By Charles Layton
THURSDAY, March 24 — Lawyers said in court today that they may soon agree on a plan to save the dilapidated Park View Inn.
“I think we’re very close,” Neptune Township Attorney Gene Anthony told Municipal Court Judge Robin Wernik.
“I’m hoping we’re close,” chimed in Michelle Lamar, attorney for owners Marshall and Elliott Koplitz, who have been in a bitter, years-long struggle with the Township over the building’s steady decline.
Judge Wernik scheduled an April 2 telephone conference with the two attorneys, at which time they will report on their progress toward an agreement.
Anthony told me later that he and Lamar had gone over the terms orally, and that the next step would be for him to put the deal in writing so Lamar and her clients could review it. He said the agreement would encompass all of the code violations the Koplitz brothers have amassed over the years and would set a timetable for the complete reconstruction of the building.
Park View Inn, at 23 Sea View Avenue
Before the owners can begin reconstruction they will need approvals from the Historic Preservation Commission and the Zoning Board of Adjustment. Anthony said his proposed agreement would stipulate deadlines for the owners to apply to those boards, followed by a timetable for the actual reconstruction. The agreement will include large fines for failure to meet any of those deadlines, he said.
“I’m looking at such large sanctions that there’s encouragement for them to do it,” Anthony said. He seemed confident that the two sides would soon reach an agreement, which the court would then enforce.
In any case, today’s hearing marks the closest the Township has yet come to ending the Koplitzes’ long-time flouting of maintenance codes and laws.
The Park View Inn, at 23 Sea View Avenue, was once a hotel with 36 rental units. The Koplitzes, of Englewood Cliffs, NJ, purchased it from local owners in 2005. Almost immediately they began coming in conflict with the Township’s Department of Code Enforcement.
In 2007, the Township took the Koplitzes to court over code violations at the Park View. The owners were supposed to make improvements as a result of that court action, but on December 18, 2009, Anthony stated in a letter to the owners’ attorney that the building remained in disrepair, had “numerous violations” of the maintenance code and appeared to be “creating an eminent danger of failure or collapse.”
The owners and the Township have been butting heads ever since, as penalties continued to accumulate and the owners remained defiant. Inspections of the building’s exterior continued to reveal such problems as windows with large, gaping holes open to the ravages of the weather.
The owners have also failed to pay their taxes on the Park View. As of this week, according to the tax office, they owe more than $60,000 for the years 2009, 2010 and 2011, and there is a lien on the property.
Last year the owners got a permit to demolish the interior on the second and third floors, preparatory to rehabbing the property as a hotel/restaurant. However, little progress seems to have been made on that plan.
Last July a group of 33 neighbors presented a petition to the Township expressing “deep concern” over the Park View’s condition. “For the past six years,” the petition said, “this building has appeared to be abandoned by its owners. Paint is peeling, windows are broken or boarded up with unattractive plywood, the fire escape is rusted and unsafe, gutters are broken and hanging, porch columns are broken… We are concerned because the building may become a fire problem.”
In January of this year, a neighbor told Blogfinger that a pair of possums was living inside the place.
The Koplitz brothers have a history of allowing properties they own — in Ocean Grove and elsewhere — to become public nuisances. They let one of their properties, the old Sampler Inn on Main Avenue, deteriorate to the point that in 2009 a court gave the Township permission to demolish it.
Well, certainly having a central-station or hardwired fire alarm perit issued and the alarm installed certainly does speak to the safety of the neighbors. That way, should a fire break out, the OGFD will be notified immediately and it can be dealt with faster than waiting for it to flash over, break the windows and spread to neighboring properties.
None of the above speaks to the “safety of the neighbors.” There is so much work required to rehab this building. Time is of the essence here and I suspect that this project will not move forward rapidly unless all involved put their committed honest, efforts into making OG a safe place to live in.
Tax liens have been sold on the Parkview. Under New Jersey statute, the owner of the property has two years to pay back the lienholder or the lienholder may foreclose on the property.
Speaking from my personal perspective, I’d rather force repairs on the building to bring it up to Code than stick the owners with fines that prevent them from doing permitted, quality work on the building. I want the neighbors safe, first and foremost, and then we can worry about punitive damages. This has not been a cheap process for any of the parties involved, believe me.
The cottage was razed due to severe fire damage as it was assessed unsafe by Code and the Fire Department. Sadly, there was no way around it.
re; COTTAGE ON SURF.
IT LOOKED LIKE THE REAR OF THE COTTAGE WAS DESTROYED BY THE FIRE, WHEN VIEWED FROM ATLANTIC.
I SAW THEM CUTTING IT UP….
VERY CARFULLY………..
I THOUGHT THEY WERE GOING TO KEEP THE FRONT PORTION.
CARL
The front of the cottage was fine. The rear was damaged in the fire.
Carol — When taxes are owed on a property, the Township sells the lien to a company. So the Township gets its money, and then the company usually holds the lien for years rather than foreclosing on the property, because interest continues to accumulate. Eventually, of course, the lien holder gets its money, because the property owner can’t do much of anything with the property — sell it, get a zoning change, etc. — without satisfying the lien.
(I believe I’ve got that straight. If not, someone correct me.)
Ken-In any case I wouldn’t be surprised.There’s always an angel somewhere.
Who did authorize the demo of the cottage if not the HPC?
Carol: Buying tax liens does not give the lien holder the right to take possession and develop the property. This was the situation years back with the Main Avenue House: the “hotel” which dispensed meds out of a common bowl. Taking possession of such an “asset” incurs with it all the problems and liabilities on the property: back taxes; mortgages; worker and vendor liens, etc.–Nobody was willing to take that on. I doubt anyone is willing to take on The Park View either.
ken
Charles-
The pictures of the aftermath clearly show the cottage still standing. It is my understanding that the HPC has to give permission to demolish or after an engineers report the zoning people (at the owners’ expense) you can get permitted. Seems this demo was accomplished with great speed. While others take quite a lot of paperwork.
I see the possibility of no fines if an agreement is made…. only fines if an agreement is broken. Code enforcement was on their case “almost immediately” since the 2005 purchase, that’s SIX years; a scofflaw can really drag it out. Does somebody know what laws can be added to speed things up? The Township seems hamstrung with what is on the books now. To any lawyers out there…..please comment with some free advice.
Hi Charles and Gail… The last I saw of that cottage it looked just fine to me. In fact, I have a picture of it after the fire. I was happy to see that it survived the blaze. But it was no longer there the last time I looked.
Gail — The cottage at 27 Surf was a victim of the 3/11 fire, wasn’t it?
By the way, does anyone know how the “historic ” cottage at 27 Surf Ave was demolished in the last couple of days but others need weeks to get approval for same? Charles L please comment.
I was under the impression that properties with tax liens could be sold from out under the property owner for the price of the taxes owed. If that’s the case, why not have a tax lien sale and let one of OG’s developers buy it?
The Park View Inn is another bldg that has fallen through the cracks. In the name of historic preservation and bureaucracy it will remain as 27 Surf Ave, did until some awful event. The township should have ordered that it be demolished long ago and ended the danger to the surrounding neighbors.