Midland Park, N.J., Board Rejects Valley Hospital Rebuild Over Parking

MIDLAND PARK, N.J. — The Midland Park Planning Board has turned down The Valley Hospital’s plan to replace its medical office at 301 Godwin Ave. with a bigger building that would have had parking underneath. Board members said the main problem was parking. The site would have had about half the spaces the borough’s rules require.

The board voted 6-1 on Sept. 21 to deny the application, according to the meeting minutes posted on the borough’s website. Its Oct. 19 agenda listed a resolution of denial for the application. A legal notice published Friday says the board memorialized the denial, meaning it adopted a written resolution that makes the decision official. That resolution, which lays out the board’s formal reasons, has not been posted online.

What Valley wanted

The Valley Hospital, Inc. asked for preliminary and final site plan approval and bulk variances for the lot, which has frontage on both Godwin Avenue and Post Street. According to the board engineer’s Aug. 12 review, the plan would have torn down the two-story medical building there and replaced it with a new one with a larger footprint. The medical offices would be entirely on the second floor, with parking under much of the building at ground level.

The engineer’s review lists variances for:

• Parking: 55 spaces, counting a credit for electric-vehicle spaces, where the borough requires 110.
• Lot coverage: 78.41% of the lot paved or built on, where 40% is the maximum. The engineer noted that is down from 79.03% now.
• Building coverage: 30.61%, where the maximum is 30%.
• Side yard: 8.17 feet from the side property line, where the rule for lots next to homes is the height of the building.
• Signs: two wall signs 5 feet high where 3 feet is allowed, plus two monument signs closer to the curb than the rules allow.
• Buffer and front yards: a planted buffer less than 15 feet wide next to a residential zone, parking in the front yards on both streets, and a trash enclosure in the Post Street front yard.

Why members voted no

Councilman Mark Braunius made the motion to deny. “I think the applicant has done a good job addressing a tremendous amount of concerns from not only the Board, but of the public,” he said, according to the minutes. “My problem is I am not convinced the applicant has addressed the major concern on this piece of property, meaning the parking problem.”

Vice Chair David Wostbrock said some of the planned spaces “just don’t function as spaces.” He also said Valley hadn’t shown it needed a sign on Post Street and that the signs on the building were too big for the downtown. Chairperson Kent Rigg said one space for every 200 square feet was not enough for a doctor’s office. Mayor Harry Shortway Jr. said he opposed the plan “because of traffic and safety,” pointing to children crossing nearby streets on their way to and from school.

Rigg, Wostbrock, Shortway, Braunius, Matthew Tauber and Stephanie Pantale voted to deny. Robert Mulder voted no on the motion.

Valley’s case

Valley’s attorney, Kathryn J. Razin, told the board that medical offices are a permitted use on the site and that many of the variances involved existing conditions the project would improve. A Valley Medical Group executive testified that the office could hold no more than eight doctors. Razin said the eight doctors and 26 total employees would all be on site during only one four-hour window in the week, and that even then the lot would have room to spare. Valley’s planner, Thomas Ricci, said the plan would add parking compared with what is there now. According to the minutes, Sept. 21 was Valley’s fourth appearance before the board.

Several residents spoke against the plan, raising concerns about cars overflowing onto narrow neighborhood streets such as Parker Place.

The written resolution with the board’s formal reasons has not been posted online. This story will be updated when it is.

More Bergen TV coverage of Midland Park and Bergen County land-use boards: Potbelly and Woodhouse Spa eyed for Midland Park, N.J., center; Hackensack, N.J., One Essex plan would cut retail space by 57%; and Tenafly, N.J., Planning Board to hear 13-home downtown plan Oct. 28.

Sources

• Midland Park Planning Board minutes, Sept. 21, 2026 (vote to deny, 6-1)
• Midland Park Planning Board agenda, Oct. 19, 2026 (resolution of denial)
• Midland Park Planning Board packet, Aug. 17, 2026 (board engineer’s review, rev. Aug. 12, 2026)
• Midland Park Planning Board packet, Sept. 21, 2026 (Valley exhibits)
• Legal notice: Midland Park Planning Board memorializes denial, The Valley Hospital, Inc., 301 Godwin Ave. (published Oct. 23, 2026)