Description
Any help from the JC Building Department or anyone else in the know would be appreciated. What are the next steps in this situation. Making it public on JC SeeClickFix in case anyone else is or has been through this mess.
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This is regarding the 13 story, 298 unit, 4 retail, with 10 parking spot apartment building which is about to start construction on the lot at 96 – 110 Tonnelle Avenue. (at Broadway and Tonnelle) The owners of the old brick apartment building at 112 Tonnelle Avenue and the owner of the 2 family wood frame house at 160 Van Reipen Avenue received letters in July 2022 (last year) from the owners of 96 – 110 Tonnelle. The letter stated that they want permission to access our properties to do an inspection of what might be needed during their construction to protect properties. To tell you the truth the letter was kind of intimidating. It stated we have 10 days to sign and return the letter or court action to gain access would be taken. The 160 Van Reipen owner took it to the JC Building Department, and they said it is kind of standard procedure but said they never really saw it worded in such a threatening manner. The 160 Van Reipen owner signed it and returned it by mail.
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Flash forward one full year. No one ever came to look at the 160 Van Reipen property. Even after the owner cleaned and moved 3 generations of “stuff” away from all of the interior basement walls. In June 2023 a person did come to 160 Van Reipen to take pictures of the interior basement walls and floor. Said they were before construction pictures in case the construction does any damage.
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Early week of July 2023 received a phone call from the construction company that they are sending shoring plans and an acknowledgement letter. They were received by email on July 10, 2023. The shoring plan consisted of 5 pages of engineering diagrams with detail of how they are going to dig a 8 to 9 foot shoring wall around their property so they can pour their foundation. The acknowledgement letter was addressed to the Jersey City Building Department already filled out with the 160 van Reipen owners name and just needed a signature. Owner was told to quickly give the shoring plans a look and to sign the letter and they will pick it up that day. They said that they can’t get a building permit without adjoining property owners signed acknowledgement letters.
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Hmm owner has half a brain and did look over the 5 pages of plans prepared by an engineering firm. Having ZERO knowledge of architecture or structural engineering he found many blatant errors. Some if implemented from those plans could have possibly caused damage to adjoining properties. Misplaced property lines, shoring right up to property lines, depiction of the 160 Van Reipen house as having the first floor at grade (ground) level and the 7 foot 100 year old fieldstone foundation completely undergrade, and depicted the wood frame house as brick. Owner of 160 Van Reipen sent back an email saying there were errors on the plan and pointed them out.
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On July 17, 2023 a “corrected” version of the plans were received by the owner of 160 Van Reipen along with a revised acknowledgement letter. Again, more or less saying look the plans over and sign the letter and they will pick it up immediately. After receiving the plans owner would get calls asking for the signed letter and when will it be signed. That the owner of 112 Tonnelle already signed theirs. 160 Van Reipen owner AGAIN found obvious errors and sent back an email pointing them out.
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On July 19, 2023 a “corrected” version of the plans was received along with a revised acknowledgement letter. 160 Van Reipen owner yet again found errors and the 160 Van Reipen fieldstone basement not being correctly portrayed. This time owner sent back a letter informing the 96 – 110 Tonnelle owners that he decided to seek out a professional structural engineering firm to see if the shoring plans will protect his 100-year-old fieldstone foundation and also contact the JC Building Department for advice. Told them that because of a tight work schedule and personal family issues he would NOT reply to them until after meeting with a professional structural engineering firm at his own expense.
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Because the 96 – 100 Tonnelle property as well as the side of 160 Van Reipen’s property has a slant in grade the 7 foot foundation of 160 Van Reipen is only 2 feet under grade at the rear and 3 feet under grade at the front. If you are familiar with the area, think about how steep the hill is say from the Blvd to Broadway on Tonnelle. An 8-to-9-foot deep dig 4 feet away from the property line for a wooden shoring wall as displayed in the plans will surely weaken the foundation which back in the day did not require a cement footing and the cellar floor is only ¾ inch thick. Also to hold up the shoring wooden wall (called lagging) tall steel beams will be driven into the ground every few feet and the lagging slotted into it. Hoping the vibration from doing that does not harm the fieldstone foundation.
One more thing the owners of 9, 11, 13, and 15 Bryan Place whose yards adjoin the 96 – 110 Tonnelle property did not receive any shoring plans or acknowledgement letters to sign. Since many have big mature trees on their property line which had their over the property line branches cut off by the construction company they are wondering what will happen when the 8 to 9 foot dig 4 feet away from their property line for the shoring wall is dug will it cut the roots of their mature trees. Will it cause the trees to fall onto their houses? Do they have to worry about their yards collapsing. They want to know why they didn’t get shoring plans and acknowledgement letters.
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Anyone go through this? Can anyone from the JC Building department say what the next step should be? I can’t imagine a long-time elderly JC homeowner knowing what to do in this case. Believe it or not there are still many real old time JC homeowners still hanging in there many not tech savvy, so they need help with situations like this. Especially with the development boom that has finally hit Journal Square.
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There should be an amendment to the Planning Board requirements that the owners requesting approval for their projects inform the owners of adjoining properties what they are in for. And maybe pay for an engineering firm and lawyer that will be needed. The engineering firm and lawyer of the affected property owner’s choice that is. Oh yeah 160 Van Reipen owner was advised to get a lawyer because someone saying “don’t worry, we will fix anything we break” does not cut it. Also, to make sure the construction company has the right kind of insurance.
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If any JC BD inspectors come by theywill see the 96 – 110 Tonnelle construction firm already dug down about a foot maybe 3 feet away from the property line when they were setting up their tent for the ground breaking ceremony a while ago which is causing concerns with all the rain we have been having.
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If the owners of the 96 – 110 Tonnelle Avenue (new address will be 166 Van Reipen Avenue) project start any construction on the shoring process without a signed acknowledgement letter what should they do? Who do they contact? JC Building Department? Non-emergency JCPD number?
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Thank you all
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16 Comments
Jersey City, NJ (Verified Official)
Andy Dhani (Registered User)
BringBackTheMotorcycleSquad (Registered User)
Andy Dhani (Registered User)
Here is what you should do. Let's reach out to several lawyers who represent the people with current items. Let's get an independent surveyor and/or engineer to make sure we have documentation - PRE Construction. Let's go to the City and get our original plans in place.
Documentation will be needed ASAP to keep accurate records PRE-Construction. Ask the legal team how much the retainer is and split the cost with the residents in the area. I'm pretty confident they will split the bill with you.
Please note: We are not saying we don't want construction in the area - but we want it done the right and humanitarian way.
We need to have a conference all with Councilman Richard Boggiano also to make sure he understands your concerns.
Van Reipen (Registered User)
Here is a photo for perspective showing the old brick apartment building (112 Tonnelle) in the rear, the 2-family wood frame house (160 Van Reipen) to the right, the cut trees at the property line of the Byran Place yards/homes, the sloping of the properties, and how they already dug about a foot plus down a few feet away from the property line. Which is a concern. The rains are just washing more and more dirt away with every storm. Making the alley of 160 Van Reipen unstable. The white gravel was for when they had the big groundbreaking ceremony, they set up the tent and chairs on it.
Just think the rear bottom of the 160 Van Reipen properties fieldstone foundation is now possibly getting undermined with every new rainstorm. Not good! Also see how when they dig down 8 to 9 feet for the shoring walls by those massive trees, the supporting roots will mostly be cut. What then!
Van Reipen (Registered User)
Van Reipen (Registered User)
Van Reipen (Registered User)
** correction to first post **
It is a 13 story, 196 unit, 3 retail space, 9 parking spot, roof top pool/lounge/dog run, second floor dedicated office space which will have a long rear-facing outdoor deck running from the end of 160 Van Reipen’s house to the end of the 96 -110 Tonnelle lot . How unfortunate for the homeowners on Bryan Place and 160 Van Reipen they will have people looking into their yards and rear windows.
Oh yeah and lets not forget the obligatory 13 story painted manual on the 160 Van Reipen side of the building. Can’t wait to see what that will be.
Acknowledged Construction Code Official (Verified Official)
if there is a construction or demolition that could have and adverse effect on the adjacent property the property undertaking the work is to be provided access to determine what steps would be required to protect that property. The adjoining property owner can or cannot grant access for this if provided the engineers will prepare a plan that they will do to protect your property. If you do not grant access they have the option to bring you to a court to have a judge make that determination. upon submission of a protection plan to you, you can sign it off, refer it to an engineer for their comment, or reject it.
Display Name Blocked (116019) (Registered User)
Andy Dhani (Registered User)
Van Reipen (Registered User)
Yes Construction Code Official (Verified Official) we know that step where the builder requests access to see how to protect the adjoining properties. For 160 Van Reipen as stated the letter requesting access was received last year around 7/15/2022 with the 10 day limit before court was threatened, it was signed and returned. The builder sent someone 1 year later on 6/21/2023 to take pictures of the basement.
A couple of weeks after that on 7/10/2023 the first set of shoring plans and an acknowledgement letter was received. The plans as stated in above posts were ridiculous. Without interior access a 5-year-old standing in the lot looking at 160 Van Reipen would know that the first floor did not start at grade(ground) level. That is a wood frame house and that it has a basement because 5 feet of it is above grade(ground) and has 2 basement windows. The “revised” second set of shoring plans and acknowledgment letter was received on 7/17/2023 again just casually looking then over more errors were found. A 3rd set of “revised” shoring plans was received on 7/19/2023 and not satisfied with the depiction of 160 Van Reipen. Very scary to see on the 3 sets of shoring plans that the soil between the 8 to 9 foot shoring wall and the 100 year old fieldstone basement wall that has only 2 to 3 feet of it under grade(ground) has a big “WITHIN ZONE OF INFLUENCE” pointing to it.
BTW I hope the builder is including 9, 11, 13, 15 Bryan Place when sending out the shoring plans. As far I know they have not received them. From what I read ALL adjoining properties should receive them.
160 Van Reipen is waiting for a call back from a structural engineer to go over that 3rd set of shoring plans. Will keep you posted.
Lol if the first set of shoring plans were acknowledged then implemented the 8 to 9 foot shoring wall would have been dug at the property lines of 160 Van Reipen, 9, 11, 13, and 15 Bryan Place. A joke.
I guess some questions from above posts:
1- Are they allowed to have that orange temporary fence base over an adjoining properties property line? It has been a tripping hazard for months.
2 -What do those spray-painted markings mean? They seem way off. Are they allowed to just spray paint on adjoining properties sidewalk?
3- Are the shoring plans for other projects usually in such bad shape or are we just lucky?
Thanks
Van Reipen (Registered User)
Related to fragile 100-year-old field stone foundations. I don’t know how many JC old-timers are reading this or how many live around Journal Square/ Marion. Years ago, when they were building the structure at 829 Newark Avenue the forms for the foundation walls were constructed right up against the 100 year-old fieldstone foundation wall of the property at 827 Newark Avenue. A week after the foundation cement pour the owners at 827 went in the basement to find a foot of solid concrete surrounding their furnace. Seems the pressure from the cement broke a top layer of fieldstone and the cement poured into the basement. Luckily it was not a lot.
Also, years ago right across the street when they were building either 824 or 826 Newark Avenue an adjoining properties fieldstone foundation partially collapsed that one made the Jersey Journal.
As asked, what are the next steps for surrounding property owners of 96 – 110 Tonnelle. I assume this shoring plan review is just the first step. What about reviews for the actual construction and how properties ae going to be protected above ground. Roofs, siding, yards, etc. Where is the crane going to be placed? Will homeowners have to worry about one falling like what happened recently in NYC? Is the crane allowed to swing over adjoining properties? Where will all the cement trucks line up for the pouring of the foundation, where will all the trucks line up when making construction material deliveries? On tiny dead-end Van Reipen Avenue?
Are questions and answers like the above posted anywhere on the JC Building Department website for property owners facing a similar situation? As mentioned somewhere above I can’t imagine 90-year-old homeowners knowing what to do when they receive things like legal access request letters or shoring plans for review. Most probably still have rotary phones. Maybe a printed pamphlet from homeowners who aren’t connected.
Thank you LlamaLlama , Andy, and Ishmael for your replies and information.
Van Reipen (Registered User)
Van Reipen (Registered User)
To whom it may concern you can close this issue.
But one note the city should really have a place website or in house documents that outline what happens to adjoining properties when the planning board approves a project. What to expect like access letters, SOE plans and acknowledgement letters, etc. Especially on a major one like 96 - 110 Tonnelle Avenue.
City should have the developers us mail them with the initial planning board notices that they send to property owners within 200 feet of a project so they can ask questions at the planning board meetings.
Van Reipen (Registered User)
The builder has gone with a new engineering firm to draw up the SOE (shoring) plans and they did start today 8/9/2023. As mentioned a few times above many errors were found in the old engineering firms SOE plans.
Just from talking to people in the know it seems they recommend having a lawyers name ready in case situations come up during the shoring process or actual construction of the building. So will keep the one that Ishmael was kind enough to supply. Thanks.
Doesn't get the planning board or building department off the hook they should really have a source of information for adjoining property others for reference.