Blogfinger

By Charles Layton

Although Marshall Koplitz still isn’t living up to his court promises regarding the derelict Park View property in Ocean Grove, the Township has decided it has no choice but to accept his latest explanation: Hurricane Sandy.

As regular readers know, the neighbors living near the Park View Inn, at 23 Seaview Avenue, have been trying for years to force Koplitz to improve that boarded-up nuisance property.

Here is a thumbnail history of Koplitz’ most recent failures to comply.

On July 28 of 2011, after years of ineffectual prodding by Neptune Township, Koplitz signed a consent agreement in Municipal Court binding him to restore the Park View as a 31-room hotel. This was to be done under a five-phase schedule.

For instance, under Phase II of the schedule Koplitz was to have submitted floor plans and elevations for the Township’s approval. He was late in doing that. In April of this year the Township declared Koplitz in default of the consent agreement. In May the Township again declared him in default and threatened to take him back to court. Failure to comply with any portion of the rehab schedule was supposed to have triggered a fine of at least $35,000. But the Township gave Koplitz extra time, and he finally did submit floor plans.

Marshall Koplitz. Photo by Charles Layton

Then, in early October, the Township found Koplitz to be in default of the next phase of the rehab schedule, Phase III. Under that, he was to have submitted more detailed, corrected plans to the Neptune Construction Department. Later that month, Hurricane Sandy arrived.

In early December the Township’s attorney, Gene Anthony, formally notified Koplitz’ lawyer by letter that Koplitz was in default and said he was acting in bad faith.

On December 20, according to Township records, Koplitz’ lawyer advised the Township that Koplitz didn’t miss the Phase III deadline due to bad faith but because of the hurricane. Koplitz’ hired engineering firm had an interruption of business due to the storm-related blackout and cleanup, and because they had to relocate their office  due to flooding, the lawyer said.

Anthony has advised the Township Committee that he thinks the Municipal Court would accept that excuse. Therefore, rather than go back to the court, the Township has given Koplitz a new extension of the deadline: January 31. This, Anthony said in a letter to Township officials, will be “the final deadline” on this phase of the work.

Note: It is the stated policy of Koplitz’ lawyer, Michelle Lebovitz Lamar, not to comment to the press on these matters.

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By Charles Layton

Marshall Koplitz, owner of the notorious Park View Inn building on Seaview Avenue, has again failed to meet his obligations under a court order, prompting Neptune Township attorney Gene Anthony to accuse him of acting in bad faith.

This week, in a letter, Anthony gave notice to Koplitz’ lawyer that her client is in default of the court order. By our count this marks the fourth time this year that Anthony has threatened to take Koplitz back to Municipal Court for being in default.

Koplitz and the Township negotiated a consent order in July of 2011, in which he promised the court and the Township that he would renovate the boarded-up and dilapidated Park View Inn according to a specific five-phase schedule. This agreement came after years of conflict with the Township, with neighbors and with the Ocean Grove Fire Commissioners over the dangerously run-down condition of his hotel.

Although he has since met some of that agreement’s deadlines, he has missed others, to the frustration of many long-suffering Ocean Grove residents living nearby.

Marshall Koplitz at an HPC meeting last December. Photo by Charles Layton

The subject of this week’s letter, from Anthony to attorney Michelle Lebovitz Lamar, was Koplitz’ failure to submit revised architectural plans to the Township. Although Koplitz did submit plans, Anthony wrote that those plans “have not been responsive to the requirements of the Construction Department.” Given that the department requested revisions “as early as June 6, 2012,” Anthony wrote, “it is hard to believe that proper corrections and completion of such plans have not been completed six (6) months later.” The delay, he said, “is unreasonable and is tantamount to bad faith on the part of your client.”

Asked for comment, Lamar told Blogfinger that it was her policy not to “speak to the press about any of my clients.” (Koplitz himself has failed to return our phone calls on several occasions. He has an open invitation from us to explain his side of these disputes at any time.)

Anthony said if Koplitz does not respond with the proper complete architectural plans by December 25, he will take the case back to Municipal Court. Under the consent order, if the court finds Koplitz in default he could be fined $35,000 or more.

NOTE: For extensive background on Koplitz and his various clashes with Neptune over property maintenance and safety issues, just type “Marshall Koplitz” at the top right corner of this page.

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By Charles Layton

As we know, Marshall Koplitz, owner of the famously derelict Park View Inn in Ocean Grove, has ignored the Township’s pleas, the complaints of long-suffering neighbors, the requirements of the local fire code and a court’s explicit orders again and again and again.

On Tuesday, Neptune Township declared him once more in default of a court order. This time the problem is his failure to deliver revised architectural plans to the Neptune Construction Department according to schedule.

Marshall Koplitz.

On July 28 of 2011, after years of ineffectual prodding by the Township, Koplitz signed a consent agreement in Municipal Court binding him to restore the Park View, at 23 Seaview Avenue, as a 31-room hotel with a commercial kitchen and a dining room/banquet hall. This was to be done under a five-phase schedule. Progress under that schedule, one might say, has not gone smoothly.

For instance, under Phase II of the schedule Koplitz was to have submitted floor plans and elevations for the Township’s approval. He was late in doing that. In April of this year the Township declared Koplitz in default of the consent agreement. In May the Township again declared him in default and threatened to take him back to court. Failure to comply with any portion of the rehab schedule was supposed to have triggered a fine of at least $35,000. But the Township gave Koplitz extra time, and he finally did submit floor plans.

Now, in a letter to Koplitz’s lawyer dated October 9, the Township attorney, Gene Anthony, says that Koplitz is in default of the next phase of the rehab schedule, Phase III. Under that, he was to have submitted more detailed, corrected plans to the Neptune Construction Department.

“On August 23, 2012, the Construction Department requested submission of revised plans,” Anthony said in his letter. “The Architect responded that all would be re-submitted by the following Friday, August 31, 2012. Despite a phone call on October 2, 2012, to the Architect’s office to determine the status of the final revised plans, the same have yet to be returned to the Construction Department in Neptune.”

Therefore, Anthony said, “notice of default is hereby given.” Unless the default is corrected within 15 days, Anthony wrote, he will file a motion in court to have the consent order enforced.

NOTE: For background, just type “Marshall Koplitz” in the search field at the top right corner of this page, and you will find some two dozen articles chronicling Koplitz’s recent struggles with the local government over various problems with the Park View.

The Park View Inn, seen from the Wesley Lake side. Photos by Charles Layton

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By Charles Layton

The Park View, seen from the Wesley Lake side. Photo by Charles Layton

It’s been more than two years since neighbors presented Neptune Township with a petition, asking that something be done about the dangerously derelict Park View Inn at 23 Sea View Avenue.

Although the Township has since taken the owner, Marshall Koplitz, to court and forced him to agree to rehab the building, little tangible progress has been made in the building itself. It remains an eyesore. Neighbors still live in fear that it could catch fire and burn them out of their homes. One elderly man who lives nearby is said to keep a packed bag beside his door in case he suddenly has to flee for his life.

But now these neighbors have a new concern. They say that paint, possibly contaminated with lead, is spreading from the Park View onto their properties. “You’ve got paint peeling, chips are blowing off the building, and the neighbors are getting it on their porches, it’s on the street, it’s in the alleys,” one man said.

This man, who wishes to remain anonymous for now, recently bought a lead detection kit and used it to test samples of the paint chips from the Park View. Most of those samples tested positive for lead, he said.

He and some friends are now circulating a new petition, which they hope to deliver soon to the Township Committee. It asks that the Township perform its own independent testing to confirm the existence of lead. “If lead paint is found,” the petition says, “we would ask that the Township of Neptune take steps to correct this situation immediately.”

“Our concern is for little kids, for pets, you know,” one of the petitioners said. “I don’t know what danger that paint is to adults unless you actually eat it, but I suspect if the town found out about it they would have to do something to get rid of the lead paint.”

The test kit these neighbors used contains pencil-like swabs. When a swab is pressed against a surface, such as the surface of a paint chip, a liquid chemical causes its tip to turn red if lead is present. If no lead is present, the tip of the swab remains white.

When this test was applied to the paint samples from The Park View, neighbors said, most of the samples turned the swabs red.

This swab turned red, indicating lead, when it was touched to one of the paint chips from the Park View Inn. Photo by Mary Walton

Some of the neighbors along Sea View Avenue are losing faith that the Township has the determination to force Koplitz to fix up his property. Back in June of 2010, when 33 of these neighbors submitted their previous petition, they were given to understand that the Township would keep them informed from that point forward. But this has not happened. “We’re getting no feedback from the Township,” one of the petitioners — the man with the lead test kit — said.

They worry that Koplitz will continue to make excuses and stall, just as he has done for years — and just as he did with The Sampler Inn, another of his derelict buildings that became a public nuisance and was finally demolished in 2009. Their greatest fear is of a fire breaking out inside the Park View and spreading to nearby homes, which has happened on two other occasions in the same general vicinity in recent years.

Marshall Koplitz

Koplitz is under a court order to rehab the Park View on a specific schedule, but the neighbors have yet to see many visible signs of improvement. He was, this spring, twice declared in default of the court agreement, although the Township’s head of code and construction, Bill Doolittle, has since said he is back in compliance. Still, so far as anyone in the neighborhood knows, he has not yet obtained bank financing for this rehab project, as the court order requires. A workman who has entered the building in recent months told one of the neighbors that the place remains a total mess inside.

To be fair, though, there was one positive development this week. Workers showed up and cut the grass and then edged all around the property.

Neighbors say chips of paint, like those shown here, are peeling off and blowing onto adjacent properties. Photo by Mary Walton

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