CAPE MAY – At the Cape May City Council meeting July 23, several spoke during public comment, with one urging council to “get on top of it while you can.” The speaker was referring to growing development in the Victorian resort, which some feel threatens the historic character of the city.
While the discussion focused on a small set of home-building projects, including one on Washington Street whose size “is disproportionate to anything on the street,” according to a neighbor, the debate is one which has occurred in the city off and on since community leaders first took the turn toward developing a historic Victorian-era-themed community beginning in the 1960s and leading to the city being designated a National Historic Landmark May 11, 1976.
The city has twice been placed on a federal watch list of landmarks in trouble in 1996 and 2011. Recovering from both, it has held its status for over 40 years with the governing body receiving periodic warnings about the dangers of uncontrolled development from citizens who place keeping the status among the city’s top priorities.
This was one of those times when several residents came forward to urge caution, as the city tries to balance preservation with development.
Cape May – To the Cape May Spouter complaining that the Spouts are no longer "just Good Old Local Gossip, that's fun to read", let me remind them that Pope Francis said "Gossip is an evil…
