OLD ITALIAN VILLA PROPERTY GATED AND READY FOR DEMOLITION!
NORTH ARLINGTON – The old Italian Villa property located at 173 Ridge Road has been gated and seems ready for demolition along with the adjacent empty locale.
The Borough approved 17 new units on this site as endorsed by Mayor Dan Pronti and the all-Republican Borough Council.
In addition, 12 more units are scheduled for the Belleville Turnpike for 29 more apartments in total.
The issue of increased density and character gentrification continues with Pronti, a part-time real estate agent and retired cop, endorsing this proliferation of apartments that has done nothing to control property taxes for longtime residents, especially seniors.
For North Arlington is being urbanized by Pronti, and the notion of remaining “small, safe and suburban” becomes more and more distant of what the community used to be, an affordable bedroom community with close proximity to New York City.
Sources claim that the Belleville Pike development called for retail at the ground floor but was amended and deleted.
And despite the notion that all of these apartments now around 100 or so units, the promise of stabilized property taxes seems out of the window with Pronti in charge.
John Balwierczak called the “constant construction of apartments” by Pronti, “just another example of building something anywhere, with no thought about how the character of the community is rapidly changing forever.”
Balwierczak was a candidate for borough council in 2025 and made a strong showing against the Pronti political machine, defeating the Republicans in several districts for the first time in over a decade.
No Democrat has served on the Borough Council since 2019 and Democrats have not won locally since 2016, despite a party registration advantage.
“One party government is turning North Arlington into Belleville or Harrison, take your pick. We are the gateway to Bergen County, and remaining suburban is what most residents support, not this proliferation of apartments and rolling property assessments that will occur again this year and will further burden most homeowners with even higher tax bills,” offered the life-long resident and graduate of NAHS.