Historic Consultant Planned In Neptune
By DON STINE
Residents seeking state historic designation for the Old Corlies Avenue area of Neptune may get a boost in their efforts after the Township Committee announced this week they plan to have a private consultant look into the matter.
We will reach out to the consultant, ask him to come up and spend a day looking at the area, and from there get a game plan about how to proceed, Mayor James Manning Jr. said.
Manning, during Mondays workshop session, said he met the consultant, Wayne T. McCabe, based in Newton, at the recent League of Municipalities convention in Atlantic City and discussed the Old Corlies Avenue area with him.
McCabe is also a professional planner with more than 30 years experience.
The first step would be to do a survey of historic structures and hopefully McCabe will train interested residents to help prepare the survey, Manning said.
Then we will try to tie it together and make decisions about historic preservation for the area, he said.
Manning said getting residents involved should help move the survey forward more quickly and reduce costs. He does not yet have an estimated cost to hire McCabe but added that will probably be based on what he finds during his first visit.
The initial study would identify historic structures and places in the west Neptune area.
Manning said nothing will happen, however, until after the first of the year.
Residents in the Old Corlies Avenue area are upset about the recent demolition of a 160-year-old Victorian house near the intersection of Old Corlies Avenue and Route 33. A carwash/lubrication facility is proposed for the site after receiving approval from the Board of Adjustment.
The new car wash facility would abut the residential area and be directly next to the townships oldest house- the DeWitt Shafto house built around 1790. The area has many of the oldest homes in the township, predating Victorian Ocean Grove.
Residents subsequently formed the Old Corlies Avenue Preservation Association (OCAPA) to save historic structures in the neighborhood and fight completion of the car wash project.
OCAPA spokesperson Melissa Pyle said her organization certainly appreciates the Township Committees proposal.
We also appreciate that they need to be budget conscious and OCAPA wants to be the same way as well. We are willing to look into this in the future and see if we can make some strides here, she said.
Pyle said OCAPA has many volunteers that would be willing to participate in preparing the survey.
We have a good team of people but can always use extra volunteers, she said.
Deputy Mayor Randy Bishop said the consultant is needed to ensure that there are historic structures in the area worthy of preservation.
We really need to make certain that, if there are historic areas to be protected, we know about them. A consultant will help us do this and truly look at the historic value. Is it historic or is it just old? he said.
Bishop said hiring McCabe will be listed as a special projects request in the 2008 budget to perhaps receive funding.
Its not a done deal yet but it is certainly something on our radar screen, he said.
Bishop said he hopes McCabe will look at other historic areas and structures in the township as well.
He can help us understand what historic areas or properties we have. The Old Corlies Avenue area will be examined but the rest of the township should be looked at as well. We have an opportunity to look at historic aspects of the entire township and what we should do about them, he said.
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