Friends of Zabriskie Schedler House Challenge DEP Decision, Pushing for Smaller, Natural Turf Field
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood, NJ – The long-running, contentious debate over the proposed field construction near the Historic Zabriskie Schedler House in Ridgewood has escalated once again. Late last Friday, a lawyer representing the Friends of the Historic Zabriskie Schedler House filed a crucial Notice of Appeal, challenging the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP)’s decision.
The appeal targets the DEP’s recent acceptance of the Village of Ridgewood’s application for the construction of a large athletic field—even though that acceptance was granted “with conditions.”
Notice of Appeal, filed on eCourts, 10_3_25 (1)
The Core Conflict: DEP vs. Historic Agencies
The heart of the opposition lies in the conflicting decisions within the state’s own agencies. While the DEP ultimately accepted the application (conditionally), two other critical DEP divisions had previously raised significant objections:
- State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO): Denied the application “with conditions.”
- Historic Sites Council: Also denied the application “with conditions.”
The Notice of Appeal seeks to leverage the concerns raised by these historic preservation bodies, arguing that the large-scale construction poses an unacceptable risk to the historically significant property.
The Preservation Group’s Stance
Ellie Gruber, who leads the Friends of the Historic Zabriskie Schedler House, has been a leading voice against the current plan. Back in June, Gruber asserted that the Village of Ridgewood had “made a misstep” in pursuing such a massive field development.
The Friends group’s proposed solution is clear and community-friendly:
- A smaller athletic field.
- Use of natural grass instead of artificial turf.
Gruber argues that a scaled-down, natural-turf field “would be much happier,” balancing the community’s need for recreational space with the preservation of a historic landmark and the neighborhood’s quality of life.
This appeal means the Village of Ridgewood’s field project faces further legal scrutiny, delaying a definitive resolution and keeping the spotlight firmly fixed on the importance of balancing development with historic preservation in Bergen County.
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Ellie is right. NJDEP’s decision was politically motivated.
How can this be forwarded to Mikie Sherrill’s team and we ask her to provide a statement on this? Does she support democratic values and green initiatives, or will she support her confidant and friend Keith Kazmark to use favors from the state government and provide benefits to friends and family?
James – can this be run as a separate story and we ask this to the governor candidate somehow – here is the clear timeline:
The DEP’s SHPO REFUSED this application – those are the historical and environmental experts – then Keith Kazmark used his friends in the state government to get this approved over the objections of SHPO.
Also the DEP leader who was supposed to approve it – hosted a fund raiser for mikie sherrill WITH Keith Kazmark. They are all buddies.
Also, Keith Kazmark is doing a favor here to Paul Vagianos, who appointed him for this 250K job without any fair open interview process, because Keith worked as a campaign manager for Paul Vagiano’s assembly campaign when he ran for D40.
This is all happening in day light in NJ. Lets ask mikie sherrill where does she stand as she runs for the governor of “Garden State” as a “green / democratic party candidate”.
I think we should reach out to Matt Platkin and ask him if he wants to defend the corruption in NJ.
Does he support democratic values and green initiatives, or will he support corruption to use favors from the state government and provide benefits to friends and family?
Here is the clear timeline:
The DEP’s SHPO REFUSED this application – those are the historical and environmental experts – then Keith Kazmark used his friends in the state government to get this approved over the objections of SHPO.
Also the DEP leader who was supposed to approve it – hosted a fund raiser for mikie sherrill WITH Keith Kazmark. They are all buddies.
Also, Keith Kazmark is doing a favor here to Paul Vagianos, who appointed him for this 250K job without any fair open interview process, because Keith worked as a campaign manager for Paul Vagiano’s assembly campaign when he ran for D40.
This is all happening in day light in NJ. Lets ask mikie sherrill where does she stand as she runs for the governor of “Garden State” as a “green / democratic party candidate”.
Does this Notice of Appeal provide a stay order?
There’s some sneaky shit going on, didn’t I tell you there are people behind the curtain that are running things to make decisions. Some of your people were laughing at me but now you see the true colors is coming out. Dirty business, it doesn’t matter what political you voted for very are all in the same bed,
1. Wait out this ridiculous, awful council.
2. Remediate the property.
3. Go back to the 2018 plan everyone agreed upon.
Yeh – Siobhan Winograd and Paul Vagianos ran their election campaigns with a promise to go back to the 2017/18 plan. They did a U turn 1 day after winning the election.
REMEMBER this during next election cycle.
PauLIE and Community Karen are the worst of the bunch but the other ones are no better. Vagianos made sure to stack his council with all of his special yes people.
Where did the 4 million go? Thats a lot of gyros that Healthbarn lady helped the mayor spend. Seriously where did it go?
Blame everything on the head of engineering, that guy is a jerk off, one of the biggest assholes I’ve ever met in my life
Peewee won’t quit on this …
Kick the can….
They don’t give a shit about anybody. If they did, they would have a special meeting with employees and residence and volunteers that were at those contaminated locations. They don’t care about anybody’s health or well-being. Allegedly the trying to control the DEP, and channel 12 news that did a story at these locations.
Not a big fan of the Schedler field of dreams and the fake historic house with ZERO community purpose, but the standard for overturning an agency action is very high.
In New Jersey, a final agency action can be overturned through direct judicial review by filing an appeal in the Superior Court, Appellate Division within 45 days of receiving the decision. The court can set aside agency actions that are found to be in excess of statutory authority, short of statutory right, or otherwise not in accordance with the law. Courts will typically review agency actions under a “deferential” standard, such as the “arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion” test, rather than substituting their own judgment for the agency’s.
the current council made promises to the sports groups….plain and simple….
100%…it’s a game for Peewee, to see how much he can get away with.
can we just sell it to a real estate developer? good location on Rt17 will bring in some good tax revenue
I don’t agree with that (I do own a home in the neighborhood), but it would be preferable to the current option. With proper landscaping and buffers, this could be a nice addition to the tax rolls – and the property sale would be a very nice addition to the budget revenue line. BUILD THE SMALLER, ORIGINAL PLAN.
Move the house to the location of the future PAC at the site of the former Warner Theater (High Density Low Income Housing) downtown.
For 30 years, we been hearing about the sport group. We had enough of the bullshit. We don’t even have the employees to maintain all this shit. How about the village telling us? What is the final budget just for parks and recreation? We would love to see that number.
This is why they want to add the open space referendum to the ballot. Vote no. We pay enough in taxes!! Ridgewood can barely manage what theyve got already plus all new PAC. Come on.people!
The sports leagues who use the fields should pay for maintenance then there would be no need for any hullabaloo or the need for turf. These teams MAKE MONEY by playing on fields paid for by resident’s tax dollars. That being said, drive around on most days and weekends and you only see games in the AM and the rest of the time, no one is on them. Where is the critical need? Everyone want to know!
So true. It is honestly RARE to see ANY fields in use at all. When will the Village abandon this nonsense, remediate the field, and move on?
Parks and rec department is so poorly managed they probably have no idea where the money goes! We need someone with at least 1/2 a brain in that department.
It is clear that Vagianos made promises and Heather wasn’t hoping to move the needle. He brought in Kazmark to see this through all while knowing Kazmark is besties with NJDEP Commissioner LaTourette and could get this slide right thru easily. My guess is La Tourette had his deputy made the approval which waived a good number of the conditions and objections which were impediments to progressing this current plan. Its sad because if the village 1) had not brought in the contaminated soil and 2) had not increased the size of the field and tried to cover the entire property in impervious surfaces, there is a good likelihood that there would have been a park development in the near future. Just goes to show when you get greedy, you do t always get what you intended.
I’m sure Kazmark contacted everyone he knows to get this project approved. The fact that the ethical breaches seem to be numerous, favoritism as blatant as the nose on his face, political leverage with almost every agency in the DEP, countless Ridgewood tax dollars spent on historic consultants, engineering and landscape design firms who developed and redeveloped the drawings, lawyers, hiring people to pretend they conducted independent assessments to bolster their application and the list goes on. Kazmark knew he’d get a yes vote from his pals, that WAS the plan all along. He doesn’t hang by the pool with La Tourette for nothing but now, this is all under the microscope for courts to pick apart.
This sleazy mayor and the slime ball puppets that make up the council all got elected because of the sports organizations they are literally going to bat for. The sports guys told them to jump in order to get elected and Vagianos and his merry band of nit wits simply asked “how high”. While a lot of the day to day meetings, documents, the political leverage required some muscle (after all Paul Vagianos lost his bid as state assemblyman) therefore it was Kazmark who orchestrated much and I would bet if we checked Keith’s personal email and cell phone texts/calls, you’d likely see Shawn La Tourette in there. So unethical. The Attorney General should be involved.
Let’s get him involved. There is so much questionable behavior going on. And why is KK so head strung on destroying Ridgewood??? All his decisions are not for the people of Ridgewood. And the guy doesn’t even live here. Isn’t he a Passaic county guy?
He was hired to be PauLIE’s yes man and to bring this project, above all else, into the forefront with his political connections. He doesn’t live here and does not give a crap about anything other than accomplishing his “mission”. Then maybe he will hop off of the Ridgewood gravy train (guy makes upwards of $250,000) and go work for Sherill his pal if she wins. If not, we are stuck with him until he blows the whistle on someone, somewhere, someday.
Instead of putting a referendum on the ballot to fund more open space, how about putting a referendum on the ballot to ask residents how much more can be spent on the Schedler property. There is already a 1.5 million dollar bond to clean up the property which tax payers will have to foot the bill for, but all of this fighting puts the village in an even more precarious position and many shady things occurred. Now maybe the inner workings of the NJDEP will even be in question and even the Commissioner and his deputy Commissioner’s records could be made public. This could get interesting.
Is Pasta Primavera still staying at the “Y”. I will bet he is a bit miffed that he wasn’t able to get this project over the finish line.
That’s why I made a phone call to the Lieutenant General of New Jersey. The document is. I don’t trust any of these pieces of shit. I told you they all sleep in the same bed, and two people that put your thumbs down on this guess what spin it around spit on it and slide up your ass cause I don’t give a hoot. The bottom line is this political brunch is so damn dirty. ☠️
There is no “Lieutenant General” in the State of New Jersey.
Lieutenant General? Please, I am very interested in your opinion, but I can barely understand your post. Please reread before posting. Thank you
Democrats care about green energy and the environment and then destroy the habitat. It’s more like they want to profit and control every piece of land in town. This idea needs to die. No turf field. End of story. I couldn’t imagine if I was a homeowner in that neighborhood. If I was Id be the towns worst nightmare but I got other things that bother me about this town.
They are all greenwashing one way or another. Like Mortimer the turf loving bee man, give me a break!
The entire council is just one big hypocritical messy jumble. There is literally nothing that comes out of their mouths that aligns with any initiative, green or otherwise. The smoke show is real and won’t stop until you get this bunch of losers off of the dais. They will bond this village into a dizzying nightmarish spiral and we will be in debt for a long time. They are going to buy and develop a PAC that has no plan attached to it, just some vague nice to have ideas, and they were heading in the direction of voting a big fat yes to the assisted living center. If you voted please remember that these people do not care about the residents
How many pool parties did Keith Kazmark have to go to in order to get an approval from the NJDEP? Inquiring minds want to know.
Lieutenant governor‘s Office has been notified on this.