Inside Rockland

Anyone psyched up for landfill living?

August

The proposal of a New Jersey real estate developer to build about 650 apartments in the closed Ramapo landfill seems to have caught a lot of folks by surprise.

One reader commented that the story about putting apartments on a Superfund hazardous waste site sounded like a late April Fool’s Day joke.

It’s no joke to the propspective developer and the engineering company. The latter seemed confident that safety concerns of state and federal environmental agencies could be addressed.

What really seems to be going on here is the reality that Rockland is running out of easily developed land. Rocky hillsides, quarries and even dumps are no longer out of the question for development.

At the same time, developers are going for condos and townhouses – more vertical than horizontal growth – as the potential diminishes for sprawling residential developments.

Where’s Rockland headed? Will the single-family home go the way of the woods and fields it replaced? Will multifamily housing overtake the burbs?

This entry was posted on Friday, August 1st, 2008 at 4:43 pm by James Walsh. Print | Email

3 Responses to “Anyone psyched up for landfill living?”

Fairy god mother August 4th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Holy Cow!!! No comments from Preserve Morons???
Rich August 29th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Talk about turning your trash into cash!
Mike McDonough August 31st, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Does no one remember Love Canal?

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