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Nov. 11 to 17
He’s Back
Eustace Mita, chief executive officer of Icona Resorts, is back with a proposal for a major resort hotel complex in Ocean City. This time it has been tweaked to include rides from the now closed Wonderland Pier. Mita gained ownership of the large parcel of land on which the pier sits when he bailed out Mayor Jay Gillian, the pier’s then-owner, just ahead of a sheriff’s sale. Mita took ownership of the site while Gillian continued to run his business through a lease.
With the Wonderland Pier closing in October, the way was open for Mita to make yet another pitch for a resort complex in Ocean City. This time he is doing it as a major land owner in the city.
Mita began the search for a site to develop what would be Icona’s largest resort when he first proposed a $150 million complex on Beach Avenue in Cape May City. He made a PowerPoint presentation of his proposal to a town hall meeting at the Cape May Convention Center in 2022, seeking redevelopment authority in the area of the old Beach Theater. His proposal to Cape May fell flat, with the city’s governing body putting out the word quickly that the council had no interest in entertaining his proposal for a major hotel complex as part of a redevelopment zone.
Next Mita took his proposal to Ocean City, where he met with similar rejection in early 2023 of a $150 million to $175 million proposal for an ocean-facing resort hotel. In an interview with the Herald, Mita said he would return his attention to the site of his first choice, Cape May City.
Instead Mita has now returned to Ocean City and the site of the closed Wonderland Pier. He now has what he did not have the first time he brought a proposal to the city, ownership of a parcel sufficient to his proposed development.
Keith Hartzell, the council member from the ward where the Wonderland Pier site is located, has come out in opposition to Mita’s new plan to incorporate iconic Wonderland rides into his resort proposal. Hartzell cites the size of the complex and parking issues as major objections. He also points to Mita’s continuing desire for a redevelopment zone designation.
And the beat goes on.
Climate Change Center Stage
Representatives of 198 countries gathered on Nov. 11 in Baku for COP29, the annual Conference of the Parties to the Convention, with the convention being the UN Convention on Climate Change in 1992. The first summit of the signers to the convention was in Berlin in 1995. This convention served as the basis for numerous climate-related agreements like the Paris accords of 2015.
November also marks the election of Donald Trump for a non-consecutive second term. It was Trump in his first term who pulled the United States out of the Paris accords. In the United States the expectation, based on campaign statements, is that a Trump administration will encourage additional production of oil and gas, seeking a more diverse energy portfolio that does not pursue green energy options with the same aggressiveness as the Biden administration.
In New Jersey this sets up the 2025 election for governor, where climate-based policies are likely to be critical issues in the campaign. New Jersey and Virginia are the only states that hold gubernatorial elections the year after presidential elections. New Jersey clearly leans Blue, but Democrats have not won three consecutive terms in the governor’s office since 1961.
For the Democrats, who must decide whether to defend and further push Gov. Phil Murphy’s green agenda, there are six declared candidates, one more likely by the time this goes out to readers and one other in a pending state. The one certainty is that Sen. Cory Booker has said no thanks. The Republican field is also crowded with six candidates already declared.
New Jersey’s controversial new coastal development rules, dubbed REAL by the state Department of Environmental Protection, are currently on track to be adopted by August 2025. The on-again, off-again state offshore wind projects also received a boost when the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management gave the OK to the planned Atlantic Shores 197-turbine wind farm off the coast between Atlantic City and Long Beach Island. The Baku conference also comes as the Garden State is in the midst of its worst drought in 20 years, which climate activists say is related to global warming.
The race for governor will give the country the first post-presidential election view of how voters see climate policies going forward.
New Embrace for Nuclear Power
The country is embracing nuclear power again with a Biden administration plan to at least triple nuclear power generation by 2050. The new proposal calls for 200 gigawatts of net new capacity from new reactors, the rehabilitation of idled reactors and upgrades of generating equipment at existing plants.
The plans call for 35 gigawatts of new capacity by 2035 and a sustainable increase of 10 gigawatts per year by 2040. These proposals come following on the heels of a Microsoft agreement to power data center needs through an arrangement that restores the undamaged reactor at Three Mile Island, the site of the country’s worst nuclear plant disaster and once a symbol of public opposition to nuclear power.
The Biden administration links this new set of goals to its existing plans to achieve a net zero emissions economy by 2050. Opponents of nuclear power wasted no time in opposing the new plan. Saying that a renewed reliance on nuclear power risks meltdowns and contaminated drinking water, several environmental groups see the effort to rejuvenate nuclear power as a distraction from cheaper and cleaner energy from sources like solar power and wind.
It is important to note that all of these plans, which include the restart of closed reactors, are calling for something that has yet to ever be done. Experts are not in agreement about how many idled reactors are candidates for restarts. Meanwhile the Nuclear Regulatory Agency held its first public meeting on the plan to restart the Three Mile Island reactor.
The NRC also has raised questions about how the restart of Unit 1 at Three Mile Island would impact the ongoing efforts to decommission Unit 2. It was Unit 2 that suffered a partial meltdown in March 1979. Investment in nuclear comes as the central role for natural gas in the nation’s energy future gains visibility.
In Cape May County a generation plant that could easily have been converted to natural gas failed to get approval for its pipeline and has been demolished. This in a state that generates only about 75% of its consumption before it must rely on our-of-state sources. Now natural gas, as well as nuclear power, is making a comeback. A senior vice president at North Carolina-based Duke Energy put it succinctly: “Natural gas is the best option out there to maintain customer reliability, reduce emissions and keep energy rates affordable for those we serve.”
Happenings
*Members of a Villas family who were injured in a crash in Maurice River Township Oct. 30 were bringing home from the hospital a relative who had been hurt in a car accident the day before.
*For veterans and their widows across the county who find themselves homeless, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder or needing help for anything from rides to medical appointments to building a ramp or seeking information, the Citizens and Veterans Advisory Committee is the “front line for vets who often slip through the cracks.”
*Woodbine voters chose overwhelmingly in the Nov. 5 election to provide a financial incentive for volunteer firefighters, passing a question on the ballot.
*Local government leaders, law enforcement and community members gathered across the county on Monday, Nov. 11, in honor of Veterans Day, to remember and celebrate those who have served the United States in the armed forces.
*New Jersey’s “looming fiscal crisis over the next four budget years is more dire” than economic forecasts from 2023 projected, according to a study by the Sweeney Center at Rowan University.
*Cape May County’s most recent road death on Nov. 8 brought the number of county road fatalities to seven, the same number as that for all of 2023. Of those seven fatalities, four occurred in accidents on state highways 47 or 347.
*The new year will include at least one change in Wildwood Crest, as Administrator Connie Mahon has confirmed she will be retiring effective Jan. 1.
*Gov. Phil Murphy has declared a drought warning for all of New Jersey, giving the state a stronger hand in working with water system operators and intensifying calls for water conservation by the public.
*The Murphy administration has announced $150 million in fiscal year 2025 municipal aid grants, with 540 cities and towns across the state receiving funds to advance road, bridge, safety and quality-of-life improvements.
*The final vote tally in the election for the Cape May Point Board of Commissioners has most likely been settled even though it is still unofficial.
*The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities has approved a series of energy efficiency programs for the state’s electric and gas utilities, including Atlantic City Electric. The programs bring along with them increased costs to ratepayers.
*Four local women were named 2024 Women of Wonder at an awards luncheon held Thursday, Nov. 14, at the Flanders Hotel in Ocean City.
*In separate meetings on Nov. 12 the governing bodies of Dennis Township and Sea Isle City authorized an agreement to share municipal court services. The change comes at the end of a 10-year arrangement made in 2014 in which Dennis shared court services with Upper Township.
*The Leapfrog organization, a national nonprofit that focuses on improvements in hospital patient safety, has released its fall 2024 hospital safety ratings.
*The Cape May County Bridge Commission has announced that, due to scheduled maintenance, traffic on the Middle Thorofare Bridge is expected to experience slight delays in the mornings and afternoons on select days this month.
*Developer Eustace Mita has unveiled plans for a 7.5-story, 252-room luxury hotel on the site of the closed Gillian’s Wonderland Pier in Ocean City.
