Ridgewood Parking Garage Scheduled To Open In 2020

RIDGEWOOD, NJ — A loose timetable has been set for the development and construction of the 240-space Hudson Street parking garage.

The Hudson Street parking lot will be in June or July of 2019. The parking garage should be completed by "early spring" of 2020, village officials said.

The Village Council approved a $12 bond ordinance last month to fund the project.

The $12 million bond is in addition to the $810,000 appropriated for the project; $100,000 was appropriated in 2014, $500,000 in 2015 and $210,000 earlier this year.

Parking meter rates will increase to help fund the project. Fifty-cent hourly meters will increase to 75 cents Tuesday. The $1.25-an-hour meters may increase to $1.50.

The garage has had a long, and complex, history.

Voters approved a design of a 400-car garage on the site in a non-binding referendum in November 2015 by a 2-to-1 margin.

They also, by the same margin, rejected an $11.5 million bond ordinance in June 2015 that would have funded the building of a 325-car garage after a grassroots campaign by residents put the matter on the public ballot.

The Planning Board last year voted to recommend the Village Council designate the Hudson Street parking lot as an "area in need of redevelopment" in order to move the project along.

Former Mayor Paul Aronsohn and ex-village Manager Roberta Sonenfeld were fined due to a video they appeared in relating to the garage. They appeared in a video urging residents to vote "yes" on the original referendum in 2015. The fines were the result of a complaint filed with the Local Finance Board in 2016. The board enforces the Local Government Ethics Law. Six residents also sued the village over the video.

Email: daniel.hubbard@patch.com

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