Report: Marylawn Sues South Orange, Planning Board

Marylawn School of the Oranges has filed suit against the township of South Orange Village and the town's planning board alleging the Village is interfering with the school's attempts to demolish a building on its grounds.

"Marylawn has delivered a complaint addressed to the Village, which is currently being reviewed by Village counsel," Village President Alex Torpey wrote in an email to Patch.

The suit requests the planning board stop interfering with the building's demolition and also seeks to prevent the board from allowing applications for demolition to be subjected for review by the township's historic preservation commission, according to a report in the News-Record.

Last year, Marylawn authorities filed an application for a permit to demolish the historic home the school owns (the Graves House, which has been used as a convent) on Scotland Road. The move was opposed by some neighbors, as well as the Montrose Park Historic District Association (MPHDA), which called the 1900 building a "key contributing historic building in the Montrose Park Historic District."

The school is closing its doors this month, citing financial troubles.

In May 2012, the South Orange Board of Trustees passed an ordinance to establish South Orange Historic Preservation Commission (SOHPC). While the planning board gave Marylawn approval in March to demolish the building, it did so with the stipulation that the SOHPC will have to give approval to any plans to demolish historic buildings in the village or to subdivide a property.

The demolition of the home was apparently part of Marylawn’s goal of selling the 3-acre property (which is currently zoned for residential use) to a developer, who would potentially build a multi-unit apartment building.