Code violation calls flood in

Earl Morgan -- Jersey Journal
Tuesday, August 14, 2007

All it took to bring Jersey City to its collective feet and grab for the phone was a photo of a fire hydrant and some incredible stories of building code violations.

A Morgan's Corner last month featured a photo of a fire hydrant blocking the driveway of a new house, highlighted a number other building code violations - and triggered an avalanche of phone calls - to this columnist and municipal officials.

Who was on the other end? Residents, complaining of code infractions at new homes across the city.

As a result, the fire hydrant in front of the driveway of a two-family home on Oxford Avenue has been relocated just a few feet away - at the builder's expense, Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority officials say.

According to the city, the builder believed the hydrant was obsolete and would be replaced and relocated. The city says the hydrant isn't obsolete.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg.

David Donnelly, who heads a special task force to address housing code violations for the city, said his office received several hundred phone calls from residents after his office's phone number was published in the column.

Even city officials are not immune from out-of-control developers.

Jersey City Police Director Sam Jefferson and Arthur Williams, a Jersey City school board administrator, say construction near their homes has made the summer unbearable.

The city Department of Buildings issued a number of violations to the developer of six 2-family homes under construction on Grant Avenue after Williams, whose backyard borders the rear of the new houses, complained that the developer demolished his retaining wall.

Jefferson said his family has been unable to use their backyard this summer because of damage from his next-door neighbor's efforts to build an addition to the rear of his house. Code officials confirmed issuing a number of violations to Jefferson's neighbor for building code violations.

Donnelly said that while his primary focus is illegal apartments in cellars and attics of older homes, his work often takes him into newer, two-family homes with illegal third apartments. Donnelly says his task force has issued nearly 200 violations for illegal apartments in the past year.

When people see three utility meters, or three satellite TV dishes, on a two-family home, it certainly arouses suspicion.

Donnelly said his office has no jurisdiction to enter the two-family homes unless it's believed there's a fire hazard due to a third unregistered apartment.

How are developers of these two-family homes able to escape the scrutiny of building inspectors and install an illegal third apartment? According to city officials, after the buildings are granted their certificates of occupancy, a truck arrives with the sheet rock and new walls are put up that were not on the original plans.

As Jersey City Zoning Director Tony Lambiase has said, the city needs more inspectors.

Obviously a few "inspectors" got their palms greased, as usual

10/10 to the developer for being able to keep everyone quiet on site when it was blatantly obvious there was a hydrant in the way. I guess there wasn't any building inspectors checking on that site during construction and for codes or problems that needed addressing!

The hydrant will have to be relocated at the City's expense.

Hydrant pic sparks city into action

Friday, July 27, 2007
By EARL MORGAN
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Officials in Jersey City are scrambling to determine how a developer was allowed to build a two-family house with a fire hydrant blocking its driveway.

A spokesman for Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy said the directors of several departments are seeking answers.

After a photo appeared on the front page of The Jersey Journal yesterday, Jersey City Housing Task Force Director David Donnelly and the newspaper were besieged with phone calls about other infractions of the city's zoning regulations.

Officials from the Jersey City Municipal Utilities Authority, the Building Department and Donnelly said they could not give a definitive answer as to what city agency is responsible for seeing to it that driveways aren't constructed if fire hydrants are blocking them.

In a statement issued yesterday, Bob Antonicello, acting Director of Housing, Economic Development and Commerce, said the hydrant-blocked driveway "obviously was an error, but the HEDC is looking into how the error can be corrected, if possible."

Antonicello noted that the city has experienced a boom in the construction of in-fill housing in the past few years, with several hundred structures either under construction or completed.

"We're looking at ways to allocate more resources for inspections to the zoning office," Antonicello said.

The new building at 1 Oxford Ave. is one of a dozen two-family homes either undergoing construction or recently completed on the south side of Oxford Avenue, between Kennedy Boulevard and West Side Avenue.

According to Jersey City tax records, 1 Oxford is owned by International King Corp., located at 62 Sackett St., Jersey City. The company's phone was continuously busy and no one in the company could be reached for comment.

Jennifer Morrill, Healy's spokeswoman, said Donnelly and members of the city's housing task force visited some two-family homes on Oxford Avenue that were found to have illegal third apartments.

The owners will be issued summonses for violating the city's building codes, Morrill said.