Ridgewood has a new plan for the Schedler-Zabriskie property. See the details

RIDGEWOOD — The newest proposal for overlapping sports fields on artificial turf north of the historic Zabriskie-Schedler house was unveiled at the Village Council's work session Wednesday.

The new proposal calls for an adult-size 75-by-110-yard soccer field overlaid with a 120-by-64-yard lacrosse field and a youth-size 40-by-60-foot baseball diamond. The plan calls for about 186 trees to be removed on the 7-acre site. Off-street parking for 27 cars to would be supplemented by an additional 18 spaces on West Saddle River Road.

A vote on the plan is expected at next Wednesday's regular meeting, along with a proposed contract extension for consultant Peter Primavera and a Phase 1 archeological survey of the site by Richard Grubb & Associates.

The Village Council approved the concept in March, but Primavera gave members a choice in July of first moving the house or submitting a more traditional development plan to the State Historic Preservation Office. The council has chosen the more traditional application route.

Of 13 residents who spoke on the project, 10 were against it, objecting to the removal of trees, the impact of artificial turf on private wells, and the method of choosing professionals.

"You're stripping the neighborhood of everything we hold dear," said Cynthia O'Keefe of West Saddle River Road. "You are taking away our right to clean air and clean water."

But Rurik Halaby of Franklin Avenue called the property "one big dump" that had been allowed to linger since it was purchased in 2008, and urged the council to proceed with its upgrades.

"There is nothing dear about the property," Halaby said. "The trees offer no protection from noise or sun seven months of the year. A grass field still needs fertilizer and chemicals, plus gas mowers at least once a week. And the inside of the house is only large enough for a wedding of gerbils."

What's taking so long?

The property came on the market after the death of owner Florence Schedler in 2007. A conceptual plan made in 2008 retained more trees, calling for an adult-size 75-by-125-yard multipurpose field overlaid with a 60-by-90-foot adult-size baseball diamond, with 80 off-street parking spots.

Village Council minutes from that fall indicate that residents supported the property's purchase, but more to prevent its development as a commercial strip mall or affordable housing. Whether that open space became parks or sports fields, both received praise as future uses.

The village bought the property in 2009 for $2.7 million, offset by a $1.57 million open space grant, which required the property to be used for active recreation. In 2013, a 0.36-acre of land in the middle of the site, owned by the Shotmeyer family, was bought for $90,000. An economic downturn and the need to acquire this parcel may have contributed to a delay in deciding what to do with the property.

TURF FIELD FAVORED Ridgewood moves forward with controversial artificial turf fields at historic property

In 2015, the Village Council passed a resolution approving the recommendation by its Open Space Committee for the development of the property, which included the adult-size multipurpose field overlaid with an adult-size baseball diamond. But in 2017, during the first term of Mayor Susan Knudsen, the council inexplicably rescinded the 2015 resolution and appointed an ad hoc committee to "re-analyze the proposed plan."

Resident Don Delzio filed two conflict-of-interest complaints against Knudsen in February 2017, one of them accusing Knudsen of delaying approval of sports field development on the Schedler site because her parents lived within 200 feet of the property. The complaints against Knudsen were dismissed in January 2018, but by then the ad hoc committee had returned its December 2017 report calling for a more subdued youth-size multipurpose field on the site, retaining a maximum number of trees and no diamond overlay.

The circa-1825 house was placed on the New Jersey Register of Historic Places in August 2019 and the national register that November. It is one of Bergen County's few remaining 19th-century Dutch wood-frame homes.

The land was landmarked separately somewhere between 2020 and 2021, but for a different reason. It is within a quarter-mile of the Old Paramus Reformed Church, where George Washington kept a headquarters at various stages of the Revolutionary War. There is ongoing speculation that artifacts of the era remain in the area, stimulating the call for an archeological survey of the property.

Restoration work began in 2019, but a year later Councilman Jeff Voigt labeled the project a "sinkhole." So far, $4 million of the $7 million appropriated for restoring the Schedler property has been spent: $3 million on the property, $623,276 on the field and $330,771 on the house.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Here's Ridgewood's latest plan for Schedler-Zabriskie property