LACEY, NJ — Some residents think that a future QuickChek on Main Street is destroying Lacey’s history. But the township is arguing that these buildings hold little historic value.
The Worden House and the former Community Center sit on a parcel of land where the Zoning Board approved a QuickChek convenience store and gas station in early August. Read more: QuickChek Will Replace Historic Lacey Buildings
Residents continued to speak out against this at a recent Township Committee meeting. However, township officials said that the owner of the property, Michael DeGeorge, tried “several times” to do something to preserve and move the Worden House. The township also previously asked the county to help. All these attempts were unsuccessful.
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The home, built in 1863, moved to its current location in the 1980s. And because of this and other matters, it lost some historic value.
“The historic value is not there because it’s not all that original,” Business Administrator Veronica Laureigh explained. “Because there’s been so much changes to it.”
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Committeeman Steven Kennis, himself a local builder and developer, reiterated this point later in the meeting.
“[The Worden House] has been called historic. Very, very little remains historic,” Kennis said. “Not its location, its foundation, the vinyl windows, the replacement porch posts or porch rail, or the Timberline roof. Not the vinyl flooring, the carpet, the kitchen cabinets or modern fixtures. Not the modern toilet tile or Masonite doors and trim. Not the sheetrock or the paint.”
Kennis said the township, for “whatever reason,” never embraced the concept of a historic zone. There were opportunities, but he said those should have been planned “30, 40, 50 years ago.”
“It is likely that those options are long gone,” Kennis said.
Some residents, such as Barry Bendar, a Green Party candidate for New Jersey’s 4th Congressional District and a leader of the movement to save the Worden House, had hoped to get the building officially registered as a historic building. But he was unable to move the application along because he was unable to get inside the building and take photos.
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The township’s attorney, Christopher Connors, advised that at this point, the only way to change anything about the situation would be legal action.
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