Borough not moving forward with acquiring Galaxy Gardens
“The Woodcliff Lake Borough Council will not move forward with acquiring Galaxy Gardens through eminent domain, officials announced last week.
At their Nov. 17 council meeting, officials voted down a resolution 3-2 to authorize an engineering firm to complete Phase II of an environmental assessment — at a cost not to exceed $25,000 — to delineate the soil at the garden center on Woodcliff Avenue, which engineers determined was contaminated with three carcinogens. Councilman Robert Rosenblatt abstained from the vote.
Completion of Phase II was the next step in the council’s year-long efforts in trying to condemn the 2.1-acre site via eminent domain. The council initially expressed this desire last October after residents voiced their displeasure at Valley Chabad’s plans to expand upon it. In that time, residents by the dozens, including a group calling itself, “The Concerned Neighbors and Residents of Woodcliff Lake, Inc.,” said they preferred that the site be reserved for open space given their distaste for the possibility of added traffic to the center of town given a possible development.
Earlier this month, however, Borough Attorney Paul Kaufman announced that a contract, which had previously been in place between the garden center and the congregation, had been terminated. Valley Chabad filed an application in recent weeks to build a house of worship on its property, located at 100 Overlook Drive. The Zoning Board of Adjustment will hear the application on Nov. 25, Kathy Rizza, planning and zoning board secretary, said. Because neither the borough nor the congregation are planning to buy the garden center, Galaxy Gardens owner Peter Molyneux said via email that he is reviewing his options.”
Albrizio, Lianna. Pascack Valley Community Life 27 November 2014.