Park or Athletic Complex? Ridgewood Council Unveils Final Schedler Design Amid Growing Resident Concerns
screen grabs Village of Ridgewood
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
RIDGEWOOD, NJ — The long and winding journey of the historic Zabriskie-Schedler property is rapidly moving toward its next chapter, but not without a fresh wave of local controversy.
During this week’s workshop session, the Ridgewood Village Council officially reviewed the final design plans for the site. While municipal leaders celebrated a major milestone—recent approval from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to move forward with construction—local residents are voicing sharp criticisms over what the “park” will actually become.
The property, originally purchased by the Village in 2009 with the dual intent of creating a park and an athletic field, has faced numerous regulatory and environmental hurdles over the past 17 years. According to local officials, the extensive, multi-million dollar soil remediation project currently underway at the site is projected to wrap up within the next few weeks. Once the soil is clear and the NJDEP conducts its final review of the blueprints, the project will go out to bid, with construction potentially starting by the end of 2026.
However, the latest design rendering has left many neighborhood advocates and taxpayers questioning the true balance of the space.
Turf Debate: A Park or a Commercial Sports Complex?
The primary point of contention among critics is the sheer scale of the planned turf baseball field and accompanying parking infrastructure. Looking at the marketing renderings presented at Wednesday’s meeting, residents note that the massive athletic footprint leaves very little traditional passive park space for the general public.
“The council was proud to call this a park during the meeting, when it’s really an athletic complex,” noted one local observer.
Furthermore, residents point out that the presentation conveniently lacked crucial engineering specifics. The rendering omitted exact dimensions of the synthetic turf field, placement indicators for necessary stormwater management containers, and structural details.
Safety, Proximity to Route 17, and Residential Impact
Beyond the aesthetic and structural balance, major safety and quality-of-life concerns are taking center stage:
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The Route 17 Danger Zone: The proximity of the baseball diamond configuration to Route 17 is raising immediate red flags. With no clear netting layout or field dimensions provided, neighbors are questioning how the village plans to ensure that errant foul balls don’t fly directly into high-speed traffic on the adjacent highway.
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Proximity to Residential Homes: New self-cleaning public restrooms and expansive parking spaces appear positioned just feet away from neighboring residential property lines, sparking privacy and noise concerns for nearby homeowners.
As the village prepares to finalize the plans and transition from environmental cleanup to physical construction, residents are calling for greater transparency, clear dimensions, and concrete engineering answers before the project officially goes out to public bid.
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Looks terrible, and the truth has come out.
The berm was removed to make room for the field.
Looks as balanced as Habernickle field. That park is mostly a field that is used for baseball, soccer and a plethora of community sports Also has a very active business that operates 6 days a week, 60 hours a week. This business hosts 2-3 large school buses a day for field trips from all over along with paying customers for a bunch of classes. this is not welcomed by the neighbors, it is extremely loud, but sadly it happens at the cost of tax payers and the financial gain of the owner of the private business. The schedler plans look nice but YES it will affect the neighborhood a lot but we all know the powers that be do not care at all for the people they should be serving!
That home plate is awfully close to Rt 17, a major trucking thoroughfare. Who in their right mind would want their kids to play baseball there. How is that considered safe?? How can they even hear anything with the roar of traffic just feet away???