WILDWOOD – The Board of Commissioners has authorized the creation of a boardwalk redevelopment zone that, if approved by the state, would make it easier for property owners to enhance their sites.
The redevelopment zone, approved by the commissioners April 9, is the result of a study of 134 properties along 29 blocks of the boardwalk, from Cresse Avenue in the south to 26th Avenue in the north, essentially the entire boardwalk.
The study was requested by the commissioners of the Planning Board in October 2022 and undertaken by the architectural firm Clarke, Caton and Hintz, of Trenton.
Under a redevelopment plan, according to the firm’s 103-page report, municipalities may determine whether an area is in need of rehabilitation or redevelopment. The report includes recommendations on a variety of uses, including commercial, retail, hotels and single- and two-family residences.
“The gist (of the plan) is to give property owners the opportunity to expand their business, improve their business, and possibly create living quarters or hotels, or apartments or condos above existing stores,” Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr. said. “This will give the business owners the opportunity to improve or enlarge, and to create a better appearance.”
Folks enjoy a sunny summer’s day on the boardwalk in Wildwood.
The designation of a redevelopment area would give these property owners additional avenues of funding, such as grants or low-interest loans, Troiano said.
Participation by business owners in the designated area would be voluntary.
“If you don’t want to do anything, don’t,” Troiano said. “This is just allowing you to improve your property. You could build a modern, up-to-date hotel, six or seven stories high, and it would be legal.”
The designation would allow store owners to continue operating, but the mayor said his hope is that property owners will take the opportunity to improve and beautify the area.
New Jersey statutes provide the basis for determining whether an area is in need of redevelopment, generally meaning it must meet at least one of eight criteria, including the “impact of a particular area on public health, safety and welfare, primarily through conditions of deterioration, obsolescence, disrepair and faulty designs,” the architectural firm’s report says.
Of the 29 blocks included in the study, 25 were recommended for designation as needing redevelopment because they meet at least one of the eight criteria.
“Surface parking lots make up considerable land use in the study area,” the report says. “In 10 of the blocks, surface parking comprises a majority (at least 50%) of the land area. Surface parking makes up nearly 30% of the entire boardwalk study area.”
The report goes on to say that such parking is not the highest and best use of those properties.
Troiano said the designation of a redevelopment zone would allow owners of such sites to develop them with stores, boutique hotels or some other type of business.
The mayor said, as he has in the past, that he would like to see fewer T-shirt shops with products with vulgar messages and fewer vape shops displaying drug paraphernalia in the windows.
“The inspectors will be a little tougher this year,” he said.
According to the redevelopment plan, posted on the city’s website, the commissioners said that “the Study Area was being considered as a ‘non-condemnation redevelopment area,’ such that the use of the power of eminent domain would not be used within the area in need of redevelopment.”
“Some say (the plan) is nothing more than a ploy to use eminent domain to take these properties,” Troiano said. “There is nothing in the plan about eminent domain. The plan has nothing to do with eminent domain.”
The redevelopment zone was already the subject of a public hearing before the Planning Board. The next step is for the state Department of Community Affairs to review the plan, which must be authorized by the DCA commissioner.
Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
