Store owners: Zoning change bad for business

By COLUMB HIGGINS
Staff Writer
OCEAN CITY – City council is scheduled to vote this week on a downtown zoning ordinance that has been almost a year in the making.
The zoning change is all business. It seeks to draw down the amount of residential construction and increase the viability of retail in Ocean City’s downtown.
The measure finalized last week would limit the amount of residential in the city’s central business zone, located between Seventh and 10th streets on Asbury Avenue, and increase required commercial spaces.
For instance, on 30-foot lots on Asbury Avenue, developers would only be able to build one residential unit as opposed to two. With 30-foot lots comprising half of the total lots in the downtown, there are more than 100 in all, Mayor Sal Perillo said the ordinance would effectively curtail residential development.
“The downtown has been very heavily weighted in the residential direction in the past,” Perillo said this week. “We’re now moving in the opposite direction. We are reducing the residential development by half.”
Parking requirements will also be stricter in the downtown when it comes to residential. Each residential unit will be required to provide two parking spaces instead of one.
“Adequate parking means residents won’t be competing with customers over the use of parking,” the mayor said.
The ordinance would also institute design standards on Asbury Avenue, essentially doing away with the look of storefronts with duplexes overhead, Perillo said. Among the standards are stricter regulations that will create smaller decks on the second and third floors.
Commercial space will also be increased to 1,400 square feet. For 30-foot wide lots, the second floor, where residential is usually located, will also have to provide an additional 900 square feet of commercial space.
Paul Schaeffer, who owns property downtown, said he and other store owners think the zoning change is bad for business. Schaeffer sought to redevelop his Denovum store on the corner of Ninth Street and Asbury Avenue last year.
On Tuesday, he said the new rules would effectively stop all development downtown. Schaeffer said it was doubtful whether owners would choose to take the risk, or whether they could get a commercial loan to finance redevelopment even if they decided to take the chance.
“This will make sure the downtown is stagnant,” said Schaeffer. “This will effectively devalue the 30-wide properties. It won’t let people develop. It’s very hard to get a commercial loan. There’s more risk. Without residential units to offset that risk, there is no incentive.”
Schaeffer also complained that many downtown property owners’ concerns would not be addressed in the ordinance. He said he didn’t see the zoning ordinance until Monday.
“The planning board is scheduled to have a discussion on it the day before council votes,” he said. “It is just being shoved down our throats. We have had no voice.”
Councilman Jody Alessandrine was a council representative along with Councilmen Michael Allegretto and Scott Ping to the planning subcommittee that developed the ordinance. He said Tuesday that the ordinance was an improvement to what is currently in place, but that he considers it only a stopgap measure.
“Right now there is a de facto moratorium in the downtown,” Alessandrine said. “This will at least allow for some type of redevelopment.”
Alessandrine said he and his fellow councilmen fought an attempt by the administration to require commercial space on the second floor of all properties and not just 30-foot lots. He said that requirement would have derailed any plans for redevelopment in the downtown, though he conceded redevelopment under the currently proposed ordinance is also doubtful.
“This is like kissing your sister,” Alessandrine said. “This is not the panacea. But working with this planning board and this administration, this is the best we could do at this time.”
Perillo said he didn’t expect unanimous support from the community or city council, but said the zoning would do what is best for Ocean City.
“You can never achieve unanimity in zoning,” Perillo said. “But the additional commercial space will make commercial more viable in the future. It will make people more interested in Ocean City.”

Columb Higgins can be e-mailed at chiggins[at]catamaranmedia.com or you can comment on this story by calling 624-8900, ext. 250, or visit Speak Out.