Woodcliff Park's Second Fall: How the Borough's Only Park Became Its Town Square
When Woodcliff Park opened on May 3, 2025, several hundred residents were on the lawn. Mayor Carlos Rendo summed up the park's purpose in one word: community.
Seventeen months later, that word has a calendar behind it. The 2.1 acres at Werimus Road and Woodcliff Avenue are the borough's first and only municipally owned park. Parks and Recreation Director Ryan Magee calls it Woodcliff Lake's central meeting place, and the Pascack Press reported this August that it now hosts concerts, festivals, holiday observances and everyday walks. This is its second fall, and the borough's business this fall keeps coming back to that corner.
For years the site was the Galaxy Gardens nursery and a service station. It had to be cleaned up before anyone could safely spread a blanket on it. The Pascack Press account lays out the full cost:
| Stage | Amount |
|---|---|
| Land purchase, 2018 | $1.65 million |
| Environmental cleanup | about $500,000 |
| Construction | $2.75 million |
| Legal settlement tied to the acquisition | $1.5 million |
| Total, excluding soft costs | about $6.4 million |
| Bergen County Open Space Trust Fund grants, 2015 to 2021 | more than $746,000, including $500,000 toward the land |
The work took nearly a decade of planning, buying the property, remediation, fundraising and construction. For that, the borough got a one-sixth-mile walking track, a veterans monument area, a gazebo, a bandshell, restrooms, benches and a broad central lawn. The lawn was designed for both scheduled events and everyday use.
The settlement alone was almost as large as the land price. That makes the park one of the larger civic investments a borough of this size has made in recent memory. The more interesting question is what that money has turned into.
The Woodcliff Wednesdays Summer Concert Series ran weekly through summer 2026, and Pascack Press tracked the crowds. A typical night drew about 75 to 80 people. Nick DiBari Music played to roughly 75 on July 8, Gerard and Diane Barros to about 75 on July 22, and the local band 10 Nickels to about 80 the following week, even though heavy rain had stopped only an hour before.
Measured against that, two nights stand out:
The watch party drew close to four times a normal concert crowd in heat that would have kept most people indoors. It also wasn't a concert. The lawn was simply set up as a place to watch something together. Built-in flexibility like that is what makes a park work as a town square.
The season also showed how the park works with the borough's other civic building. When a storm threatened a July 15 opera performance by a Woodcliff Lake resident, the program moved to the Senior Community Center. About 50 people followed it there. RockSkafari, led by a borough resident, closed the series on Aug. 12. On Aug. 21, True Blue Theatre Company staged "Twelfth Night" as the borough's first Shakespeare in the Park. That production came about after a Woodcliff Lake director approached the borough soon after the park was finished.
Magee said the local lineup was deliberate:
"That was intentional. The goal has always been to create programming that showcases local talent while giving residents an opportunity to gather, reconnect and celebrate together."
On Sept. 26, the summer ended with the borough's Oktoberfest at Woodcliff Park. It ran from 3 to 8 p.m. and was billed with live music, food trucks, a beer and hard-seltzer garden and family activities.
The newest item on the borough's agenda is a change to the road beside the park. Ordinance 26-14 adds a mid-block crosswalk on Woodcliff Avenue. Its centerline would sit about 270 feet east of Werimus Road's northerly curbline, on the block just past the intersection where the park sits.
The council introduced it on Sept. 16. According to a meeting recap, the ordinance came up alongside an Oct. 2 paving-bid opening and the engineer's recommendations for pedestrian controls. Neither the ordinance nor the recap names the park as the reason. What they show is a new pedestrian crossing planned for the stretch of road where the borough now holds its largest gatherings.
Woodcliff Avenue is a county road, which affects timing. Under the ordinance text, the crosswalk must be signed and marked under the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices and to plans approved by Bergen County. It takes effect only after final passage, publication and a concurring county resolution. Final consideration is set for Monday, Oct. 19, at 7 p.m. at Borough Hall, 188 Pascack Road, where the public can be heard.
The park now anchors the borough's public life, but it doesn't host everything. The rest of this fall's dates fall along Chestnut Ridge Road, Pascack Road and Kinderkamack Road. In date order:
The Oct. 24 festival and the Oct. 13 Candidates' Night are both on Chestnut Ridge Road, at two addresses 30 numbers apart. Between that cluster and the park, the borough's public events now have two main locations.
Last year, the park's fall and winter dates set its seasonal routine. The borough held its 2025 Halloween Parade at Woodcliff Park on Oct. 26 at 3 p.m., with a costume parade, music and giveaways. As of Oct. 10, the borough pages we reviewed had not listed a 2026 date.
The holiday season follows the same pattern. According to the August Pascack Press report, the park has already hosted the borough's Christmas tree lighting and menorah lighting, plus the Easter egg hunt and SpringFest. For the 2025 tree lighting, the borough asked Our Lady Mother of the Church and Christ Lutheran Church to co-sponsor and co-host the event at the park. The 2026 dates for both lightings hadn't been posted in the sources we reviewed. Given the park's track record, they will most likely be held at the same lawn and bandshell, but the borough calendar will confirm.
These dates will matter more in the second winter. Over the 2025 holidays the park was brand new, and families were still trying it out. In 2026, the park goes into the holidays with a full summer season behind it: a nearly 300-person watch party, a first Shakespeare production and an Oktoberfest. The council is also voting this month on a crosswalk for the block beside it.
Want to know how a new civic anchor like Woodcliff Park fits into the value of a home on a nearby street? Keren Abraham has followed Woodcliff Lake's market for more than two decades and can walk you through what she's seeing. Let's make it happen. Get your free home valuation.
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