Look out below!

This isn’t exactly a bubble article, but definitely an interesting read which raises a lot of questions about development in close proximity to others:

Construction in neighboring town damages 2-family house

Tenants of the two-family clapboard home began hearing the house creak and moan about two weeks ago.

The closet and bedroom doors suddenly no longer fit snugly into the frames. Hairline cracks surfaced along the cinderblock seams of the facade.

Thursday morning they awoke to find gaping crevices in the walls of the foundation that allowed light to pass into an otherwise dark basement. The two-story house in Ridgefield had lurched an inch overnight toward a 30-foot-deep excavation pit that is part of a construction site next door — across the borough line in Palisades Park. Ridgefield officials evacuated the home, forcing the property owner to put up the tenants in a local hotel at her own expense.
…
Officials in both boroughs said Chemtek would likely be responsible for repairing the damage. Company officials could not be reached for comment. But a construction worker at the site, who identified himself as the project supervisor but declined to give his name, said he believed the earth under Sarmanoukian’s house eroded due to pockets of groundwater and the vibrations of machinery digging a three-level underground parking garage at the site.

“The property is too close, the house is too close,” he said. He said company-hired engineers would inspect the home late this week to determine if it can be repaired.

The project supervisor said the company offered to buy Sarmanoukian’s home but she would not sell.
…
For now, the families will be staying at a Days Inn on Route 46. Marini said engineers from Palisades Park and Chemtek planned to meet Monday to discuss what to do next. They will have to determine when the house can be repaired. But he said he’s unlikely to approve the families’ return while construction is under way next door.

So here we have over development taking it’s toll on another persons property. This one is especially interesting because of the change in municipalities and the setbacks. In any case; I hope the owner’s get their worth after they sue the developer. There’s no other reason why the house would move an inch overnight and damage the foundation.

-Richie