition challenging the controversial PSE&G poles installed this summer in a village neighborhood.

During its monthly meeting Friday, the board will hear staff recommendations on the petition, though a decision may not be immediately rendered, according to a BPU official who spoke to Patch on condition of anonymity.

The meeting will mark the first time the village’s petition has appeared on the board’s agenda since a hearing in early September, but the discussion Friday does not indicate a timeline for a decision, the official said.

Matt Rogers, Ridgewood’s village attorney, said based on his understanding from the BPU’s counsel, the board could either make a decision Friday, release a written opinion within the following week, or continue discussion at its next meeting, scheduled for Dec. 18.

In its eventual ruling, the board may accept, reject or stake out a middle ground on the village's challenge, Rogers said, and the decision could establish precedent for future dealings between utility companies and municipalities in New Jersey.

The regulatory officials, he said, could accept portions of Ridgewood's argument in their decision, such as the village's complaint that the utility did not adequately communicate the details of the project to residents or officials before the start of construction.

"They could go so far as establish a protocol for that [communication]," Rogers said.

Even before the hearing in September, Rogers said, the village was aware the challenge could be precedent setting, and had sought input from other towns through the New Jersey League of Municipalities.

“We knew there’s a good chance that what we were asking for is not something that would benefit just us, but benefit other communities regarding the way PSE&G approaches these projects,” Rogers said.

The planned PSE&G upgrade, with poles along the village’s Spring Avenue and Hope Street, runs 69-kilovolt transmission lines on 65-foot poles through Fair Lawn, Glen Rock, Ridgewood, Paramus, Oradell, New Milford, Dumont and Bergenfield.

Throughout the controversy, which began over the summer when residents of the Ridgewood neighborhood vocally opposed the poles, PSE&G has maintained that requiring local input on such projects would undermine critical regional planning.

No other towns have raised significant opposition to the project.

A moratorium on PSE&G's work has been in place in Ridgewood since the summer, pending a decision from the state regulatory agency. John Margaritis, a company spokesperson, said the utility has continued installations in other areas in hopes of making a scheduled December 2014 completion date.

“Because of the moratorium we are now reevaluating whether we can make that date,” he said.

The BPU is scheduled to convene the public portion of its meeting Friday at 11:15 a.m. in Trenton.