Hundreds of trees cut down at former site of The Manor in West Orange

The new owners of the Manor in West Orange may face a hefty fine for allegedly cutting down more than 200 trees on the historic property without a permit.

A board member with Our Green West Orange (OGWO), an environmental nonprofit in the township, noticed the downed trees while driving past the Prospect Avenue property last week. The site is now owned by a parent company called The Legacy Manor, which officially purchased the catering hall and wedding venue last month with plans to rename it The Grand Chateau.

"Trees were removed from the Prospect Avenue entrance all the way down to the main building and around the entire perimeter," the board member, Joyce Rudin, said in a blog post on the OGWO website. "Trunks of decades-old trees lining the staff parking lot fronting Prospect Avenue were cut down" and "other trees had huge limbs removed leaving trees out of balance and destined to fall."

Rudin informed West Orange officials, who visited the property and documented 247 stumps, according to a follow-up post this week. The activity could result in nearly 500 summonses: 247 each to the new owners and the tree company that performed the work. The tree company will get two additional summonses because it was not registered to work in West Orange, the post stated.

According to the most recent tree ordinance adopted by the West Orange Township Council in June, property owners are not allowed to cut down trees without a permit from township officials. Violators are subject to a fine of up to $2,000 for each illegally removed or damaged tree, and first-time offenders could lose their tree removal license for 90 days.

The penalties mean the two companies could face nearly $1 million in combined fines. The owners must also replace the number of removed trees, per the ordinance.

Petry Engineering, a firm representing the Legacy Manor, sent a letter informing property owners within 200 feet of the venue that it applied for a removal permit and had already removed 199 trees — 192 evergreens and seven deciduous trees. The firm proposed planting 210 evergreens and 15 Red Maple trees

The letter, a copy of which was forwarded to NorthJersey.com Friday, is dated Aug. 22, the day after Rudin's first blog post announcing the trees had been removed. Rudin also noted that the number of trees referenced in the letter is less than the 247 counted by the township.

An attorney representing the new property owners did not respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon.

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Rudin urged fellow West Orange residents to keep an eye out for future suspected violations, whether at the former Manor site or at other locations in town.

"While we welcome Legacy Manor, the new owners maintaining this site as a catering venue, they are not entitled to violate our hard-won laws protecting our natural environment," Rudin wrote.

The Manor officially closed on July 5 of last year, five months after announcing that it would be shutting its doors for good. In the announcement, the Knowles family cited the impacts of COVID-19, inflation and other "unforeseen circumstances" as factors in the decision to sell after nearly 70 years of ownership.

The venue had hosted hundreds of weddings and other celebratory events since opening on New Year's Eve in 1956. Ronald Reagan hosted a champagne brunch at the site in 1975 during his first presidential campaign while he was governor of California.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Hundreds of trees cut down at former site of The Manor in West Orange