By John Burton
RED BANK – The committee formed to try and preserve the historic Fortune House is working on legal and other means to prevent its possible demolition.
“We’re trying to be fair” to the family that owns the west side property and home, said Peter Primavera, who chairs the committee, “But we know what we’re doing and we know how to delay this.”
News that members of the Vaccarelli family, which has owned the property for generations, applied to the borough for a demolish permit for what is commonly called the Fortune House, got the approximately year-old committee to ramp up its efforts to find measures to stop its razing.
“I think the immediacy of a demolition permit woke up a lot of people,” including possible financial partners the committee has been seeking since it was established, Primavera said. “The group is working in a lot of different directions right now.”
One direction is working with committee member, John Tatulli, a Shrewsbury lawyer, who is taking the lead on the legal front. Tatulli is working with lawyers Leonard Bier of New Brunswick and David Frizell of Metuchen, exploring the legal options that may be available to get the Red Bank municipal government or the courts to intervene, should the demolition permit be issued, Primavera said.
“We know we could delay this through conventional, legal procedures for many months,” he said.
On other fronts, Primavera hopes to re-engage the Vaccarelli family in discussions about a possible sale of the property at reasonable price. There is a rumor circulating that the family has a potential buyer for the site, according to Primavera, and he hopes to have committee members contact the possible buyer.
“If there is a new player in the game we want to talk to them, too,” he said.
The committee is also reaching out to national media outlets for coverage; lobbying elected officials, such as U.S. Senator Cory Booker, D-NJ; and encouraging prominent historians and academics to write articles and letters to elected officials, stressing the site’s historic significance.
Phone calls to James Vaccarelli of Shrewsbury were not returned.
Vaccarelli, along with his nephew, Anthony Vaccarelli Jr. of Red Bank, were the two family members who filed the request for a demolition permit with the borough Department of Planning and Zoning. A phone call to Anthony’s home this week was answered by an unidentified woman who said, “We’re not talking to anyone.”
James and Anthony Vaccarelli filed an application Sept. 12 for a development permit for 94 Drs. James Parker Blvd., the approximately 1-acre property that holds the one-time home of T. Thomas Fortune, a prominent late-18th and early-19th century journalist, author, newspaper publisher and early civil rights activist. The home is listed on both the state and national Registers of Historic Places.
The application indicates that the family members are seeking to remove the “existing house” from the property.
The application, however, was deemed incomplete. So far the applicants haven’t provided any of the additional information to the zoning officer requested to evaluate it, according to the borough planning and zoning office.
According to Tatulli, given the borough’s historic preservation ordinance, before a permit can be issued, the borough historic preservation commission will get to offer an opinion.
Should the permit be granted, Tatulli would seek to have a hearing on the application before the borough Zoning Board of Adjustment, where the public would have an opportunity to weigh in.
If the application gets to that point, “We would cite all of our reasons, legally, historically and all of the other significant issues,” to prevent its issuance, Tatulli said.
Should he fail to persuade the board, Tatulli said, he could file an appeal with the state Superior Court in Freehold.
Tatulli, like Primavera, hopes it doesn’t come to that and that the owners can be convinced of the committee’s intentions and reach an agreement.
“We’re hoping to get them to recognize the value –maybe not in dollars and cents – but to have their name attached to this project, permanently attached,” Tatulli said.
Primavera is a Plainfield historic preservation consultant and cultural archeologist who formed the volunteer committee last year to fundraise for the acquisition of the aging and deteriorating structure and accompanying property. Preservationists would like to establish, restore and preserve it as a cultural and educational resource.
The Vaccarelli family has owned the site since the early 20th century, when family members first emigrated from Italy. It served as the family home and site of the family business, a bakery, for much of that time but has been vacant for many years.
