Bernardsville School Field Plan Postponed Before Planning Board

The Bernardsville Planning Board hearing on the Somerset Hills Board of Education's plans for an extension of the lower athletic field behind Bernards High School, on the agenda for Thursday night, will be rescheduled to another date, possibly Dec. 19, according to a group seeking to halt the expansion.

ACRES, a citizens group that has raised questions about stormwater mangement, potential flooding and other environmental issues related to the proposal, reportedly had been planning to attend the meeting with an attorney, Dan Somers, and John Thonet, environmental engineer, said Jeanne DePodwin, a founder of ACRES.

ACRES also had instituted a lawsuit against the plan last April, naming the school district and Bernardsville Council, raising procedural and environmental challenges such as whether the Borough Council improperly had granted the school district a waiver from the municipal tree ordinance in regard to the cutting of trees.

On Thursday, ACRES attorney Dan Somers said that he just that had received the order from State Superior Court Judge Yolanda Ciccone dismissing ACRES' lawsuit. The judge did not specify the reason for the dismissal, and had reserved judgement during an earlier court hearing, Somers said.

However, Somers said the group will continue to pursue its questions with the state Department of Environmental Protection, as well as at a municipal level.

"The matter now rests with the municipality and with the state," Somers said.

For example, he said ACRES already has filed an appeal with the Office of Regulatory Affairs of the state DEP against a ruling that a permit regarding wetlands is not needed for an area with two intermittent waterways that later were described as tributaries of the nearby Penns Brook.

Somers also said that a borough engineer concurs that recalculations are needed for the project's calculated stormwater impact.