RIDGEWOOD — The state Historic Preservation Office has declared that the village's 1,200-page application to install a grass playing field north of the Zabriskie-Schedler residence is “not yet technically and professionally complete and sufficient.” .
The four-page letter, dated March 22, from Jennifer Raines, the agency's program specialist, is posted on the city's website. This is her response to the village's Feb. 16 application, also posted on the website, as an application with four additions as appendices.
When hired in April 2023, consultant Peter Primavera predicted that the application he was tasked with compiling would be completed by the end of 2023. In February, Village Mayor Keith Kazmark said the application was delayed because “our experts wanted to make sure we communicated it to the government.” The whole story. ”
However, according to Raines' letter, the agency still does not know the “full picture” and still needs to:
purpose statement. The application “lacks a unified, coherent and cogent statement of the purpose of the proposed development,” Raines wrote. Unanswered questions include a list of existing fields, current usage, field sizes and user ages by sport, organizations using the current fields, expected ages and users for new fields, and number of games played. and analysis of a number of existing fields. .
Raines pointed out that the initials were repeatedly mentioned in an application for field use by one group, RJFA, without explanation of what they stood for. Abbreviation for Ridgewood Junior Football Association. This information is key to assessing the “public interest” of the proposal, Raines said.
Alternative proposal. The agency has provided details of alternative designs being considered for the site, including the 2002 concept plan, the 2022 plan developed in consultation with the agency, and alternatives to the current grass field proposal to replace the grass field. , asked for an explanation as to why it was unacceptable. . There is no mention of the much-discussed plan for a small grass field in December 2017, which is already included in the application (pages 45-53).
archaeological. Grubb & Associates' survey “remains technically deficient” and was conducted “without prior knowledge” of Hunter Research's 2023 archaeological monitoring report on the area. State officials are concerned that the area beneath the recently added fill “remains unsampled for the presence or absence of contributing archaeological deposits.”
Preliminary metal testing did not detect anything related to the Revolutionary War, but the rest of the park “remains highly sensitive to Revolutionary War military artifacts” and warrants further research. is necessary. Raines said metal detection may not be able to properly assess objects more than a foot below the surface.
Relevance. The supporting letters in Appendix 3 (Appendix 1, pages 56-109) and Appendix 17 (Appendix 2, pages 144-206) total 115 pages. But only four of those letters are for 2023 supporting the current full-size turf field. The remaining sections date from 2020 or 2021 and support the restoration of the historic mansion and are “unrelated to current operations.” In fact, it includes letters of support from City Council members Lorraine Reynolds and Pamela Perron. The women wrote a letter in favor of restoring the mansion, but have since voiced public opposition to the current grass field proposal.
plan submittedRidgewood submits plans for Schedler Sports Field to New Jersey Historic Preservation Office
In contrast, Addendum 3 to the application contains a 310-page petition for the current project. Addendum 4 begins with another 118 pages of petition against the project, followed by 167 pages of his 2023 letter objecting to the current project or its testing methods. This amounts to a total of 595 pages opposing the project, or almost half of the application.
missing information. The letter questions why Hunter Research, Connelly & Hickey, and Burton Ross AIA are listed in the table of contents, but their resumes are not included. The agency has a complete list of statewide and local organizations interested in the project, including the Schedler Friends of Ridgewood and the Captain Abraham Godwin Chapter of the New Jersey Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, which serves Bergen and Passaic counties. I'm looking for.
In her letter, Raines asked for a Department of Environmental Protection report on a wetlands assessment on the property, not a statement from the village engineer about what was found. The agency is seeking the village's project budget and funds disbursed to date, as promised in Appendix 18 (Appendix 2, pages 207-208). But the one-page statement currently only includes links to websites about where to apply for federal and state aid and, inexplicably, low- and moderate-income housing assistance.
“We will make the requested changes, provide additional information, and submit updates,” Mayor Kazmark said in a statement.
Consultant Primavera did not respond to requests for comment.
