Parking shortage hampers Ocean City zoning
By MICHAEL MILLER Staff Writer, (609) 463-6712
Published: Wednesday, October 11, 2006
OCEAN CITY — City Council's efforts Tuesday to make downtown zoning more business-friendly were repeatedly foiled by a parking shortage.
Council is revising its zoning rules for the Commercial Business zone, which includes most of the downtown. In a workshop meeting Tuesday, parking was a recurring theme.
The city's consultant, Taylor Design Group, said the downtown will face increasing parking problems under existing zoning unless the city intervenes.
Council wants to preserve downtown businesses, which have been under increasing residential development pressure. The downtown requires ground-floor commercial space, typically a mix of restaurants and retail stores.
“The only reason someone would put a store underneath (now) is because they have to do it,” Council President Jack Thomas said.
In a letter to council Monday, Mayor Sal Perillo said residential development was incompatible with the downtown's small retail lots.
“The core problem with excessive residential development in the downtown is that it is competing with commercial uses for valuable ground floor space and … scarce parking,” Perillo wrote.
“In Ocean City we are trying to squeeze a supersized duplex … on a 30-foot lot with a retail store on the first floor. It just does not fit.”
Consultant Michelle Taylor said the city would need to find as many as 873 parking spaces if the downtown were rebuilt to at highest density. The numbers were the subject of some dispute.
Councilman Keith Hartzell, who lives and owns several properties downtown, disputed the worst-case scenario, noting that many of the properties were untouched during the island's latest building boom. He noted the unlikelihood of all of the affected properties being rebuilt immediately.
“This document makes it look like all three blocks (between Seventh and 9th streets) are coming down and we have a 500-space deficiency,” Hartzell said.
But council is looking at changes to zoning in the top floors and what impact those changes will have on parking.
One solution proposed Tuesday was to force city employees to park at the Transportation Center or at Fifth Street instead of the busy lot behind City Hall.
Council also considered banning all new commercial offices from the downtown for fear employees in them would take up valuable public parking.
Hartzell, president of Main Street Ocean City, said studies have shown that seasonal residents who live downtown spend far more in just six months than employees who work downtown spend in a year.
He said parking is only a major problem for customers and businesses alike two months of the year.
Besides, he said, the downtown has several vacant offices.
“We don't see the benefit of professional offices in a retail area. It's not appropriate for those three blocks,” Hartzell said.
Taylor strongly disagreed. She said imposing any limits on property use would hamstring the downtown.
“You need to open your mind. Open more and restrict less,” she said.
Councilman Scott Ping said the current real-estate market favors residential construction over commercial space. He suggested council let the market dictate the use.
The draft ordinance is available online at www.ocean-city.nj.us/
To e-mail Michael Miller at The Press:
MMiller@pressofac.com
