the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood, NJ — The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) Historic Sites Council has voted to temporarily deny the Village of Ridgewood’s application to install an artificial turf field at the Schedler property, citing major concerns over historic preservation, environmental impacts, and insufficient alternatives analysis.
The decision follows a lengthy public hearing and council deliberations, where members concluded that the proposed multipurpose athletic field would introduce visual, audible, and environmental elements incompatible with the Revolutionary War–era site.
Why the Application Was Denied
In its resolution, the NJDEP council outlined several reasons for the temporary denial:
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Historic Preservation: The proposed turf field does not meet the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Treatment of Historic Properties, due to its scale, materials, and proximity to the historic Zabriskie-Schedler House.
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Alternative Options Not Fully Explored: The village did not sufficiently demonstrate whether existing athletic fields—or smaller grass fields—could meet community needs. Potential collaboration with the Board of Education and neighboring municipalities was also not adequately addressed.
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Archaeological Concerns: Insufficient information was provided about potential impacts on Revolutionary War–era landscapes and artifacts. The council called for a more comprehensive archaeological survey and monitoring plan.
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Environmental Impact: The application lacked details on how the turf construction would affect local ecology, including tree removal, stormwater runoff, and site preservation.
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Integration of Historic Use: No clear plan was provided to interpret or integrate the historic Zabriskie-Schedler House into the overall park and recreational design.
Additional Information Requested
Before reconsidering the proposal, the NJDEP council asked the Village of Ridgewood to provide:
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A reevaluation of field size, placement, and design options (turf vs. natural grass).
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Documentation of efforts to coordinate with other municipalities and field owners.
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A historic landscape assessment of trees and plantings, including a mitigation plan.
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Further archaeological research by experts in Revolutionary War–era sites.
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An environmental impact analysis conducted by a qualified environmental scientist.
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Clarification on seating, storage of athletic equipment (explicitly excluding use of the historic house), and vegetative buffers to shield the field from both the house and nearby properties.
Next Steps
A subcommittee of the NJDEP Historic Sites Council—including members with archaeological expertise—was formed to review any updated application materials within the 60-day review period. If the village resubmits with sufficient revisions, the project may be reconsidered with required mitigation measures.
Balancing Recreation and History
The Schedler property, located off Route 17, is historically significant for its connections to the Revolutionary War and its preserved landscape. Community members and preservationists have raised concerns that a synthetic turf complex could permanently alter the site’s historic integrity.
The NJDEP emphasized that while recreational needs are important, development at historically protected properties must carefully balance preservation, environmental stewardship, and community use.
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time to wave the white flag
They won’t…Peewee is a cockroach, he will keep at it until he delivers what his friends want.
Not happening.
Pee-Wee is nothing more than a greasy small-town clown.
He’s not fooling the DEP or SHPO.
Keep trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
Seems to me the original community based plan would be the answer.
I guess the library doesn’t offer a class in how to properly prepare an application to NJDEP.
If they did offer a class at the library, as Ms Winograd rudely suggested to a senior member of our community, then the members of the historic sites council from the NJD.EP would also have to attend, as they specifically stated that they didn’t understand the dimensions of many of the elements of a new proposal that Kazmark tried to float. The council didn’t know where the bathrooms had been moved to, and while the parking lot had been expanded, they didn’t know how many new spots were created. Lots of gaps in information, huh, Keith?
The village manager has tried pretty much everything, using more and more tax dollars to hire more people and companies to bolster this ridiculous plan. An accounting of all of these expenditures should be presented to tax payers so that residents are aware of what is being spent. Nothing seems to be done in a transparent way and it is not right. Cleaning up the contaminated soil should be the priority.
OPRA request would get the expenditure listing. Give it a try. It’s easy.
another example of how the council is pandering to the sport groups..i guess they made a lot of promises to them to get elected
Somebody tell Slobagain Box O Wineograd that the jig is up.
“it’s the ( hicup) Germermans who screwed up this whole process (hicup)
Hey i didn’t get a Harumph out of that guy ( Keith)
The Village Manager made a complete fool of himself.
We spent thousands hiring actual historical experts—people who knew their craft—to outline exactly what needed to be done. The result? Our house and property earned official historical designation.
Then, in waltz the council and their “manager,” clowns in suits, who promptly burned through even more taxpayer dollars on so-called experts—really just their pals in disguise. And after all that? They walked away with egg on their faces, right back where we started, only poorer for the detour.
It all started with our current mayor who had promised this field to the sports community who rallied to vote him in. He promised to make it even bigger and better, then the original agreed upon plan and to push for turf. It should be known as bionic field because like the bionic man, they made him bigger and better than he was before. But important to note, that before paul vagianos actually got voted in as mayor he got evan Weitz and Whinograd to run so that they would help push the larger field through. He was also introduced to peter primavera, who was a historic consultant that thevillage spent many thousands of dollars paying, to come up with ridiculous schemes l8ke delisting the property’s historic significance. That introduction was made by the mayor’s good friend Gail Price.So we have her to thank for that. Many thousands of dollars later, or should I say, hundreds of thousands of dollars later, we still are getting denied on this plan and there are hundreds of pounds of contaminated soil that will need to be cleaned up for over a million dollars or more to be determined. Because of the mayor’s selfish “go big or go home attitude” taxpayers are on the hook? Four many bonds that have not even started the clock ticking.Just wait until that hits and see how much your taxes will be. All of the callers in support of the field at the hearing made it clear that they only care about getting a field to attract visitors to the historic house in which the village seeks to hire additional staff to support, more taxpayer dollars, essentially. I think the real question here is when is enough enough. Or is it never enough for a town that seems to be so obsessed with sports that they would be willing to do anything for a field?
The Council’s pet “manager” stumbled in like a clown at the wrong tent. The grand result? Nothing but egg on their faces and mud on our history. How embarrassing!
He is Vagianos puppet.
Vagianos did a favor by hiring him without competitive job posting and giving him a 200K+ job and health insurance and a full time assistant who goes around with him clicking pictures to build his political profile.. all using Ridgewood Tax Payer money!
Ha ha.
Now the village knows how to prepare a permit/document towards any state agencies. They just placed stupid, they play games, oh I didn’t know, we didn’t know, oh, I wasn’t sure, sometimes certain things squeeze through the cracks. But not at this time, a DEP is watching like a hawk. The village is so tarnished no one will ever trust them again. Nothing is going to be approved until all the contamination is removed. Put up a new safety card along route 17, and then at the same time deal with state agencies on what will pass what will not. But don’t forget the village still needs to address the health issue that’s going on., Remember none of us know how long the contamination will affect us, this is something back in pop up 10 years from now. So as we all keep reading about this sad situation, just keep a back of your mind that this case will be kept open For extremely long time and the village will be at fault in all the ways just like employees work that 911 twin Tower site and neighbors at that location 23 years later all the health and well-being will be covered and it’s amazing still at this time the mayor council And management are not admitting their guilt. Which is understandable because they’re listening to the attorneys. Well guess what the village better prepare for big budget a separate line item for health and lawsuits. This is not going on underneath the rug in village Hall, this is not going to bed, And no one‘s putting the nails in the coffin on this one. The incident goes back to 2018, so everyone that was in charge mayor, council, management, somehow someway they will be responsible. They can’t just say I didn’t know. Stop playing, stupid, we have all the reports, all the documentation, all the recordings, visual, and audio, so like I said, we are 10 steps ahead of you. And you wonder why the piece of paper and pencil defeated the village . When everyone was laughing about the pencil, who was laughing now. We told you we were 10 steps ahead of the village, we weren’t trust in anyone, now we know that there was a reason why certain computers were erased or destroyed, that was one way for them to remove their guilt. Didn’t think someone was writing everything down with a pencil and paper. Like it was 1950. An individual set of few years ago. Remember, you woke up a sleeping bear, everything was going smooth until they screwed around with this individual and that individual knows where all the skeletons are, and who put them there. Enjoy your weekend because I will.☠️
Let’s spend the rest of our lives and all our property tax money on this.
I now wish the town had never bought it.
Glen School. Perfect location. Minimal tree removal required.
Paulie?
It’s right by Pee Wee’s house, that will never happen LOL He has no problem doing it to other residents, just not him
That’s a 46×60 baseball field.
I thought they ‘needed’ a 60×90 field ?
Bait and switch…the Peewee method.
Exactly we will not stop until the mayor council and manager address the issue regarding all employees past and present that worked at those locations. Be addressed. This is a major health issue.
There should actually be a class action lawsuit that is a combination of village workers who were mandated to go there. In addition to all the residents who live in the community that will be rebreathing and contaminated. Soil dust four years to come. Let’s ask Evan Weitz if there’s a bond for that?
Boy, the talk of the town is the village better come up with some kind of a plan with finance regarding health testing for the employees, and potential lawsuits
#1 You can’t talk about fields unless there is evidence of exactly how many kids, for which sports are we talking about and do we know how many games can be played in a given day. Is that 20 kids and 2 games a day? Is it just Muller’s private group of 1700 kids? A Schedler field will not solve for all of the 5000+ kids attending school. What exactly are we solving for? Random, random, random numbers that are not quantified. Without this data, we have no idea how big the field needs to be . My understanding is we don’t have an accurate database collecting this data – so how do we know??
#2 Kudos for SHPO DEP for telling the town that the BOE and Muni need to work together to resolve. In total there are 45 playing fields. Again where is the math and statistics X kids / Y Fields? It’s all just blah blah blah
Scottie sounded pathetic Thursday. I actually felt sorry for him.
Talk about needing a new hobby.
Or a shrink.
The turfed fields at Stevens and Maple Fields are exclusively reserved for Soccer and Lacrosse. Baseball is not welcome.
There are currently less than 5400 children enrolled in the Ridgewood Public school system.
Not all of them play sports.
I would actually like to see the Village Manager command an actual official accounting of the membership records of each of the sports organizations and for them to produce their official records. If the sports organizations are legit and have nothing to hide, there should be willingly produced and officially certified so that it is on record in order to inform Ridgewood taxpayers, before spending another dollar of their hard earned money, can better understand the following:
How many children from the village of Ridgewood are enrolled in these membership programs?
How many children from outside of the village of Ridgewood are enrolled in their programs?
It is only fair if the village of Ridgewood taxpayers are footing the bill for this park and field that they these sports organizations like RBSA, Maroons Soccer, lacrosse, demanding then we need to be supplied with these official statistic certified in writing and presented at a council meeting.
Otherwise this is a smoke show where there is no transparency and no accountability whatsoever, and I believe at this point, Ridgewood, residents are tired of this game, No pun intended.
But speaking with members of the DEP, conversation, the village tried to blow off the list of employees and residence that may be affected. Engineering and supervision fellow employees-know exactly who is working at these locations. It’s amazing how they walk around with the head up in the air like they don’t know. They exactly know and from our investigation we will further that list to the state officials. Once again we have to step on the toes of the village officials because they’re not doing their job. That’s OK that’s why we are always many steps ahead of them. Even their legal advisors. They’re not that good. And to individuals that are putting thumbs down uncertain comments I guess you don’t like the truth. Well that’s too damn bad.
All I know is that if they build it, it will flood. Guaran-dam-teed.
Kazshark is a shift on the fly kind of dude submitting plan after plan. What are suburban engineerings billable hour or do we het a flat rate? I’d be willing to bet either Keith , Carol. Bokowski or another one of his peeps were lin8ng up the next set of henchmen to answer the questions that the historic sites council was asking. And I’m more than sure they’ll give him an extra helping of special sauce. You know that keith has mark’s special sauce, where he makes everything up. Isn’t it an embarrassment at this point, plus the fact that half of the information in that application are not accurate? How much more money can the village of Ridgewood throw at this, keith?
The elected officials we have on this present day council, Mayor Paul Vagianos, Deputy Mayor Pam Perron, Evan Weitz, Siobhan Winograd, Frank Mortimer, village manager Keuth Kazmark and Heather Mailander and some village staff members who participated in this charade, each have breached professional ethics with tax dollars. It us an understatement to sat that they each lack character, they have lied to and deceived the public all the while spending and advocating for tax dollars to be spent by the village manager to promote this field is shocking and is an egregious overspend and over reach of authoritative power at the munipipal level.
All I can say, isRidgewood has become an embarrassment throughout the state. Everyone’s talking about it right from the Governor straight down. They know ,they will see. 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍🖕🏼🫵🏼