Residents Express Concern Over Cape’s Redevelopment Zone

CAPE MAY – The public comment portion of Cape May City Council’s Dec. 19 meeting again had some residents express concern over the city’s investigation of a redevelopment zone designation for the block that houses most of the municipal office buildings.
The block is also home to a shopping center anchored by the city’s only supermarket.
Concerns over the move began almost as soon as the city unveiled its intention to seek planning board guidance on a potential redevelopment zone for the city block bounded by Washington Street, Ocean Street, Lafayette Street and Franklin Street.
Redevelopment Area
Designation as a redevelopment area would allow the city greater flexibility in considering development opportunities including relief from zoning and historic preservation regulations and even potential use of tax abatements.
Gaining such a designation for any area of the city requires a study and appropriate recommendation from the municipal planning board. 
That process includes holding a public hearing on the issue.
Any recommendation from the planning board goes back to the city’s governing body.
City council would then, if it concurred with the recommendation, draft an ordinance requiring another public hearing for its consideration.
If the ordinance were approved, it would need state approval of a proposed development plan for the designated area.
City council began that process when it referred consideration of the redevelopment zone to the planning board. Recently a determination of need report was issued by a professional contractor employed by the planning board.
The Block
The recently completed planning report shows that the city property amounts to one-third of the block’s acreage. The shopping center accounts for a little over 50 percent. 
The remaining properties include the Cape May United Methodist Church, the Macedonia Baptist Church, and a bed-and-breakfast inn. 
The block totals just over 6.5 acres with a little over 6 percent designated for fee-based parking. 
Parking is seen as a major obstacle for development on the block and is a recognized problem for the city as a whole.
The needs report released to the planning board states that the goals of the business district are to “promote stable commercial development, strengthen the economic base of the city, protect the character of commercial areas and nearby districts, conserve the value of land and buildings and promote municipal tax revenues.” 
The needs study concludes that the block “meets one or more of the criteria of an area in need of rehabilitation” under state law.
The study’s redevelopment findings state “The study area offers an opportunity for the preservation and/or upgrade of existing areas, replacement with higher or better use and creation of new permanent jobs and construction employment opportunities.”
The Fears
For some who have opposed the redevelopment zone effort, the argument often revolves around fears that a multistory garage will be placed on the existing surface parking area in the shopping center.
The concern, as expressed at council meetings, is that the development designation is meant to clear the way for the garage free of the usual zoning and historic preservation requirements.
The garage concept is seen by those who oppose it as alien to the character of the historic district.
Resident, Christine Miller, has repeated raised the concern that the whole effort to study the redevelopment zone is aimed at approval of the garage for the benefit of businessman Curtis Bashaw, who, she states, desires the structure so that it can help him meet parking requirements for a new wing on Congress Hall, a business in which he is a principal.
The discussions thus far have been one-sided as the council has not elected to detail its thinking until after the Planning Board reports back.
Major Clarence Lear last week said that he is not comfortable making public comments on the concept of the redevelopment area until “Planning has completed its work.” 
City Development Efforts
Lear released an open letter concerning one set of plans for the city-owned property in the study area block.
In that letter, Lear stated that discussions are ongoing about the potential use of the Franklin Street School, a historic property owned by the city, as a home for the city’s branch of the county library system.  The current home for the city’s library, at Ocean and Hughes streets, is considered inadequate for the programming the library otherwise could provide.
The city is also considering a new public safety complex on land currently used by the Fire Station. The concept would call for a new firehouse and adjacent police department.
Both of those projects would be housed in the block under consideration as a redevelopment area.
The next important step in this process is the announced public hearing before the planning board scheduled for Jan. 9 at 6:30 p.m. in City Hall.