MyParkRidge November 2016

MyParkRidge THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE BOROUGH OF PARK RIDGE November 2016 MyParkRidge is produced by Pascack Valley Community Life www.pvcommunitylife.com © North Jersey Media Group, 2016 MAYOR’S MESSAGE The MyParkRidge Newsletter gives us a welcome opportunity to provide residents with information concerning the important issues facing the Borough and to provide details regarding the many activities and programs available to residents. We would like to thank our sponsor, Marsh & McLennan, for their generous support and acknowledge our partnership with the Community Life, a North Jersey Media publication that enables us to circulate the Newsletter. Additional copies are also available in Borough Hall and on the Borough Website. use. The new owner has plans to invest substantial funds to transform this aging building into a modern ofﬁce facility which will be more attractive to two potential individual tenants. Renderings of the proposed improvements will be available in the very near future. The recently created Park Ridge Economic Development Committee is also working with local, County and State ofﬁcials along with real estate broker CBRE to encourage occupancy of the former Hertz building. Another large corporation to leave the area is the Sony Corporation. The former Sony campus also has a large multi-year tax appeal pending. While the tax DOWNTOWN REDEVELOPMENT appeal and associated affordable housing litigation In the June edition of the Newsletter, we highlighted has been ongoing for quite some time, many residents the goals of the downtown redevelopment project. may have only recently learned that the current ownSince then, the Borough has progressed with multiple ers of the Sony property have proposed developing Terence P. Maguire steps designed to move this project forward towards the campus with luxury residential uses. Residents Mayor, Borough of Park Ridge the revitalization of the downtown area, particularly should be assured that the Mayor and Council, the the properties surrounding the former waste transfer Planning Board and the Borough’s professional staff site. The permanent elimination of this waste transfer facility and its are taking careful and deliberate steps to represent the interests of the undesirable effects is a major beneﬁt to the Borough. The process residents of the Borough in a manner that complies with its constirequired for the assembly and redevelopment of all of the properties in tutional obligation to provide affordable housing but protects the the designated area is a lengthy one, but when completed the project Borough from potentially greater detrimental development obligations. will substantially improve parcels in the redevelopment area and act The Borough continues to evaluate all of our options and will only as a catalyst for further growth in the entire downtown. Future steps approve a project that provides these protections. will include the execution of a redeveloper’s agreement, review by the Mayor and Council, and Site Plan review by the Borough Planning LEGAL FRAMEWORK Board. The public will have an opportunity to review drawings and In our June Newsletter, I provided some background on the legal renderings of the project and participate when public hearings are framework governing NJ Affordable Housing mandates. For decades, scheduled. Many residents have asked if the downtown redevelopment Park Ridge has pursued its affordable housing obligations by particiis part of the proposed development of the former Sony property. pating with the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH), an agency The two projects are not related, but are very separate and distinct created to establish appropriate affordable obligations and to allow development applications. municipalities to secure immunity from builders’ remedy lawsuits. In 2015, however, the New Jersey Supreme Court held that COAH had CORPORATE PARK not fulﬁlled its obligation to provide affordable housing. The Court Park Ridge has experienced a trend where corporations are moving stripped COAH of its administrative powers and held that any municiaway from NJ suburban corporate campuses, a trend that is evident pality desiring to maintain immunity from builders’ remedy lawsuits in neighboring towns and throughout the State. The diminished sale would have to ﬁle a declaratory judgment in the Superior Court where price for ofﬁce space coupled with a 30% to 40% vacancy rate in a Judge would determine the nature and extent of each town’s obligathese campuses has resulted in large tax appeals that have increased tion to provide affordable housing. Park Ridge, desiring to maintain the tax burden for our residents. In May 2013, The Hertz Corporation immunity from such lawsuits, ﬁled a declaratory judgment action announced that it would be moving to Florida due to the high cost as did most other Bergen County municipalities that had previously of living and business tax structure existing in New Jersey. Since that participated in COAH. time, Hertz has sold the property and it continues to be used for ofﬁce Continued on page 3