In Ridgewood, the battle lines have been drawn over the village plan to build an athletic turf field on the historic Zabriskie-Schedler property, a seven-acre tract with roots in the American Revolution that is largest piece of undeveloped land in town.
For 15 years, village officials have been kicking around ideas about turning Zabriskie-Schedler into a combination park and sports field. Ridgewood recently submitted a 1,200-page application to the State Historic Preservation Office seeking permission to build a sports complex, children’s playground and parking lot that would cover almost all of the seven acres.
To some, a big multi-purpose sports field is a project that’s long overdue in a town where many kids play sports. To others, it’s a monstrosity, a big patch of plastic grass that will replace the greenery and desecrate land that may have been a battlefield during the American Revolution.
“We all need fields,” said Ridgewood Mayor Vagianos, the prime mover behind the project. He argues developing Zabriskie-Scheder represents a “once in a generation” chance to build more playing space. “The property was purchased to put a field on it. The last time the village bought a field was 1980. We’re fully built out. There’s no open space left.”
Ridgewood bought the land in 2009, using mostly Bergen County Open Space funds, promising to preserve it as a ‘park,’ with the design to be determined. Opponents say the Vagianos administration is pushing a project that is too big, and that would chop down more than 200 trees, creating a heat island that would worsen air quality. And artificial turf would likely add more toxins to the environment that is cleaning up its well water, opponents say.
“We already have high levels of PFAS, what they call ‘forever chemicals,’ in our drinking water, and this would be a new entry point,” said Jackie Hone, one more than 500 residents who have organized to stop the field. “It is also at a location that runs along a major highway that is providing particulates and more cancer-causing matter into the environment.”
The New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club has joined the fight, with a recent letter to the State Historic Preservation Office urging it to reject the plan.
“This isn’t just a neighborhood issue,” said Cynthia O’Keefe, who lives near the field. “This is about the health and safety of everyone in the community.”
A recent study showed that 44 of Ridgewood’s 52 municipal wells had elevated levels of PFAS, or polyfluroalkyl compounds. Ridgewood, which runs it own water utility, subsequently sued a number of huge chemical companies, among them 3M, E.I. DuPont, and Honeywell International, to pay for the clean-up.
Hone said before anything is built, there should be studies on air quality, whether there’s soil contamination already on the property, and potential danger to the groundwater.
“So far, there has been no concern for public health or the environment. I think it’s reckless and an abuse of power. And I think they [the village council] are denying their fiduciary obligation to at least do the studies.”
Although there are approximately 30,000 artificial turf fields in the United States, there have been concerns about the long-term impact on public health. A study published by the National Institutes of Health found that synthetic turf contains semi-volatile organic chemicals and heavy metals that can leach into the environment, particularly when the carpets are pulled up and dumped in landfills.
But turf companies maintain that the product is safe, reduces water usage and is more durable than grass. Vagianos said turf is cost-effective
.“We do not have the Yankee Stadium grounds crew to keep our fields fresh and green,” he said. “We are doing what the entire country does for high-use fields. We are using artificial turf.”
Ultimately, it’s up to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees historic sites, whether to allow the project. The State Historic Preservation Office is expected to refer the matter to the Historic Sites Council, which after a public hearing will make a recommendation to DEP Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette.
In its application, Ridgewood points to Goffle Brook Park in Hawthorne and Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson as two other historic sites where the DEP has allowed artificial turf. Both sites are on the state and national registers of historic places.
As for the history, both sides agree that the 1825 farmhouse, which is on the state and national register of historic register, and the huge Sugar Maple tree beside it that dates to 1764, must be preserved. But the the sides are split over the rest of the land.
Opponents says the Zabriskie-Schedler tract was likely a battlefield during the American Revolution. The seven acres used to belong to the Old Paramus Reformed Church, which was a Continental Army post and the scene of numerous skirmishes during the war.
On March 23, 1780, about 500 British troops commanded by Lt. John Howard crossed the Saddle River and attacked about 300 Americans perched behind a stone wall at the church. Written accounts by commanders on both sides suggest the battle was brief as the outnumbered Americans fled and the British chose to plunder rather than pursue.
“Howard could not have formed his lines beyond American firing range and led them on the shortest, fastest route from West Saddle River Road to the stone wall without crossing the Schedler Property,” wrote George Wright, a lawyer and local historian who is challenging Ridgewood’s application. Wright in his addendum to the application, accused the village of deliberately downplaying the historical significance of the site.
Ridgewood says there’s no documented evidence – specifically, no maps, no diagrams of the battle – that prove the property had played a part in any of the military encounters. And without that proof, the land shouldn’t be granted the same protection from development as the farmhouse and tree.
“And while it is widely accepted by all that Revolutionary War activities took place in the region, there is absolutely no evidence that any historically significant Revolutionary War activities ever took place on the Schedler property,” Vagianos wrote in his letter to the State Historic Preservation Office. “All historically significant activity took place at the church located on Route 17, not the Schedler property.”
A specialist with the State Historic Preservation office, Vincent Maresca, backed the mayor up. In a letter to Wright, also contained in the application, he said the Old Paramus Reformed Church was “the only landscape feature still present today that can be identified with high confidence regarding the location of this engagement.”
But Wright, the local historian, says the Zabriskie-Schedler tract shouldn’t be viewed as separate from the church, which was entered into the National Register for Historical Places in 1975 for its role in the American Revolution.
“The Village of Ridgewood’s newly-contrived, baseless denial of the Schedler Property’s Revolutionary War history is designed to help it cancel a registered historic site that it now deems inconvenient,” Wright says in the addendum. “The Village now submits its big-field development plan after repeatedly promising to preserve Schedler’s historical, “open space” character and receiving enormous sums from the State of New Jersey and Bergen County to do so.”
Residents thought they had reached a compromise in 2019, when the the village council proposed a smaller field with a children’s playground. But the project got scaled up after Vagianos took over as mayor in 2023, they said.
“We compromised,” said Rohan DeSilva, a resident. “We were going to allow a smaller children’s park. We were promised a bill of goods and now they’re changing everything. And I don’t appreciate the switch.”
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Richard Cowen may be reached at rcowen@njadvancemedia.com.
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