A familiar sight of your trips to Egg Harbor could either have a date with a wrecking ball or the historical society, depending on how the village’s Zoning Board of Appeals rules.
The board will hold a public hearing on September 4th regarding the former Alpine Resort property at 7715 Alpine Road, owned by Matt Sagorac. On June 16th, the village’s Architectural Review and Historic Preservation Board denied Sagorac’s application for a demolition permit for the former lodge building. According to the meeting’s minutes, Sagorac’s attorney, Blair Murphy-Pociask, said that his client applied for the demolition permit in March, but the village had not acted on it, pledging they would not invest more money into the property until the issue was resolved. He also took issue with the board’s attempt to potentially nominate the building as a historical site because it was not already in place when they applied for the demolition permit.
In May, the Egg Harbor Fire Department issued a stop-work order for the lodge and its adjoining restaurant due to numerous fire safety violations, even saying that the building should be demolished due to life safety violations. Parts of the building, including the adjoining restaurant, have since been allowed to reopen.
Architectural historian Traci Schnell is being used to evaluate the property to determine if the former lodge building is at least locally significant if not on a national or state scale. The board was scheduled to meet with Historical Consulting LLC at its July 28th meeting to discuss its historic site survey before discussing its historic property list. Sagorac Enterprises is appealing the decision to deny the demolition permit and the accompanying Certificate of Appropriateness, which is the formal approval to make exterior changes to properties within designated historic districts and to designated historic landmarks. Public comment will be allowed in front of the Village of Egg Harbor Zoning Board of Appeals when it takes place inside the Kress Pavilion’s Great Hall on September 4th at 8:30 a.m.
