Westwood Taxpayers Alliance Suggests Changes to Master Plan

A representative of the Westwood Taxpayers Alliance, a group of 30 taxpayers and business owners, suggested changes to the borough's Master Plan during the Planning Board meeting Thursday.

“What we are trying to do is express what our organization feels is important in the Master Plan of the town,” John Lamb said. “The Taxpayers Alliance wants to take what’s good about the town and make it better.”

Lamb told board members that the hospital is the biggest goal for the group. He said the organization believes that an emphasis on the Hackensack University Medical Center application to reopen a full hospital on the site of the former Pascack Valley Hospital will be mutually beneficial for the hospital and the borough.

“Our town has a unique downtown that gives the hospital and its staff an area to shop, as well as provide ancillary businesses like lab testing facilities to support them,” Lamb said.

Planning Board members want Hackensack University Medical Center representatives, when they give a presentation at the June 9 and 23 meetings, to express some of the features that the hospital offers that the borough may not be aware of. Also, board members hope that the representatives can illustrate exactly what they hope to accomplish with the addition, so that they can determine whether Westwood can accommodate the improvements or not.  

Another area that the alliance wants to address is the idea of mixed-uses for commercial buildings.

“Instead of only having retail and office space allowed on the second floor of buildings, the Planning Board should investigate allowing apartments to occupy these spaces,” Lamb said.

Planning Board members said they are a bit wary of adding too many apartment spaces on second floors because it may even out the percentage difference between renters and homeowners. According to the 2000 Census, the owner-occupancy in Westwood was 60 percent compared to 40 percent of renter-occupancies. Board members will wait to review the 2010 Census numbers before making any decisions about mixed-uses.

Finally, Lamb said the Westwood Taxpayers Alliance wants to clarify the definition of a restaurant.

“We feel that by simply increasing the number of eight seats to 16 seats, which is only four tables of four, this would provide a good definition of what a restaurant in town is,” Lamb said. 

This definition is especially prevalent in the CBD and SPE districts of Westwood, which is where most of the businesses within town are located. Planning Board members hope to be more precise with their wordage in ordinances related to restaurants in order to solve the problem, saying a simple change in the number of seats can affect many aspects, like outside seating and specialty food stores. However, no decision was made about whether the number of seats will be raised.

“I think the board should wait until the Valley Ford site is settled on until we make a decision about this,” Chairperson William Martin said. The car dealership is closed, and the borough is waiting to see what will happen with the property.

“We will wait for our Borough Planner, Ed Snieckus, to come up with what he thinks the borough can look into exploring, and then go from there,” Planning Board Chairman James Hodges said.

The next Planning Board meeting is scheduled for May 26 at 8 p.m.