Zoning Ordinance Addresses Parking Problems in Ocean City Neighborhoods

By MADDY VITALE Parking has been a problem for Ocean City for as long as it has been a popular vacation resort. With more and more homeowners, the issue continues to grow. Third Ward City Councilman Jody Levchuk has been vocal about problems brought up by residents in his ward about large homes without adequate parking. The other issue, he said, is residents using what was supposed to be garages as closed-in pool houses or rooms. On Thursday during a brief but busy City Council meeting, Council unanimously adopted a revised ordinance on setbacks for driveways and parking in hopes of ameliorating some of the issues with spillover parking into the street. “I’ve received many phone calls and many emails explaining a parking problem. The neighborhood parking issue is a lot different than the tourism parking issue,” Levchuk said in an interview after the meeting. He noted that the challenges that the ordinance will hopefully lessen is homeowners building large residences without ample parking. “It’s disturbing when I see a seven-bedroom house constructed without proportional parking to go along with it,” he said. Levchuk called the ordinance “a very good first step.” Councilman Tom Rotondi echoed his sentiment. “This is good government. There were some challenges in Jody’s ward. I want to thank the administration for really moving forward,” Rotondi said. Councilman Dave Winslow added, “We still have work to do but a great step in the right direction." Mayor Jay Gillian gives his report to Council. The ordinance specifically lists revisions to the setbacks for driveways and parking spaces. To view the revised ordinance in its entirety, visit ocnj.us and go to “Council Meetings” on the homepage. Here are some of the new requirements as follows:

• Off-street parking spaces “shall not be less than four feet from the established property line or within four feet of any structure.”

• On lots up to 30 feet in width, off-street parking spaces shall not be less than one foot from the property line.

• Access drives for single- and two-family dwellings shall have a minimum of nine feet and utilize concrete aprons.

• For alley lots, driveway access shall be from the alley for all lots adjoining an alley. On lots up to 39.9 feet in width, such driveways shall have a maximum width of 30 feet.

In other matters, Mayor Jay Gillian remarked about a resolution on Thursday’s agenda to hire an attorney in the fight against offshore wind developer Orsted’s plan to run transmission lines underground through an area of the city for its Ocean Wind I project. The resolution was approved to hire attorney Bruce I. Afran to represent the city in the constitutional challenge to the state law of stripping away home rule of local municipalities, specifically involving offshore wind. Ocean City and Cape May County have been fighting Orsted’s proposal to run a transmission line under the beach and through environmentally sensitive areas of Ocean City to connect the offshore wind turbines to the land-based power grid at a substation next to the decommissioned B.L. England Generating Station in Upper Township. “Today’s agenda includes a resolution to award a contract to an attorney who will challenge the state law that strips local municipalities of the power to review offshore wind transmission lines,” Gillian said. “He will argue that it’s not constitutional to single out shore towns targeted by offshore wind companies. That’s not the way laws are supposed to work. The law sets a dangerous precedent for all towns in New Jersey.” During a rally in September, protesters gather on the 35th Street beach in Ocean City in their fight against Orsted's offshore wind farm. For Rotondi, it was his initiative to drive legislation to fight to preserve home rule. He thanked the administration for bringing this resolution to the table. Rotondi noted after the meeting that he had been urging the administration for months, both in Council meetings and behind the scenes, to challenge the state on the constitutionality of stripping away home rule from Ocean City. Home rule has been in place since the inception of New Jersey, and it allows towns to protect themselves from both overreach by the state and by private entities. "I am happy to support this resolution to take the fight to the state and to stop a foreign government from destroying what makes Ocean City great," Rotondi said, referring to the Danish energy giant Orsted. "We may be a little town but we're a great town and we shouldn't be pushed around by the state and especially not from a foreign company."