OCEAN CITY – About 100 residents turned out at a Second Ward town hall hosted Sept. 14 by council member Keith Hartzell to express their concerns about what happens next with the Wonderland Pier property.
A major fear, according to the residents and social media accounts, is that construction of a hotel on the property would set a precedent for other developers seeking to build in Ocean City.
The crowd was reminded that no hotel resort could go on the property without approvals from the planning and zoning boards.
Mayor Jay Gillian, who operates Wonderland Pier on a lease, addressed the residents, apologizing for not being able to keep the iconic park open any longer. “I did my best,” he said. Wonderland is scheduled to close Oct. 12.
The owner of the Second Ward site, Eustace Mita, CEO of Icona Resorts, had in February 2023 proposed a 350-room beachfront resort hotel complex there in which he was prepared to invest $150 million. In 2021 Mita paid $10 million for the land that Wonderland sits on.
Opposition in Ocean City to Mita’s proposal was immediate and broad-based. Within days Gillian told Mita he could not support it.
Many residents of the city fear that Mita will now renew his push for a major hotel resort. There is also social media buzz that there could be a loophole in state law that would allow a hotel with more than 100 rooms to receive a special hotel liquor license, bringing the sale of alcohol to the Methodist-founded city that has resisted all forms of alcohol sales since 1879.
Mita has said it will be at least six months before he will be ready to say what his plans for the land are.
The issue of a special hotel license to sell liquor was addressed by council member David Winslow at the Sept. 12 governing body meeting. Winslow said he was responding to the social media attention on the issue and asked city Solicitor Dottie McCrosson to confirm or correct his understanding.
Winslow said there is nothing automatic about a Class C exception liquor license for hotels of 100 rooms or more. He called rumors that such a license was automatic “not grounded in law but in speculation.”
He added that the only way any form of liquor license could be issued in Ocean City would be for the seven-member council to vote to amend the city code that bans alcohol sales. He emphasized the need for council action, saying more than once that this is an issue the mayor could not approve on his own.
His comments spoke to concerns on social media that Gillian’s business ties with Mita would open some form of back door to liquor sales.
Following Winslow’s remarks, council members Jay Levchuk, Sean Barnes and Tony Polcini said they would never support a liquor license in Ocean City.
McCrosson confirmed that there is no automatic liquor license for hotels with more than 100 rooms. She explained that the council would have to alter the existing ordinance banning such licenses and then grant one by specific action.
McCrosson also pointed to other hurdles to a liquor license for a hotel resort on the Wonderland parcel. These included a need to get zoning variances, since the area of the Wonderland parcel is not zoned for a hotel.
