Concerned Lawrence Township officials have secured a temporary restraining order preventing the immediate destruction of the 19-century farm house.
By: Lea Kahn
If Lawrenceville Realty Co. wants to demolish the historic Gulick House, it’s going to have to do it the old-fashioned way with a demolition permit.
Mercer County Superior Court Judge Neal Shuster granted the township’s request for a temporary restraining order Friday, after Lawrence officials came to suspect the developer which was behind the ill-fated plan to convert the house into an assisted living facility was planning to knock down the 19-century farmhouse without obtaining the necessary township demolition permit.
Township officials received information Thursday that seemed to indicate the owner had shut off the utilities to the house located on Route 206 at Province Line Road next to the Bristol Myers-Squibb Co. in preparation for demolition, said township Finance Director Richard Krawczun.
The owner of a neighboring property called the township to ask about the status of the Gulick House after a Public Service Electric & Gas crew turned off the utilities to her house by mistake, Mr. Krawczun said.
"An on-site inspection revealed gas and electric had been turned off by PSE&G," he said. "We confirmed the disconnection with PSE&G. That type of activity led us to believe the owner was preparing to demolish the structure."
When township officials checked with the township Construction Department Thursday, there was no record of an application for demolition having been filed by the property owner. An application for demolition must be filed with the Construction Department. Once the application is approved, a demolition permit can be issued.
The restraining order does not place any additional burden on the developer if it wants to demolish the house, said John Dember of Nerwinski & Dember LLC the firm that represents Lawrence Township.
The measure is to ensure that Lawrenceville Realty Co. follows the rules if it intends to demolish the house, he said. Township officials filed for the court order Thursday on an emergency basis, said Mr. Dember.
"The reason we proceeded in an emergent basis was because there was some concern that the house would be demolished without permission," said Mr. Dember.
If the owner violates the court order, it could be held in contempt of court which carries serious sanctions, Mr. Dember said. The judge could order whatever he considers to be an appropriate penalty. It could be money or it could be paying the township’s legal bills, he said.
"The major concern was that the house could have been knocked down over the weekend," he said. "Without a restraining order in place, you are looking at minor penalties."
Demolishing the house without permission would result in a fine of up to $500 for violating state code, said township Construction Code Official Anthony Cermele. Additional fines could be assessed for violating township regulations, he said.
Mr. Dember said he notified attorney Steven Rother, who represents Lawrenceville Realty Co., of the Friday afternoon hearing before Judge Shuster. He said he called Mr. Rother in the morning to tell him about the court hearing, but Mr. Rother did not appear in court.
Mr. Rother declined to comment on the matter.
"Wait until we go into court on the return date," Mr. Rother said.
Judge Shuster’s order requires Lawrenceville Realty Co. to respond to the restraining order in court May 24.
A representative of Pulaski Construction Co. of Hamilton Township took out an application to demolish the house late Monday afternoon, Mr. Cermele said.
It was not the intent of the developer to demolish the house without going through the proper procedures, said William Burris.
Mr. Burris is executive vice president of Care One, which like the Lawrenceville Realty Co. is associated with the Straus Capital Group of Hackensack. Care One owns and operates assisted living facilities and nursing facilities. It teamed up with Laurel Construction Management Inc., which sought to develop the William Gulick House into an assisted living facility.
There is an application pending before the township for the demolition of the house, Mr. Burris confirmed. A demolition contractor has applied for a demolition permit, but there is no contract to perform the demolition, he said.
Because the Gulick House is on the township’s list of historic properties, the application for demolition must be reviewed by the township Historic Preservation Advisory Committee.
The committee has not been notified of the proposed demolition, Chairwoman Colette Coolbaugh said Monday night.
Laurel Construction Management, which is based in Mount Laurel, has been in and out of U.S. District Court since 1997 over the assisted living facility planned for the Gulick House.
The developer sued Lawrence Township and the Zoning Board of Adjustment in December 1997 after the zoning board rejected its request for a use variance to build an 84-bed assisted living facility on the 5-acre property.
The use variance was needed because assisted living facilities are not permitted uses in the residential Environmental Protection-1 zone, in which the house is located. The plan called for constructing a 43,329-square-foot addition to the Gulick House, in two- and three-story wings.
The developer’s 1997 federal lawsuit alleged discrimination because the zoning board’s denial of the application meant there was no reasonable accommodation of senior citizens’ needs for housing in the northern section of Lawrence Township. The developer claimed the zoning board and the township violated the federal Fair Housing Amendments Act.
In 1998, U.S. District Court Judge Garrett E. Brown Jr. sent the application back to the zoning board. The developer filed revised plans for a 71-bed assisted living facility, but the zoning board lopped off eight rooms and granted a use variance for 63 beds in May 1999.
In November 1999, Laurel Construction Management asked the zoning board to reconsider the terms of its May 1999 use variance approval and restore the eight rooms. The zoning board declined and the developer went back to federal court.
Judge Brown dismissed the developer’s lawsuit against the township and the zoning board in September 2000. The developer filed an appeal of Judge Brown’s ruling with the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. But the appeals court upheld Judge Brown’s September 2000 decision.