PARSIPPANY — The Township of Parsippany-Troy Hills received a complaint on Friday, April 17 and subsequently conducted an inspection at the property of 17 Cherokee Avenue, Lake Hiawatha.
The inspection confirmed an overgrown lawn; bushes, weeds and fallen branches.
The last known owner of record of the property is Stanley & Diane Yotka.
The property is identified as Block 550, Lot 4 on the tax map of the Township of Parsippany-Troy Hills.
A Notice of Violation was mailed to Stanley & Diane Yotka on April 21 and June 4, which was returned unopened on June 12, 2015.
The township made attempts to obtain mail forwarding information from the mortgage holder, Assurant Field Asset Services, with no success. In addition, the Township Tax Collector has no mail forwarding information on file.
A hearing was held on June 11, 2015 in First Floor Conference Room at Parsippany-Troy Hills Town Hall to discuss the owner’s failure to abate the violations, at which time Stanley and Diane Yotka failed to appear. Due to the lack of response and the condition of the property, the Director of Planning, Zoning, Housing, Fire Prevention, and Construction has determined that the Property has been abandoned. In accordance with Chapter 213, Housing and Property Maintenance, §44, Municipal Intervention, of the Township Code, the Township Housing Department will remied the situation by having the lawn mowed by an outside contractor at a cost not to exceed One-Thousand Seven-Hundred Fifty Dollars ($1,750.00).
The Township Code further allows that the expenditure of municipal funds to put the Property in proper condition may be charged against the Property as a lien and shall be added to and become and form a part of the taxes next to be assessed and levied upon the Property.
The Township of Parsippany-Troy Hills hired an outside contractor and at a recent visit to the property, the overgrown lawn was mowed; the bushes, weeds and fallen branches has been cleared.
The Township Council passed a resolution to place a lien on the property at its meeting on Tuesday, July 14. The resolution was presented by Council Vice President Robert Peluso, seconded by Councilman Louis Valori and voted 5-0 by the members of the Council.
