McClains: Move ‘Illegally Placed’ Meters

WILDWOOD — The McClain family, operators of a gas station and service center at 4715 Pacific Ave. since 1976, were surprised on May 25 of this year, to see their lot full of parked cars.
Unfortunately it wasn’t a sign that their business was booming, as the building on their lot was demolished after Edward McClain Sr. lost his battle with cancer in 2004.
The cars, they said, belonged to local businesses patrons and employees, residents and area visitors. David McClain, son of McClain Sr., said that the family refrained from towing the cars and granted everyone 24 hours to remove the vehicles without penalty.
But from then, McClain said frustrations mounted.
Five days later, he said that the city painted parking spots in front of the depressed curb en-trance on Taylor Avenue. Since that day in May, McClain contends that the “illegally placed park-ing meters and parking spots,” still remain, effectively blocking the property’s driveway.
“I can’t even get a truck through to get the grass cut,” McClain said. “And on top of every-thing, I’ve started getting notices about the grass.”
A yellow line clears some space on the Taylor Avenue side, but McClain said that drivers frequently ignore those markings and park anyway.
At an Aug. 8 commissioners’ meeting, ac-companied by friends and family, McClain said city officials told him that when the building was demolished, the property’s use was changed, thus allowing the placement of the parking spaces.
Despite the business being closed and building demolished, the family still owns the property, explained McClain.
“I don’t see how the city could place parking spaces along a privately owned driveway,” McClain said and cited state law, NJRS 39: 4-138, and a city ordinance that he said prohibits the placement of parking meters in front of public or private driveways regardless of the property’s current use.
“We are still trying to figure out exactly what we want to do with the property,” he added “And we never went to get a change of use.”
Mayor Ernie Troiano said he would have to hear from the city solicitor and zoning official before making a decision on what could be done.
“It is just frustrating,” said McClain, who said he has yet to hear of any timeline when the problem could be fixed.
McClain said that after numerous calls to city hall and various promises that the lines would be removed, nothing has happened.
“You would think it would be fairly simple to go out and paint over a few lines and remove some meters,” he added.
In an effort to com-promise, McClain said that he had tried “dis-cussing a win-win solution” that would enable the city to rent the prop-erty for use as a public parking lot.
“It would alleviate the city’s growing need for parking and make effective use of my late father’s lot,” he wrote in six-page correspondence to commissioners.