Citizens Group Files Legal Challenge to School Athletic Field

A citizens group has filed a legal challenge to the Somerset Hills Board of Education's plans to build a new grass field by existing baseball and softball fields on the "lower field" at disputing a waiver granted to cut trees on the property and also asking to ensure that state and federal regulations are properly met.

"All we are asking is that they step back and take a look at this," said Jeanne DePodwin of Old Colony Road, who with her husband started Active Citizens for Responsible Sustainability, Inc. (ACRES)

She said she would like to see both borough and school officials create an overall strategy for the multiple proposals being discussed for local athletic fields, in a "transparent" way that involves the public.

She said that the group does not oppose an athletic field, but feels any field constructed should be created in a proper way.

Residents of Old Colony Road have described wet conditions on the proposed field site, and have expressed concerns that cutting down hundreds of trees would increase flooding on their properties. But Jeanne DePodwin said on Friday that residents from other sections of towns also have asked questions about another proposal by the school district to build a turf field on borough-owned property behind the Bernardsville Middle School.

She described the group as a "pocket woodlands advocacy group seeks responsible and sustainable land use development..one acre at a time." She declined to say how many residents are members at this time.

Dan Somers, the attorney for ACRES, on Friday said the group filed the legal challenge on April 1 in state Superior Court in Somerville. However, he said no docket number has been assigned to the case, so it has not yet been served on the borough or Somerset Hills school district.

"We are not seeking money damages," Somers emphasized.

Instead, he said the lawsuit challenges a waiver that the Bernardsville Borough Council granted to the Board of Education to cut down trees on the property — which the school board said last week said a count had put at just more than 240. DePodwin said the residents feel that count is an underestimate.

Somers said the group also is challenging the validity of a further amendment to the borough's tree protection ordinance that would allow the school district exemption from seeking some of the required permissions.

The lawsuit also asks that the Board of Education be required to comply with all state and federal regulations regarding the plan, which are primarily environmental regulations, Somers said.

School officials have repeatedly said in public that the plan will not proceed until all regulatory requirements have been met.

But DePodwin said that she feels that the information that the school district has presented is inaccurate, and that a so-called "ditch" on the property is for most of the year a stream.

DePodwin said that she grew up in the area, and the land where the field is on the drawing boards has always been wet, a situation that has caused some of the supposed poor conditions at the baseball field discussed at last week's school board meeting.

ACRES had hired Thonet Associates, environmental planning and engineering experts, to review plans to clear the trees and re-grade the property at the lower fields.

Thonet Associates also documented the existence of the stream, and among other observations, said that some trees on the property are more than 100 years old. The report from the Pittstown-based firm added that the area is a potential habitat for the endangered Indiana bat.

DePodwin added on Friday that she believes that the school district has taken the wrong approach in planning to use offered free fill to construct the field for a relatively inexpensive cost of $50,000 to $100,000 without considering such issues as proper drainage.

She also said she and others feel that the proposed placement of the field on the property should be rotated.

Mayor Lee Honecker and Schools Superintendent Peter Miller could not be reached on Friday for comment on the legal challenge.

However, school board members did say at last week's meeting that rotating the field placement on the property create other problems, including placing the field too close to some bordering properties. DePodwin disputed that point on Friday.