The New Jersey village of Ridgewood has proposed to build an adult-sized synthetic turf sports field north of the Zabriskie-Schedler house, but the state's Department of Environmental Protection's Historic Preservation Office has declared that plan an "encroachment" on the historic structure, the state said in a May 29 letter.
The amenities are "incompatible with the size, scale and materials of the historic property and therefore do not meet the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties," reads the letter sent May 29 from the Historic Preservation Office's administrator Katherine Marcopul to village manager Keith Kazmark, as reported by northjersey.com.
The New Jersey village of Ridgewood has proposed to build an adult-sized synthetic turf sports field north of the Zabriskie-Schedler house, but the state's Department of Environmental Protection's Historic Preservation Office has declared that plan an  "encroachment" on the historic structure, the state  said in a May 29 letter.
The amenities are "incompatible with the size, scale and materials of the historic property and therefore do not meet the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties," reads the letter sent May 29 from the Historic Preservation Office's administrator Katherine Marcopul to village manager Keith Kazmark, as reported by northjersey.com.
"Though it's not the final word on the plan approved by the Village Council in April 2023, Marcopul suggested steps local officials can take to 'strengthen' their proposal in anticipation of a June 19 review by the advisory New Jersey Historic Sites Council," northjersey.com's Marsha Stoltz wrote.
Steps include:
- Enhanced planting plan for a landscape screen between the house and the proposed athletic field.
- Comfort station plans, specifications and renderings.
- Specifications for lighting, benches, bleachers and other park furniture.
- Analysis of alternative plans, particularly one for a 50-by-75-yard child-size grass field initially proposed in 2017.
- Compatibility of grass versus synthetic turf on a property that "historically possessed an agricultural setting."
- Analysis of parking spaces proposed as they relate to the field's size and proposed use.
- Remediation plan for removal of 11,020 cubic yards of contaminated soil brought to the site in 2018 to 2019 for a 1,100-foot-long berm and fill of low-lying areas.
Kazmark said May 30 that the village "looks forward to presenting our application to the Historic Sites Council on June 19, after many years of significant discussion and plan iterations regarding the Schedler property,” Stoltz reported.
According to the New Jersey Historical Trust, "The Zabriskie-Schedler House was originally constructed circa 1825 and was the home of farmer John A. L. Zabriskie. The house is an example of a late third-period Dutch-American frame building and exhibits several characteristics of the type including a construction date of c.1752-c.1840, was built by the “Dutch” cultural group, is south facing, follows the Dutch framing tradition, uses a gambrel roof for the main block and gable roof on the wing, uses native sandstone for the foundation material, uses oak timbers for heavy framing members, has interior end fireplaces, and has plaster ceiling finishes at the interior. The house survives as one of the few remaining nineteenth-century frame homes in Ridgewood."
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