Bulldozers and tears end 14-year fight to save a tract of N.J. woods

"We saw the trucks and we heard them," Hillsdale's Terri Pendergast said. "I would force myself to look and cry my eyes out, because it really affected me."

HILLSDALE -- Terri Pendergast used to enjoy walking her dog in the woods behind her house every day. She'd take a meandering path through the timber, her childhood stomping grounds, to trails leading to the Musquapsink Brook.

For Pendergast, it was a quiet sanctuary she shared with the deer, owls and other animals that made these woods their home. The woods butted up to the back of about 15 homes on Ell Road, turning yards into country oases just 25 miles from New York City.

But in June, those woods were suddenly gone, replaced by a 12-acre bald patch crisscrossed with muddy tire tracks to make way for a housing development.

Pendergast moved back to her childhood home on Ell Road in 2001. The year after she returned, however, a developer applied to subdivide the wooded parcel, a former fruit orchard, and build single-family homes.

That sparked a years-long fight between neighbors of the proposed development and the developer, Caliber Builders.

The dispute reached a resolution after 14 years in June, when Caliber began tearing down the woods behind Pendergast's house. It took only a few weeks to decimate.

"We saw the trucks and we heard them," Pendergast said. "I would force myself to look and cry my eyes out, because it really affected me."

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Caliber Builders first tried to develop the "Golden Orchards" property in 2002, according to facts laid out in a 2013 state Supreme Court decision. The developer filed to build single-family homes, but also pushed the town to allow age-restricted housing.

Hillsdale changed its zoning laws in 2006 to allow for age-restricted housing, prompting Caliber to change gears and proposed the building of 37 age-restricted single family homes, with a road running down the middle.

The plan raised the hackles of Pendergast, who rallied her neighbors on Ell Road, just north of the property, and residents of a condominium community just south.

Residents who opposed the development feared the loss of the bucolic setting and increase in water runoff resulting from the loss of the trees. However, the planning board approved Caliber's application on Jan. 29, 2008.

Despite that, Caliber would not break ground for another eight years, after the Northgate Condominium Association sued the Hillsdale Planning Board.

The suit tried to void the approval because Caliber had used the wrong tax lot numbers when it notified neighbors of its application. It also argued that the design of the roadway didn't comply with state standards.

The court fight traveled all the way up to the state Supreme Court, which ruled against Northgate in 2013. While Northgate continued to fight the development at the local level, the borough allowed Caliber to build in June.

For those who waged the fight against Caliber, the loss hurts. Lori Charkey, director of the Bergen Save the Watershed Action Network, attended planning board meetings to say the development would increase sediment runoff into the Musquapsink, which feeds the Oradell Reservoir via the Pascack Brook.

"It was a very sorrowful outcome for anybody who cares about the local places," Charkey said.

Pendergast she feara water will coming into her basement since Caliber cleared the trees, though she granted that the builder has yet to install a water retention system. She knows that after 14 years of fighting, there fight is likely lost.

"I think it's done," she said. "Can't do much. We tried."

Luciano Trujillo, a neighbor of Pendergast's is more accepting of the outcome.

"In the beginning I wanted to keep the woods, but once the builder got his approval, what are you gonna do?" he said.

Trujillo said the builder had approached residents before construction to explain what would take place and said to come forward with any issues. Pendergast said she never got such a visit.

Stuart Weinberger, president of Caliber Building, did not return calls seeking comment. Likewise, several Hillsdale officials did not return calls.

Pendergast said she would move if not for her job.

"I want to move out of the state," she said. "I'd like to go somewhere that has more concern for the environment."