Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-05-01
SEEKING LEGAL
INTERPRETATION
Of BUILDING LAW
William Rogge Appeals from De.
cision of the Building
Inspector.
WOULD MAKE OFFICE
BUILDING INTO HOTEL
Construction Committee of AL
dermen to Inspect Premises
Next Thursday.

The city law department will be
asked for It's Interpretation of the new
building code, which was. meant as a
positive prevention of a repetition of
the High street holocaust. The power
of the code and it's usefulness is in
jeopardy because of the question that
has arisen over the appeal from the de-
cision of Superintendent O'Rourke, of
the building department, who refused
to grant a permit to William O. Rogge
for the alteration of the office building
at 154-156 Market street, which he is
DESTROYS of converting into a hotel.
The ordinance covering this matter
specifies that all buildings to be used
for hotel purposes that are more than
four stories in height must be
thoroughly f~ire-proof. The building in
question is not of that construction,
n Mr.. O'Rourke in refusing the per-
NIT acted in accordance with the new
code.
Appeal to Committee.
An appeal was taken to the commit
tee on construction and alterations of
buildings, which committee will inspect
the building next Thursday with a view
to acting on the appeal.
The appellant was heard by the COM
mittee last Friday evening and said he
was willing to flreproof the two upper
stories. Mr.. O'Rourke thought this
ridiculous, because of the fact that the
fire hazard was in the lower floors, not
in the upper, and hat in case of fire
the weight of the upper stories would
d to the danger. Mr.. O'Rourke said
today that he would consider the fire
proof1ng of the entire building, and will
do all In his power to prevent the
granting of a permit under the plans
proposed by Mr.. Rogge.
Section 48, of the new code, gives the
owner or lessee of a building, for the
construction or alteration of which a
permit has been refused, the right to
appeal to the committee. The commit
tee has a right to reverse the decision
of the superintendent in some cases,
such as when the ordinance was not
properly carried out or the wrong oon-
struction placed on a clause in the or
dinance, The members of the building
department, however, say tina since
that part of the ordinance which
specifically says that six-story hotels
must be ireproof, admits of no err
roneous interpretation, the committee
has not the power to reverse the de-
cision of the superintendent, and that
If it has that power the new code is
absolutely of no value, inasmuch as it
is left to the committee to grant any
and all permits, no matter how much
they violate the ordinance.
Quote Words of Code.
Those interested in he new code and
legal question brought up by the Royce
application said today that the power
of the committee was never intended
to be so great as to ignore any part of
the code. Section 104 of the code reads
as follows:
. n every building here
after erected to be used as a hotel or
an apartment hotel which exceeds four
stories II not more han fifty feet in
height excepting all buildings for
which specifications and plans have
been heretofore approved by the proper
authorities) and every other building,
the height of which exceeds sixty-five
feet or more tina five stories in height
shall be built fireproof y y F" ="
Mr.. O'Rourke declared to a reporter
that there can be no two ways of in !
terpreting this code. He will, never
theless, AXE it to the law department
to convince all interested persons of the
1clearness of this section of the ordi-
nance.
Builder Supports Inspector.
a prominent builder made the follow
ing statement today: I'VE got the new
code in order that lives may be saved.
We spent a lot of money in advertising
1t. We want to make sure tina there
would be no repetitions of the High
street fire. Now comes this question
of reversing the decision of the superin-
tendent. Why If the committee has the
power to do this then the new code is
worse than the old one. Formerly the
entire council had to pass on a thing
of this sort and now it leaves the mat
ter In the hands of seven men. l do
not accuse the aldermen of anything
irregular, but I will say that they
should not be given all this power and
that concentration of this sort viii
lead to bad results.
"1 further maintain" he continued,
"that the committee should have in
formed itself on this question and dis
missed the appeal because the commit
tee has no jurisdiction in the mat
ter"
Another interesting point brought up
by interested persons was whether the
aldermen that grant the permit would
not be responsible for the loss of life
in case of a fire in this building. In
overruling the decision of the superin-
tendent and in putting their own inter-
probation on the question they would
be entirely responsible for the conse-
quences Of their act is the belief of
some of the officials in the City Hall.
The aldermen have not committei
themselves as yet, but will hold a
meeting after returning from their in
epection next Thursday.
mrs, Al rDun II ppIIcu