WILDWOOD – Everyone agrees Pacific Avenue is in desperate need of new life.
Two stakeholder meetings were held to solicit feedback from residents, business owners, and other interested parties on the problems facing Pacific Avenue, Wildwood’s once-vibrant business district, formerly headlined by A-list entertainers, which has turned into little more than a ghost town of late.
The stakeholder meetings, promoted by Preserving the Wildwoods and precipitated by the award in mid-November 2021 of a New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) Neighborhood Preservation Program grant of $125,000 a year, for five years. The City of Wildwood has committed to matching at least $25,000 per year for the initiative.
Jake Botticello, of Triad Associates, who helped prepare the grant application, said the money is expected to be used for some forward-facing project, not something that might be a maintenance need that has little immediate public impact.
A stakeholder team is responsible for determining the use of the funds, not the city, Botticello added.
Participants on the Zoom calls, held over two nights, were full of different ideas for how to use the money, but they shared one common theme – it’s time everyone start to take a little more pride in the appearance of the area.
After this round of public input, the stakeholder team will draft a plan for how to use the funding, which is due to the DCA by mid-February.
Botticello declined to answer who was on the team during the meeting but emailed a list of members to the Herald. According to Botticello, they are Patrick Rosenello, Taylor Henry, Gloria Dunn, Brendan Sciarra, Dennis Pierce, Mary Lou Wilson, and Mark David Boberick.
It will come back to the city for final approval, and by March 1, there may be work starting on the projects, Botticello said.
This is separate from the Pacific Avenue Redevelopment Initiative, although there is some potential for synergy between the programs, said Botticello. That initiative has about $375,000 committed to it, 80% from the county and 20% from the city, according to County Commissioner Will Morey.
“The timing is just really great,” Morey said. “If there are points of intersection, that could be great.”
John Donio, president of the Wildwood Business Improvement District (WBID), asked how much focus of the funding was to be on minority and women-owned businesses, “an underserved demographic,” according to Donio.
Botticello said the minority and female-owned businesses in the area were thought of as beneficial and considered when drawing up the borders for the district while drafting the grant application.
“I don’t know that there’s built-in favoritism,” Botticello said. “I don’t think that means writing guidelines for a business grant program that says minorities are going to be preferred in this program. It’s about providing that equitable access. There’s a greater population of minority and women-owned businesses in this district than in most other places of Wildwood and probably on the island. That was a part of why this district was competitive in the application process.”
“I’m glad we’re getting on board with that kind of thing,” said Donio, asking if there was a good representation of women and minorities on the committee.
Botticello said there are some women, but he believes some spots on the committee are open and there is hope for more minority representation.
Bike lanes, floral arrangements, planting greenery, efforts to eliminate graffiti, closing the street to traffic, initiatives to attract employees, and other ideas were bounced around during the two meetings. Donio said building owners also need to step up and take care of their properties.
Morey, also a co-owner of Morey’s Piers, presented a rough sketch of one idea for the district, an outdoor café abutting the Verizon building, across the street from Byrne Plaza.
Morey said there have been discussions with Verizon, which owns an imposing, old building on Pacific Avenue, to reduce the size of their parking and allow façade treatments and murals to be added to the building as part of the initiative.
“They don’t really care, I don’t think, about the sidewalk and the outside of the building, so there could be a good synergy there,” Morey said. “I do think there are some areas of collaboration that can be explored here.”
Morey said the initial ask was to take about 20 feet of the front of the building and create a street-level space.
“I think we’ve recognized that’s probably a level of cooperation greater than what we’re going to be successful with, so then we started looking at if we can just aesthetically enhance the outside of the building, creating pedestrian spaces, a courtyard café space, that kind of stuff,” Morey said.
Botticello also said a district branding initiative is being discussed for Pacific Avenue.
To contact Shay Roddy, email sroddy@cmcherald.com.
