![\"73](\"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-25-at-1.39.59-AM.png\")
<\/a>73 Tall Timber Drive, the site of a home facing demolition in Brick. (Credit: Google Maps)<\/p><\/div>\n
The township council voted unanimously to solicit bids for the demolition of three properties \u2013 73 Tall Timber Drive, 412 North Lake Shore Drive and 533 Central Avenue \u2013 at a recent meeting. All of the properties are in poor condition and have no one living in them, and each have been the subject of hearings before the Property Maintenance Board, which recommended their demolition to the council.<\/p>\n
The owner of of the properties \u2013 73 Tall Timber Drive \u2013 is opposing the demolition because a neighbor may be willing to buy the home and rehabilitate it, said John Jackson, an attorney for the potential buyer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dilemma that they face is that my client cannot get assurances from the Building Department that he will be able to rehabilitate this house,\u201d Jackson said, explaining that the neighbor wishes to buy the home for his son. \u201cA non-conforming structure, if it falls into a state of disrepair, may need to go before the Board of Adjustment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Going before the Board of Adjustment would add another $15,000 to the $7,000 the buyer has already spent on the property, Jackson said, so the sale may not go through if Sean Kinneavy, the township\u2019s zoning officer, does not allow repairs without board permission.<\/p>\n
Jackson asked for additional time to be provided so he could work with the township to see if repairing the home is feasible.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s here representing somebody who is a contract purchaser who may not buy the property,\u201d said Charles D. Bauer, attorney for the property maintenance board. \u201cThe township will then have to spend more money to re-notice everybody of a new hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bauer recommended the council approve the bid solicitation, since the bureaucratic process would likely provide Jackson about 120 days of time before it came before the council for an award and final hearing before demolition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe house is crumbling from the outside-in, and something needs to be done,\u201d said Bauer. \u201cThe township has to take into consideration what happens if Mr. Kinneavy says, \u2018no, it cannot be rebuilt in its current form.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is just one step in the whole process,\u201d said Council President Paul Mummolo. \u201cBy us accepting this tonight, we\u2019re not taking the house down. This is to go out to bid and get the cost of taking the house down.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were no objections on the remaining two properties, which were both bank-owned. An attorney representing the bank which is foreclosing upon the North Lake Shore Drive property said the bank itself may relinquish its claim to the home, leaving it to the former owner, who now lives out of state.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point, we\u2019re waiting to see how expensive it would be for the township to do it, so we could release the lien,\u201d said Kaitlynn Donnelly, the attorney.<\/p>\n
The third property, on Central Avenue, was bank-owned before the bank went forward in walking away from the property. Attempts to the contact the former \u2013 and now current \u2013 owner by the township were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n
Bauer said bids authorized by the council previously to demolish an abandoned home on South Beverly Drive have not yet come back.<\/p>\n