Officials to announce Overbook demolition today

Officials to announce Overbook demolition today
Thursday, September 23, 2010
BY MICHAEL O'LEARY
VERONA-CEDAR GROVE TIMES
Staff Writer
A townhouse developer is set today to announce the demolition of buildings on the site of the old Essex County Hospital Center in Cedar Grove.

Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. and Joe Riggs, group president of K. Hovnanian Homes, will announce the removal of buildings at an event in front of an abandoned firehouse near the vacant Overbrook Hospital. Reporters will attend the event but it is not open to the public.

The county executive called the buildings "safety hazards and eyesores to the community" in a press release.

The buildings, located west of Fairview Avenue in Cedar Grove, are on land now owned by Hovnanian. Currently, there is no plan for developing the land west of Fairview but it is zoned for luxury homes, Mayor Robert O'Toole said

The property involved in today's event is separate from a proposed townhouse complex awaiting approval from the township council, according to O'Toole. Hovnanian is also behind that proposed housing project, which would be built on 77 acres of county land east of Fairview in the Hilltop Reservation.

The controversial Hilltop housing complex has been subjected to intense scrutiny by residents and the council in recent months and a vote on whether to approve the complex is expected on Monday at a meeting the developer and the county executive will attend

Hovnanian's involvement in both projects prompted confusion at the most recent township council meeting.

Councilman Joseph Chiusolo said any plan to demolish the buildings is contrary to statements made by Hovnanian and the county executive at a meeting in June. The county executive and Hovnanian both stated nothing would be done on that property until Cedar Grove voted whether to approve the construction of the townhouses, Chiusolo said.

"I think now the inference again is that there is possible movement there and unless there's another deal that's been struck between the two of them, I'm confused," he said.

The Hilltop proposal requires a rezoning ordinance to be passed by the Cedar Grove township council and is also the subject of a pending lawsuit between Essex County and Hovnanian.

The developer has said it will drop its lawsuit with the county and proceed with the construction of 464 townhouses if Cedar Grove approves its housing proposal.

Deputy Mayor John Zunic, who first brought attention to Thursday's event, called the ceremony "somewhat baffling."

The county has always said Hovnanian was responsible for demolishing the buildings on the property the developer owns, said Mayor O'Toole.

The mayor, who plans to be at the event, said he was under the impression that the developer was going to announce the demolition on Thursday but said he did not know when the demolition would occur.

"We'll have to wait to see what they're going to say there," O'Toole said.

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Original Link: [url:35m04eu8]www.northjersey.com/realestate/103622009...emolition_today.html[/url]

townhouses on the former site of a mental institution, like in Belleville where there are town houses on the former site of the county isolation hospital. fuckin creepy

wow