Photo (rear view facing Wesley lake) by citizen reporter Jerald Romine July 9, 2015. Click to read the notice
By Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger
The struggle to deal with the Park View has been going on for about 8 years. At one point the owner Marshall Koplitz agreed to rebuild the property as a hotel, but that fell through. Neptune Township has obtained court orders, levied fines, and taken heat from citizens about how it deals with this situation. Ongoing concerns include the property’s derelict appearance, health dangers (lead in the deteriorating paint), safety issues, vagrants, fire risk, rodents, and neighborhood property values. The last we heard was that the owner had declared bankruptcy.
Now there is this notice stating that an application for demolition of 23 Sea View Avenue has been filed with Neptune Twp. The architect named on the notice is Stephen Carlidge of Shore Point, the same individual who testified at the hearing for the demolition of the Whitfield Hotel, which is currently in a waiting period before tear-down. On the notice above, Carlidge is asking if anyone wants to step in and save the building.
An HPC hearing regarding this matter will be held on October 13, 2015. Is there anyone in town who doesn’t want that ugly mess brought down?
And then, after that, what will they try to build instead? It probably is zoned for a single family, but maybe the owner will turn the site into a community shelter—after all, we now have precedent in town for such a zoning stretch.
We really could use a place where the current occupants of the Whitfield might live or the drifters who have been occupying the Park View on occasion. Or how about another condo without parking, or maybe one with underground parking?
Or maybe the owner will become a Pepper and do the right thing:
How about everyone doing the right thing and build a couple of nice victorian houses. Are you listening Neptune Twp and OGCMA???
Doesn’t the law governing these circumstances ( ie. demolition) state that these “vacated” lots can only be filled with one family homes?
Even if the building should disappear some other way, if no other plans have been approved before the loss, that might be the rule.
A few more questions:
1. Who is the current “owner?” Koblitz or someone else ?
2. If the designer of Mary’s place is involved, can one assume Gannon is the owner–or at least at this stage involved?
3. Doesn’t the master plan for Ocean Grove call for more one-family homes?
Knowing how upset the Park View neighbors have been over the years, hopefully they will attend that township meeting–en masse.