Development, Flooding Concerns Voiced by Sea Isle City Residents

SEA ISLE CITY – This city’s Planning Board organized a special meeting to afford residents and interested parties another opportunity to provide input into two major areas of consideration: economic development and storm water management.
These recommendations continue to be honed and focused by various citizen opinions and working groups and will support the municipality’s five-year master plan which will be adopted later this year.
Regarding economic development, all recommendations continue to focus on the fact that “Sea Isle simply has gotten too dense” as one resident commented during the presentation.
“The mixed use-commercial idea is good but we need to leave the downtown district as is since there simply is too much building going on here. We need to be careful that we don’t have the same overbuilding elsewhere on the island,” he continued.
On the issue of ways to prevent flooding, many concepts dovetailed with those from the summary related to economic development. “While the dunes have really protected the city well it’s now difficult to see over the dunes since the promenade is much lower. So one of the main recommendations here is to build an elevated platform, maybe at 42nd Street, that will provide a lookout to the ocean especially for those who can’t make it on the beach, such as the elderly or disabled,” explained Vice Chairperson Edward Sgalio.
Another problem highlighted during the meeting was that with salt water flooding somewhat curbed by beach replenishment and higher dunes, fresh water flooding from rain and storm surges, as well as from the bay, is of great concern.
“Ocean City is getting pumps; Avalon already is using them to good benefit; our streets are flooding now all the time even at high tide, full moon, what can we do here?,” asked a property owner.
“We are looking at pumps, our study points out we need more state and federal funding for all this type of equipment. We also need to consider better enforcement and maybe even higher levels set for what is allowed regarding impervious surfaces. With some of the new building going on, especially the very large homes, there’s no grass and rain water has no place to go since so much concrete and other impervious surfaces including pavers are problems,” said Sgalio.
“We’re also looking at storm and sewer drains; we need to keep these cleaned out so that the rushing water doesn’t all funnel into Landis Avenue during storm surges. Around 34th Street, which is the lowest area of the island, is especially bad,” added Planning Board member John Divney.
Sustainable New Jersey
Representatives of the Environmental Commission made a case for the municipality to get certified by the not-for-profit statewide organization, “Sustainable New Jersey,” which promotes recycling, reducing emissions and decreasing carbon footprints.
“We’re well on our way to the necessary number of ‘points’ needed to reach bronze status,” explained the representative. Reading from a list of suggested activities, “For example, we already perform tree maintenance, have an environmental commission and a farmers market and do most of the other items necessary for certification.
“Sea Isle is one of the few municipalities in the county not to be a member in the organization and a couple like Cape May City and Stone Harbor have already reached silver status. From 2009-2015 Sustainable New Jersey awarded $2 million in grant funding for 325 projects so it’s going to be a good thing for us to join.”
The planning board agreed to support a resolution that council could pass to advance the process for the city to receive certification.