BRUNSWICK — As motorists idle in traffic on the corner of Pleasant and Stanwood streets, they may notice the vacant buildings on the corner have a new look — they’re boarded up.

The Brunswick Development Corp., which purchased the buildings in June with the hope of tearing them down to make way for a police station, sealed off all points of entry to the four houses after discovering they had been raided nearly three weeks ago.

According to Brunswick Deputy Police Chief Marc Hagan, about $1000 worth of copper piping was stripped from the properties.

The theft came just weeks after the Village Review Board denied the BDC’s application to demolish the four buildings. The group’s members expressed concern about what would follow the demolition, since the Brunswick Town Council has not formally approved that site for a police station, and argued that at least two of the buildings contributed to the character of the neighborhood. They also weren’t convinced that all of the buildings were beyond the point of repair.

In the month since that decision, the BDC has been re-grouping and trying to accumulate more information to persuade the VRB to allow them to tear down the houses.

According to Larissa Darcy, president of the BDC, the group will likely present its case at the VRB’s October meeting. At that time, she said they would be able to show that the buildings are not economically viable, something she said she thought was so obvious it didn’t need to be presented at the VRB’s July 19 meeting.

While the BDC — a quasi-municipal agency whose board includes town staff, councilors and three public directors with experience in business — has not yet appealed the VRB’s decision, on Tuesday the group voted to preserve its ability to do so in the future.

In the mean time, the BRC is hoping the buildings on the corner won’t see any more vandalism – a worry Darcy expressed to the town council well before the buildings were actually broken into.

“I have serious concerns regarding the safety and liability issues regarding these vacant buildings,” she told councilors at the July 25 meeting. “There is no question that green space would be more welcoming than four dilapidated vacant buildings.”

Emily Guerin can be reached at 781-3661 ext.123 or eguerin@theforecaster.net. Follow her on Twitter: @guerinemily.

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Brunswick Special Projects Assistant Denise Clavette makes sure the vacant building on the corner of Pleasant and Stanwood streets is boarded up. All four buildings that are owned by the Brunswick Development Corp. were raided for copper piping in early August.

Wooden planks sit outside the abandoned building at 81 Pleasant Street, which has been condemned. The Brunswick Development Corp. is having the building boarded up after it and others on the corner of Pleasant and Stanwood streets were stripped of their copper piping by thieves.

Brunswick Special Projects Assistant Denise Clavette makes sure a vacant building on the corner of Pleasant and Stanwood streets is boarded up. All four buildings that are owned by the Brunswick Development Corp. were raided for copper piping in early August.