WOODCLIFF LAKE, N.J.—Speaking at the annual Breakfast with the Greater Pascack Valley Mayors on Jan. 29 at the Iron Horse Restaurant in Westwood, Mayor Carlos Rendo called developer-driven affordable housing “the Phil Murphy unfunded mandate or social experiment.”
The Republican, who spent part of his term running for state lieutenant governor in 2017, said, “In terms of a market rate development… I truly believe the linchpin of Broadway is a development of our abandoned Department of Public Works barn. Our idea is to convert it into a high-class restaurant.”
He added, “Once that’s developed I believe people will take an interest in Broadway.”
The breakfast, hosted by the nonprofit Greater Pascack Valley Chamber of Commerce, gave each participating mayor or his or her designee from the area five minutes to speak on hot-button issues.
The public was invited, and time was set aside for questions and answers.
Also speaking were Emerson Mayor Danielle DiPaola, Montvale Council President Douglas Arendacs, Old Tappan Mayor John M. Kramer, Oradell Mayor Dianne Didio, Park Ridge Mayor Keith Misciagna, Washington Township Mayor Peter Calamari, and Westwood Mayor Ray Arroyo.
Introduced by former Westwood Mayor Skip Kelley, who serves on the GPVCOC board, the organization’s president, Robin Malley of Friedberg Properties, set the tone for the roughly hourlong event, airing concerns about vacant storefronts and increasing traffic.
Concerns about development along Broadway corridor and planned creation of a park at a now-cleared garden center site—the former Galaxy Gardens—have divided the mayor and council members.
At his swearing in last month, Rendo said the borough faces “real challenges” this year including an absence of property tax relief from the state, elimination of a 2% cap on school district budgets, and affordable housing.
“Our suburban districts will be pushed to the brink,” he said.
At the breakfast, Rendo noted the 16 units going in on North Broadway, 12 units on Old Pascack Road (market rate townhomes; the developer is donating $600,000 to the town’s affordable housing fund), and a potential 100 units on Chestnut Ridge Road, “only when the corporate building at PDI [Professional Disposables International Inc.] ceases to be a corporate building.”
He said, “That’s part of our affordable housing plan.”
He said, “Broadway is an area that needs development but no one is in agreement as to what type of development. People don’t understand that the developer needs to make a profit.”
He emphasized that “No developer would go into a community and build retail if they don’t have anything to offset it. It’s not going to happen.”
He added, “So if you want to beautify Broadway where is [the money] going to come from—the taxpayer? Or does it come from the developer.”
To his fellow mayors, he said, “These are issues we all have to look at when you’re going to develop an area and we need to understand that.”
He picked up cheerleading duties from Montvale Council President Doug Arendacs in boosting a new agreement to extend routes from app-based bus service Hip for commuters headed to and from Manhattan.
“The feedback we’ve gotten from residents is very positive because now they know they’re going to have a seat on the bus and they know they’re going to get to New York City on time. And it’s going to increase property values,” he said.
For more, see Mayors Promote ‘Hip’ App-Based Bus Service, Jan. 21.
