12. Living Here

Paramus has no downtown and no train station. In their place it has a highway shopping district that carries 42% of the Borough's taxable value and closes one day a week.¹⁰⁶ This section covers what a Paramus address gives you outside the house itself: the stores and the Sunday law, the parks, the pool and golf course, the library, the hospital and the places families use.

The shopping corridor and your tax bill

The commercial district is not a street you walk. It is the frontage of Route 17 and Route 4, which cross in the south of the Borough, plus four shopping centers: Westfield Garden State Plaza, Paramus Park, Bergen Town Center and the Fashion Center. The Borough dates the first two to 1957 and 1958 and calls them New Jersey's first shopping centers.¹⁰⁷

In the 2026 assessment file, 460 commercial parcels carry $5.82 billion of assessed value, which is 42.3% of the $13.76 billion taxable total. The 8,087 residential parcels carry $7.59 billion, or 55.1%.¹⁰⁶ The stores are not a neighbor you tolerate; they pay close to half the bills. Section 9 covers what that does to your tax bill.

Highway traffic

Route 17 through Paramus carries more than 100,000 vehicles a day. A June 2019 count put it at 107,626†, and a traffic study filed with the Borough in 2021 cites a second count of 114,838.†¹⁰⁸ The same study found that the busiest hour on Route 17 was Saturday midday, not the weekday commute.¹⁰⁸

What this means for you
A house two blocks off Route 17 and a house in the middle of a residential section are the same town and not the same Saturday. Before you make an offer, drive from the house to the nearest highway entrance at noon on a Saturday. Expect it to be heavier between Thanksgiving and New Year's, when the malls are busiest. Section 16 covers the weekday commute.

The Sunday closing law

This is the part of Paramus that no listing site explains correctly. There are two laws, not one, and the Borough's is the broader of the two. This report takes no position on whether either law should exist.

The first is a state law that applies only in a county whose voters adopt it. Bergen County's voters did, and Bergen is described in press accounts as the only county where it still applies.†^109, 110 It bans Sunday sales of five kinds of goods: clothing, building and lumber supplies, furniture, home and office furnishings, and appliances.¹⁰⁹

The second is the Paramus ordinance, which goes further. It reads: "No worldly employment or business, except works of necessity and charity, shall be performed or practiced by any person within the Borough on the first day of the week."¹¹¹ The ordinance gives its own reason: the Borough is crossed by Routes 4 and 17 and the Parkway, and "the traffic peak on the aforesaid thoroughfares in the Borough is reached on Sunday."¹¹¹

Table 12.1. The two Sunday laws.

Source: New Jersey Supreme Court, 1986; Borough of Paramus Code.^109, 111

In practice, the malls and the highway stores are closed on Sunday. So are offices, which is the part that surprises people, because the ordinance covers "employment," not only retail. Restaurants, supermarkets selling food, pharmacies, gas stations, movie theaters and amusement venues operate. An open house is expressly permitted, which is why you can tour a Paramus house on a Sunday.¹¹¹

The Paramus ordinance does not depend on the county law. In 1986 the New Jersey Supreme Court held that a town may keep a Sunday closing ordinance broader than the state statute.¹⁰⁹ That is why the Paramus ordinance would survive a county repeal.

One open question sits outside the Borough. Retailers at the American Dream complex in East Rutherford, also in Bergen County, began opening on Sundays around January 2025. In August 2025 Paramus sued in Superior Court. The other side says the complex sits on state-owned land and the law does not apply there.†^112, 113 A motion to dismiss was argued on June 9, 2026, and the judge reserved decision.†¹¹⁴

What this means for you
Sunday in Paramus is quiet in a way the other six days are not, and that is by law, not by habit. The stores that carry 42% of the tax base earn on six days while competitors in neighboring counties, and now one in this county, trade on seven. The court case will not change the Paramus ordinance, but it bears on what a Paramus storefront is worth, and so on who pays the Borough's bills in ten years.

Borough parks, golf and the pool

The Borough lists 18 municipal parks.¹¹⁵ The largest sports sites are the Cliff Gennarelli Paramus Sports-Plex (lighted fields and courts, a playground and a fitness walk), Petruska Park (ball fields, playground, lighted basketball and roller hockey court, and the Recreation office), Reid Park (over 20 acres, with a nature trail) and Parkway Plex. The rest are neighborhood playgrounds and passive or memorial parks with trails, woodland and monuments.¹¹⁵

Paramus Golf Course at 314 Paramus Road is owned by the Borough and has a miniature golf course alongside. Annual membership is $60 for any golfer. A cart for 18 holes is $40 plus tax. Miniature golf is $12 for adults and $8 for children and seniors.¹¹⁶ A resident who plays more than three weekday rounds a year recovers the $60.

Paramus Municipal Pool at 530 Van Binsberger Boulevard is an outdoor, unheated complex with a kiddie pool, an intermediate pool and a café. It is membership only: no day passes are sold, and members may bring up to six guests a day for a fee.¹¹⁷ In 2026 the full season opened June 26, with pre-season weekends from May 23.¹¹⁸

Table 12.2. What residents pay, 2026.

Source: Paramus Golf Course 2026 rates; Borough of Paramus 2026 pool brochure.^116, 118 Pool discounts, one per membership: 50% for seniors 62 and over, volunteers, veterans and employees; 10% early bird through April 30; 10% for new members.

A resident family of four pays $525 for the pool season, or $472.50 at the early-bird rate. Non-residents may join, at $975 for the same family.¹¹⁸

Recreation programs. The Recreation Department runs youth and adult programs from its office at 475 North Farview Avenue. The Fall 2026 brochure lists football for grades 1 to 8 ($300), wrestling for kindergarten to grade 8 ($100), a basketball clinic ($165), volleyball including a travel team, cross country ($120), tennis ($140), pickleball, chess, arts and crafts, and a Diff-Abilities program for ages through 21. Members of the Borough's volunteer organizations receive 50% off.¹¹⁹ The Paramus Spartans Soccer Club is independent; see the club's site for programs and fees.¹²⁰

Van Saun County Park

Van Saun, at 216 Forest Avenue, is a Bergen County park, not a Borough one. It holds the Bergen County Zoo, a miniature train and a carousel. Zoo admission depends on residency: adults (15 to 61) $6 to $10, children (3 to 14) $4 to $7, seniors and visitors with disabilities $2 to $4, under 3 and active military free. The train and carousel are $3 a ride, cash only, 10 am to 5 pm. Zoo hours are 10 am to 4:30 pm daily, weather permitting.¹²¹ Ask at the gate which price applies to Bergen residents.

From late November to early January the County runs Winter Wonderland at Van Saun: two ice rinks (one for ice bumper cars), the carousel, the train, food trucks, a heated tent and a craft market.^122, 123 The County's published prices for the season that opened in November 2024 were $20 for all-access (admission, skating and one carousel ride), or $10 for seniors, veterans and active military; skating alone $10; skate rental $5; ice bumper cars $12.¹²⁴ Check the County's parks page for the coming season's dates and prices.

The County also maintains Saddle River County Park, a 577-acre linear park with a multi-use path of about 6 miles. Its Dunkerhook Area, on the Paramus and Fair Lawn line, has three tennis courts, picnic pavilions, athletic fields, a playground, fishing and the Easton Tower, a county historic site beside a waterfall.¹²⁵ Paramus owners pay for both county parks only through the county levy.

The library

The Paramus Public Library has two buildings. The main library at 116 East Century Road is open seven days: 9:30 am to 9 pm Monday through Thursday, to 6 pm Friday, to 5 pm Saturday, and 1 pm to 5 pm Sunday. The Charles E. Reid Branch at 239 West Midland Avenue is open Monday through Friday from 10 am and is closed on weekends.¹²⁶ The library belongs to the Bergen County Cooperative Library System, lends museum passes and wireless hotspots, and runs story times and English as a second language classes.¹²⁶

The library is funded by a formula in State law, not by a yearly choice of the Council. The 2025 library levy was $4,594,845, about $172 per resident, and it rises automatically as property values rise.¹²⁷

Table 12.3. Library use in four towns.

Source: federal Public Libraries Survey figures as republished by the libraries.org directory.†¹²⁸ These figures are several years old; the New Jersey State Library publishes current library statistics.¹²⁹

On these figures Paramus lends more per resident than the other three towns, and it does so from the smallest collection per resident of the four.

What this means for you
The library is funded by formula, heavily used, and has two buildings with Sunday afternoon hours. If a deep collection matters to you more than a busy one, your card works at every library in the county cooperative.

The Valley Hospital

The Valley Hospital moved from Ridgewood to Paramus on April 14, 2024. It sits at 4 Valley Health Plaza on a 40-acre campus between Route 17 and the Parkway, with 370 private single-patient rooms, an emergency department, a cancer center and a retail pharmacy.^130, 131

Day to day, that means a full emergency department inside the Borough and a large employer whose staff work every day of the week, Sunday included. It also brings ambulance traffic to Winters Avenue and the Route 17 ramps. Trade press reports say Valley plans a new patient wing; one report puts it at 100 additional licensed beds and another at more than 135.†^132, 131 The Planning Board's file is the place to confirm it. If you are buying on the streets off Winters Avenue or West Ridgewood Avenue, that application is one to follow.

Family venues and local history

Two indoor venues on Route 17 come up often with families. Kids Empire Paramus, at 305 Route 17, is an indoor playground: $22.90 per child ages 1 to 17, two adults free per child, open Monday to Thursday 10 am to 8 pm and Friday to Sunday 10 am to 10 pm.¹³³ Xtreme Energy, at 557 Route 17, is listed as a trampoline park†; call for hours and prices.¹³⁴ Amusement is a permitted Sunday activity, which is why an indoor playground can open on the day a shoe store cannot.¹¹¹

The Fritz Behnke Historical Museum at 330 Paramus Road tells the story of the town's farming years, when the west side grew celery on muck soil. It is open Sundays from 1 pm to 5 pm except holidays.¹³⁵ The muck soil matters to a buyer for a second reason, which Section 15 takes up.

On the calendar, the 2026 Independence Day fireworks were held Friday, July 3 at Paramus High School's stadium.¹³⁶ Loose leaves are accepted at the curb only from October 5 to November 29, 2026.¹³⁷

Houses of worship

The 2026 assessment file carries 45 parcels in the "church and charitable" exempt class.¹⁰⁶ That class includes charitable organizations as well as congregations, so it is a ceiling and not a count of congregations. The Borough Clerk and each congregation's own site are the sources for locations and service times.

No train station

Paramus has no NJ Transit rail stop inside its borders. Commuters use bus service on Routes 4 and 17 or drive to a station in a neighboring town. Section 16 gives the routes, the park-and-ride lots and the nearest stations.

What I tell my buyers: come twice before you offer, once on a Saturday at noon and once on a Sunday at noon, and drive the same route both times. The difference between those two drives is the Sunday law. Then ask me where the American Dream case stands. The ordinance protects your Sunday whatever the court decides, but the ruling says something about the stores that pay 42% of the Borough's taxes.

† Reported by a press or other secondary source and not confirmed against a primary document.

† Figures marked with a dagger are best-effort research, so verify them with the issuing office (the Borough of Paramus, the school district, the county, the state or the utility) before making judgment calls or decisions on them.