Workers yesterday began chopping the tops off of the wood pilings in the Cookman Avenue lot known by locals as the stump yard.
The property, which is owned by master redeveloper Asbury Partners, is a vacant lot full of wooden pilings whose tops are visible above the ground. Some of the stumps are adorned with paint and artwork, and the area around the stumps is patchy with grass.
Adjacent to the stump yard on Cookman Avenue, Asbury Partners has installed new light fixtures, curbing and vegetation as part of a streetscape improvement plan. The stump removal is part of that plan.
“This work should have been completed years ago, when [the stumps] were initially installed, as part of the overall streetscape improvement program,” said Brian Cheripka, vice president of land for iStar Financial, the majority owner of Asbury Partners. “We’re removing the tops of the piles and we’ll landscape and plant grass” in its place, he said. “There are no immediate development plans for that parcel today.”
The pilings were initially installed to provide stability for a building, although no current plans exist to build there. Such pilings are necessary due to the sandy soil found near the ocean, Cheripka said.
