City Spends to Revamp Master Plan

WILDWOOD — City Council voted 2 to 1 June 27 to spend $42,000 to update the city’s master plan.
The revamp of the master plan is a needed step, if the city wants to keep with the stan-dards outlined outlined by a March letter from the state’s Department of Environmental Pro-tection (DEP) for 25-story buildings.
The city has approved six high-rise condotels including, the Nouveau Wave, the Wild-wood Beach Resort and Hotel, the Starlite Resort, the East Bennett Project the Waypoint Beach Club, and the Riviera.
But although the final approvals were granted by the city’s zoning board as far back as 2004, the city’s first high-rise condotel, the 25-story Nouveau Wave Hotel, was rejected by the states Costal Areas Review Act, or CAFRA, permitting process.
The June 2006 reject letter stated, that the towering structure, which would include five stories of parking, a pool deck, five stories of hotel rooms, 11 stories of condos, at the site of the now demolished, Rio Motel on Rio Grande and Ocean avenues, was “out of character” with the surrounding area. Additionally, the building would be a potential danger to migra-tory birds, public safety, and damaging to the collection of doo-wop motels.
But a March 15 letter to Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr. from Mark Mauriello, assistant commis-sioner for land use regulation, offered a sort of compromise between the state and would-be developers.
Mauriello writes that the city would have to meet the following requirements in order to qualify for increased height approval:
• Develop a comprehensive municipal plan that requires an increase in height and density within a specific high-rise zoning district
• Adopt a municipal ordinance in support of that municipal plan
• All standards of the Coast Zone Management High-Rise Structure rule will be incorpo-rated into plans and ordinances
• Building heights will be restricted to 250 feet or less from ground elevation
• Develop shared parking and parking desks in the condo/hotel district
• Allow for more relaxed parking requirements if the proposal would preserve an existing doo wop structure
• Keep high-rises within designated high-rise areas
• Limit building heights outside the condo/hotel district to 59 feet from ground elevation
Mauriello’s letter also “strongly recommends” that the city develop an updated mater plan.
According to the DEP, the review should focus on issues such as land use, cultural re-sources, disaster response, flooding response and the city’s infrastructure. The review should also, according to the state, be made with appropriate public input on all those is-sues.
The city last major review of the master plan was in 2002. In 2006 the municipality last amended that plan in order to accommodate taller building height.
If the developers get the go-ahead from the state, said Solicitor Marc Karavan, they will have to return to the city to get final approvals on the local level.
Commissioner Gary DeMarzo cast the dissenting vote.
Contact Suit at: (609) 886-8600 ext. 25 or lsuit@cmcherald.com