Owner of Milltown Michelin Site Ordered by Court to Tear Down Buildings

Milltown, NJ - As Patch reported earlier this week, demolition of the old abandoned Michelin tire factory site in Milltown started Monday, and it's a tear-down that's being ordered by the court.

The property owner of the 22-acre site was charged in municipal court with maintaining a public nuisance, Milltown Zoning Official Michael Marcinczyk told MyCentralJersey.com. The owner "was fined $10,000, which is being held in abeyance right now, providing he continues with his plan for the demolition," he told the newspaper. A call Patch placed to Marcinczyk earlier this week was not returned.

The U.S. EPA has a $3 million lien against the property and the owner also owes the borough more than $1 million in unpaid taxes, Milltown Council President Ronald Dixon told the paper. Not only does the owner owe the town unpaid back taxes, the property has been determined to be a eyesore, a public nuisance and the abandoned buildings are a danger.

Four buildings on the site will come down this week. However, some are trying to preserve the water tower and smokestack, calling them iconic to Milltown.

"They mean a lot to Milltown," Dixon said. "We'll do whatever we can to protect them. We'll probably along the way call in a structural engineer in to make sure they are sound."

As for the future of the Michelin factory site, that remains up in the air.

A proposed redevelopment plan was pitched that called for 350 housing units, but that plan has been met with resistance from Milltown Mayor Eric Steeber.

"We are a small community," Steeber told MyCentralJersey. "The town only has about 2,400 housing units. If it increases another 20 percent, we would have to make the schools bigger and social services bigger. It just goes on and on. We are a bedroom community and we don't have very much business or industry. All of the costs of these services is bore by residents."

Read the history of the Michelin tire factory site here. Photos of the Michelin factory site taken on Aug. 14, 2016 and submitted by Patch reader Robert Torrisi.