Mayor's Beautification Plan for Ocean City Property Put on Hold

Mayor Jay Gillian’s plan to give a blighted swath of city-owned land a $1 million makeover for the summer met with resistance Thursday night from City Council and members of the public.

Saying that more discussions were needed about the project, Council voted 7-0 to table a resolution authorizing the award of a $1 million construction contract for the property at 16th Street and Haven Avenue.

Led by Councilman Jody Levchuk, the governing body pressed Gillian for more details about the beautification plan while questioning whether the proposed improvements would be permanent or only temporary.

“A million dollars is a million dollars,” Levchuk said while stressing the high cost of the improvements.

Gillian wants to spruce up the property’s rundown appearance with new curbs, sidewalks, sod and parking for the summer tourism season. The improvements would be a short-term fix while the city discusses much grander, long-term plans for the land to preserve it as open space for public use.

“I just want to get it cleaned up,” Gillian told Council.

He added, “This was the best way to make it look good.”

Gillian apologized to the Council members for not providing them with more information about the project in advance of their meeting Thursday night, including showing all of them a rendering of the improvements that are planned.

“Whatever you guys want to do, I’m with you,” Gillian said when Levchuk and the other Council members mentioned the possibility of tabling the resolution.

    Heavy construction machinery owned by the city's proposed contractor, Lexa Concrete Inc., is parked at the site.
  

At one point, Levchuk got up from his seat and walked to the front of Council’s conference table to grab the rendering. He took the rendering back to his seat and began studying it.

“I just think we need more discussion,” Levchuk said.

Levchuk emphasized that he wants to talk to the neighbors living next to the site to get their feedback about the proposed improvements. The site is located within the city’s Third Ward, which Levchuk represents on Council.

One resident, Helen Struckmann, urged the city to make the complete plans for the property’s beautification available to the public.

The city solicited competitive bids for the project. Lexa Concrete Inc., of Hammonton, submitted the lowest bid of $1 million among seven companies seeking the contract. 

The Council members agreed with Gillian that something must be done to beautify the land, but wanted assurances that most of the improvements wouldn’t go to waste on a short-term project.

City Business Administrator George Savastano told Council that about 8o percent to 85 percent of the improvements would be saved – including new sidewalks, curbs and gutters – for when the city undertakes the property’s permanent revitalization.

The sod would be only temporary, Savastano indicated. The $1 million contract would include $116,000 worth of new sod, but the most expensive items are the sidewalks, curbs and gutters.

Next up, the city must decide its long-range plans for the property. Last year, the city solicited ideas from the public on ways to transform the land.

Suggestions from the public varied widely but fell roughly into three categories: open space and passive recreation, including features such as trails, gardens, fountains and amphitheaters; active recreation, including attractions such as an outdoor pool, skating rink, pickleball courts or fields; and practical uses such as additional parking or affordable housing.

Gillian said the city plans to hire an architect at some point to help craft a long-term vision for the land.

    Voting 7-0, Council members tabled the contract for the property's facelift.
  

One local resident, Susan Cracovaner, expressed concern that the city wants to spend $1 million on an “interim beautification” of the land.

“I do agree that it isn’t the loveliest space to look at and hasn’t been even before it was acquired by the city. My concern lies with the one million dollars being spent for what appears to be an interim beautification project,” Cracovaner said in public remarks during the Council meeting.

Cracovaner maintained that it has taken the city too long to develop a long-term vision for the property since it was acquired in 2021. She noted that the city even held a town hall meeting to gather ideas from the public for converting the land into public use.

“By now, plans should have been made, funds set aside and grant or other funding opportunities exercised so that once the cleanup was complete, execution of the final plan could commence. Instead, taxpayers are being burdened with yet an additional one-million-dollar project and a promise of even more costs for the planning and execution of the final plan,” Cracovaner said.

The land already has had a long and controversial history. Gillian said its permanent revitalization has been slowed down by the need to clean up environmental contaminants in the soil. City officials previously said the contamination is believed to have come from a dry-cleaning business that once operated at the site.

“That thing is such a blight for so long,” Gillian said of the property’s overall appearance.

The property is among three sites the city acquired through eminent domain to create a full block of land bordered by Haven and Simpson avenues between 16th and 17th streets, next to the Ocean City Community Center.

The land will be added to a corridor of open space protected from dense housing construction. The city plans to dedicate a five-block area from 15th Street to 20th Street to open space and public use.

    Environmental cleanup has slowed down the city's plan to transform the site into open space for public use.
  

In 2023, the city finally wrapped up a lengthy legal battle with the private owners of the property next to the Community Center by agreeing to pay $20 million for the land. Using its power of eminent domain, the city acquired the land in 2021 from Klause Enterprises to preserve it as open space after brothers Jerry and Harry Klause proposed to develop the site for housing construction.

The city originally sought to buy the Klause land for $9 million. However, the case went to court over the value of the land. In October 2023, a jury decided that the city should pay Klause Enterprises nearly $17.9 million for the property. Interest payments on top of the nearly $17.9 million pushed the total amount to $20 million.

The property was best known as the former site of the Perry-Egan auto dealership. The city’s main objective in acquiring the land was to stop the site from being densely developed. At one point, the Klause brothers proposed building 22 single-family homes on the land.

Also part of the large tract of land is property at 16th Street and Haven Avenue and at 109 16th Street that the city acquired from Palmer Center LLC, a company owned by John Flood, a developer and a former councilman.

The city initially offered to pay Palmer Center $5.6 million for the land, but both sides ended up in court while fighting over the final price. A jury ruled in January that the city must pay $7.2 million.