Council Decides Two Contested Ordinances: Approves One, Withdraws the Other

SEA ISLE CITY – When Sea Isle City City Council met Jan. 26, most of the nearly 150-minute-long session was taken up by consideration of two ordinances slated for second reading and public hearing.
Mayor Leonard Desiderio took a few minutes to laud efforts of public works personnel, volunteers and residents to minimize the effects of Winter Storm Jonas over the weekend. He also announced the visit later that day of the state’s congressional representatives, Sen. Robert Menendez, Sen. Cory Booker (both D) and U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-2nd) calling it “An historic day for SIC.”
Floor Area Ratio
Ordinance 1584 was conceived and introduced at an earlier Council meeting to amend the municipality’s general zoning ordinances that pertain to reintroduction of FAR (Floor to Area Ratio) at the .8 level.
Prior to discussion among council and opening the session to public comment, Business Administrator George Savastano provided architectural renderings of home designs at various FAR levels around the .8 mark as previously requested by council.
The issue of FAR and whether to re-introduce it since its demise in 2010 when council voted to abolish it due to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) considerations has been long debated and reviewed.
The hour-plus discussion that ensued revealed that diagrams presented by Savastano had not been shown to the planning board. It also seemed to show that, unlike perceptions of many if not most, that FAR would also solve the municipality’s growing parking problem, it would not.
“I want to make sure that council decides the fate of this ordinance with eyes wide open and that we look at any zoning decision as affecting at least the next five to 10 years in Sea Isle City,” said Savastano.
“Are we putting the cart before the horse by moving ahead with this FAR ordinance when it doesn’t address parking, which is such a big part of residents’ complaints?” queried Council member William Kehner.
Council member Mary Tighe rejoined, “There’s nothing to say we can’t adjust what we decide today, as we have on many other occasions. But given all the comments we consistently receive we need to start, we need to do something, to solve the problem of ‘monster houses,’ parking, too much concrete and the other issues people are talking about.”
A crowd attended, many were also waiting to provide comments on the second ordinance awaiting second reading and public comment, that of Verizon’s quest to site a communications tower somewhere in the city.
When a vote was finally taken whether to proceed with the FAR ordinance, the approval won by a 3-2 margin with Frank Edwardi and Kehner voting nay.
Where to Site Tower?
Ordinance 1585 ready for public hearing although much of the drama and tension associated with the ultimate council vote had been diffused by Desiderio’s statement at the start the meeting.
He reiterated the newsletter statement made in his emailed Mayor’s Message transmitted a few days earlier, “I’m very pleased to report that we got the message that residents don’t want the Verizon pole at the 63rd Street alternate site that was under consideration and city administration has withdrawn our request for re-zoning.”
Council ultimately voted 5-0 to withdraw the ordinance designed “to rezone a certain land parcel owned by the City to permit location” of Verizon’s tower there.
In answer to a question from a resident if there was any intention to allow Verizon to locate its tower anywhere in the city including at Dealy Field, Solicitor Paul Baldini, Savastano and Council Chair John Gibson all stated “No, none at this time.”
Baldini cautioned that council’s approval of Verizon’s original bid still was on the table to site the tower at Dealy Field and Verizon could exercise its right to pursue that approval through a potential lawsuit against the city.
“Verizon might still say there are definite coverage gaps in service, not really for cell phones but for data management between their facilities at 40th and 60th streets and want to pursue the original approvals giving by the planning board and council to locate their tower at Dealy Field. They might also want to pursue a federal level complaint via the FCC. We have to wait and see what they plan to do,” he said.
Inn’s Easement Given
Council approved the request of Springfield Inn to widen by about 10 feet its access from the promenade similar to those easements that have been approved for the amusement arcade, the Spinnaker and others on the boardwalk.
Council’s approval will be passed to the planning board for action.
To contact Camille Sailer, email csailer@cmcherald.com.