CAPE MAY – It’s been known as the Atlas Motor Inn for at least 40 years but it’s about to get a major face lift and a new name, the Ocean Club Hotel, and it may break the rules on parking.
Nick Nezaj, who purchased the hotel at 1035 Beach Avenue earlier this year, appeared before the city’s Planning Board Tue., March 8. He arrived with ambitious plans but agreed to scale them back and return to another meeting.
Nezaj restored the Hotel Alcott on Grant Street, converting it from a former rooming house to a boutique hotel, according to his attorney Louis Dwyer. Nezaj was seeking preliminary and final site plan approval with variance relief for the Atlas project. The six-story hotel faces the beach with a parking lot at the rear of the property along New Jersey Avenue.
Engineer/Planner Vince Orlando, of Engineering Design Associates, representing Nezaj, said the plans called for the elimination of six parking along spaces along Beach Avenue in front of the hotel’s restaurant which would have allowed the restaurant to expand into an outdoor seating area.
Orlando said the city and county prefer to eliminate back-out parking spaces as a safety issue. Plans called for modernizing the hotel including upgrading the interior, swimming pool and restaurant, providing an outdoor patio/deck area, a drop-off area with a valet for arriving guests and a sundeck on the second level over the restaurant/lounge area, he said.
Dwyer said stucco would be applied over the hotel’s brick exterior.
Orlando said the hotel would provide a “first class, destination facility.” Plans called for clear glass panels to fence off the pool and outdoor restaurant seating area. He said the hotel had a number of issues that made it non-conforming to current zoning ordinances including lot coverage and building setbacks. A raised patio for outdoor dining would have extended to the property line.
Old zoning laws allowed restaurants, as an accessory use, to not provide any parking spaces, said Orlando.
He said when the Atlas Motor Inn was constructed, 109 parking spaces for guests were considered adequate taking into account nearby on-street parking spaces.Orlando said the hotel would probably be allowed to continue that under a “grandfather” clause. He said the plans called for 40 additional seats for the restaurant on the outdoor patio.
Attorney Ron Stagliano, of Wildwood, appeared on behalf of nine homeowners on New Jersey Avenue and one homeowner on New York Avenue that had objections to the renovation plans. He asked why the modernization of the hotel could not be accomplished in a manner that would not require variances.
Orlando called expansion of the restaurant an “aesthetic enhancement of the facility,” which advanced one of the purposes of zoning law. He said the hotel was being reduced from 95 rooms to 90 rooms.
Nezaj said the space would be used for office and lobby space and a hospitality suite.
Stagliano said the rear of the property line on New Jersey Avenue, along the parking lot, was completely curb cut. He questioned the safety of 20 spaces there that back out onto New Jersey Avenue which has a bicycle lane.
Stagliano noted that Orlando testified that back out spaces were discouraged by the city and county. Orlando replied that New Jersey Avenue was not a heavily traveled street and the back-out spaces there were “safe and efficient.”
Stagliano asked Orlando if there had been any consideration of an alternative arrangement of the parking spaces in the rear lot. Orlando said other parking scenarios reduced the number of spaces.
Stagliano suggested raised curbing be installed along New Jersey Avenue so there would be one entrance and one exit to the lot. Orlando said the curbing and elimination of the back-out spaces would require the use of stacked parking.
Stacked parking blocks cars in and requires a parking attendant.
Orlando said the parking lot has 103 spaces. He confirmed 90 spaces are for the 90 hotel rooms while 13 spaces are for employees.
Variance relief was being sought for a lack of parking for the restaurant which would require 48 spaces, said Orlando.Stagliano suggested employees could use 12 stacked parking spaces.
Orlando said stacked parking was not permitted by the city. Installing curbing along New Jersey Avenue would create about seven on-street parking spaces, said Stagliano.
Orlando said the Planning Board would have to approve stacked parking for 13 vehicles. Dwyer raised an objection to the questioning noting boards in Cape May have uniformly denied stacked parking for hotels and motels.
“The ordinance prohibits building a restaurant to the property line too, you’re asking for relief from that provision in the ordinance, are you not?” said Stagliano.
He offered a diagram of his alternative parking plan which he said would create stacked parking for a least eight cars. The plan would create a buffer area to include fencing along New Jersey Avenue with a landscaped area, eight on-street spaces and a sidewalk which currently does not exist, said Stagliano.
Dwyer noted there was plenty of on-street parking along Beach Avenue northeast of Madison Avenue other than during “beach hours.”
Board member Jessie Weeks asked if they were short 48 parking spaces. Orlando confirmed that number and said those cars would be expected to use on-street parking.
During a lengthy recess, there was discussion among all parties. When the meeting resumed, board attorney George Neidig said he suggested the applicant return with a revised application to include installing curbing along New Jersey Avenue, pulling back the outdoor dining area from the property line and taking a few seats from the restaurant.
He said the board would consider stacked parking. Nezaj agreed to return with a revised application which will require another hearing on March 22 at 7 p.m.
