Successful tax appeals this year will cost the city a half-million dollars in refunds to more than 350 properties, dropping the city’s assessed value by $8 million. City Council at its November meeting approved the refunding of taxes due to tax appeal judgments by the county Board of Taxation.
Continue reading 2012 tax appeals cost city half-million dollars
The Redevelopment Agency last week agreed to amend a redevelopment plan that would allow a developer to essentially swap Main Street storefronts and ultimately bring an upscale liquor store/wine shop downtown.
Continue reading Agency agrees to amend plan for liquor store
A five-year-old plan for a wine/liquor shop in the former Robinson’s building downtown is still in the works but may end up in an adjacent location.
Continue reading Downtown wine shop/liquor store still in works
The state’s suspension of the red light camera system isn’t stopping Rahway from capturing violators because the city’s two cameras had been in compliance, according to Police Chief John Rodger. State Department of Transportation officials said 63 of the 85 cameras in the state had not been tested to check that yellow lights were timed correctly (one second for every 10 miles per hour), according to this report from nj.com last month.
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| St. Georges Ave at Maple Ave |
Rodger said the state’s blanket suspension of the red light program doesn’t affect Rahway because the timing of the city’s existing cameras (at Routes 1/9 at East Milton Avenue and St. Georges Avenue at Maple Avenue) were certified. Violations are still being captured — as they are in other towns that are in compliance — and once the suspension is lifted, violations will be issued. Rodger said the department has 90 days to issue a violation and expects the statewide suspension to be lifted shortly. He estimated about 1,000 violations monthly at Rahway’s two intersections.
Meanwhile, two more cameras are set to be installed later this summer, at Inman and St. Georges Avenues and Routes 1/9 and East Grand Avenue. After a 30-day test and evaluation period, Rodger expects they could be operational by sometime in September.
The $55 fine is split between Union County and Rahway, which receives another $18.50 for court fees (for a total $46). An additional $55 goes to the State Highway Trust Fund, according to Rodger, and the Safe Corridor violation (along Routes 1&9) is $140.
A new medical office building has sprouted up on St. Georges Avenue in recent months. A single-family home with a garage and shed were demolished to make way for the two-story, 5,000-square-foot medical office directly across the street from Billy Court and near the entrance to Rahway River Park.
The Zoning Board heard the application in March 2009 (.pdf) and unanimously approved it, 7-0, in April 2009 (.pdf). Variances were needed because the medical office use is not allowed in the R-2 residential zone. Testimony included some concerns from neighbors about allowing the facility in a residential zone and aesthetic issues regarding a fence. A traffic engineer testified that no left turn would be allowed onto St. Georges Avenue by vehicles exiting the property, which will have 33 parking spaces.
Below is a Google Street View of what stood on the site previously:
It was a year ago today that a fire destroyed a three-story, 50-unit apartment complex on St. Georges Avenue. Brookside at Rahway was under construction and nearly completed with leasing was expected to begin later in the year.
Police determined the fire was arson within a few days, but it wasn’t reported as such until one of our follow-up inquiries in March. Police Chief John Rodger said last week that it remains an open investigation.
Demolition of the three-story structure began about three months after the fire and work began anew in late September. In August 2009, trees were cleared at the 5-acre site to make way for construction, which began the first time around in August 2010.
Brookside at Rahway has since been nearly rebuilt, with leasing expected to begin in the spring.
The idea of public art is always intriguing, so I thought this piece from The Atlantic was pretty cool about an effort in Budapest, Hungary (“An Artistic X-Ray for Buildings in Budapest”). A local art collective commemorated buildings that had been razed for new construction by painting a mural of what appears to be a black-and-white X-ray of what once stood there.
It reminded me of some of the old artifacts and other signage found when some Main Street properties in Rahway were razed several years (namely a Marks Harris (.pdf) on the side of the building facing Lot B that’s been painted over white). Click the link above to see the images, it’ll really give you a sense of what I’m talking about.
Reconstruction of Brookside at Rahway, the St. Georges Avenue apartment complex that was destroyed by fire in January, began earlier this month.
Work on the site originally began in summer 2009, with construction starting in earnest the next year, and the 50-unit rental complex was nearly completed when the fire, an incident local police concluded was arson, occurred. Demolition of the three-story structure took several weeks in the spring. No word on when completion might be expected.
UPDATED OCT. 11: Jim Sisto of Fanwood-based United Excavating/Sisto Realty, which is building the project, said boxes started getting placed on the site Sept. 12 and are expected to be finished this week. He’s hoping to open for business by April 1.
In case you somehow missed it, here’s the story this week from nj.com detailing an ethics complaint filed by City Administrator and Redevelopment Director Peter Pelissier against Mayor Rick Proctor, in which Pelissier alleges the mayor encouraged him to hire his wife.
Readers who’ve long been asking “When’s Bachmann’s reopening?” finally have their answer. The Zoning Board of Adjustment on Monday night gave unanimous approval of minor changes to an application that was adopted several years ago.