Beach Redeployment Plan Approved, Questions Have Lingered Since May

WILDWOOD – The Dec. 30 meeting of Wildwood Board of Commissioners was moved from its normal afternoon time slot to 9 a.m. Shortly after the pledge to the flag, the meeting was recessed waiting for Mayor Ernie Troiano, who was delayed. 
The most important item on the agenda, an ordinance up for adoption concerning the city’s beach redeployment plan, was postponed until after an executive session which lasted over an hour.
One of the subjects listed on the agenda for that executive session was “Potential Litigation – Beach Redevelopment Plan.” A controversy that surrounded the plan when the ordinance was first introduced at the May 13 meeting is still brewing.
The controversy over the city’s plan involves potential legal tussle with its largest private employer, Morey’s Piers. Morey’s has objections to the plan itself and to the way the plan has been handled in terms of the open meeting requirements.
Morey’s Piers and the city recently found themselves at odds in an earlier incident involving the city’s then-considered three-year contract with BeachGlow, an organization that would promote electronic dance music concerts on the expansive beaches in the municipality.
In that instance, Morey’s sued over what it considered the city’s improper handling of open meetings and open records. The city ended up backing away from the contract and entered into a settlement regarding the lawsuit.
The latest controversy involves Ordinance 132 and the beach redevelopment effort it endorses.
The ordinance adopts a redevelopment plan for selected beach areas in the city. The ordinance was introduced in May and then sent to the city’s planning and zoning board for review.
An attorney for Morey’s submitted objections regarding the plan to the board.
An earlier version of the plan, developed in April, focused on both the “CAFRA-permitted” beach area and the boardwalk. CAFRA is the state’s Coastal Area Facilities Review Act that regulates development on or near waterfront.
The plan developers, Remington Vernick and Walberg, the city’s engineering firm, were then told to remove the references to the boardwalk and limit the plan to the beach area. It was that revised plan that was adopted at this last meeting of 2015.
City Commissioner Peter Byron, who has beach services as part of his municipal portfolio, is on record as projecting significant revenue for the city based on the beach redevelopment plan.
The plan calls for more beach venue events and other projects.
The approval of the ordinance comes at the cost of further contention between the city and Morey’s organization. Adoption of the ordinance is unlikely to end the wrangling. For now, the city engineer has been instructed, via ordinance, to amend the Wildwood Zoning Map to include “the area of the city to which the Redevelopment Plan applies.”