Ocean City planning board to scrutinize Wonderland site

Ocean City’s planning board will consider whether to declare the former Wonderland Pier amusement park as an area “in need of rehabilitation” in the next critical step for the Boardwalk property’s proposed redevelopment.

The planning board will hold a special meeting 6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 7, in the auditorium of the Ocean City Music Pier, indicating that a large public turnout is expected. Normally, the board holds its meetings in the much-smaller Council chambers at City Hall.

Similarly, City Council held its Dec. 4 meeting at the Music Pier when it voted 4-3 to approve a resolution asking the planning board to consider designating the Wonderland site in need of rehabilitation.

Hundreds of people packed the Music Pier for the Council meeting, which stretched on for four hours and included more than 80 members of the public giving impassioned remarks both in favor of and against a proposed $150 luxury resort hotel proposed at the defunct Wonderland site.

The rehabilitation designation would trigger a process that could possibly lead to a zoning change to permit the 252-room hotel proposed by developer Eustace Mita at the Wonderland property at Sixth Street. Currently, the city’s zoning laws do not allow hotel construction in that section of the Boardwalk.

There is no guarantee that a hotel will be built or even given final approved, but the rehabilitation process does create a legal pathway for the project.

    The former Wonderland Pier's sprawling facade overlooks the Boardwalk at Sixth Street.
  

During its Jan. 7 meeting, the planning board will only consider whether to declare the Wonderland site in need of rehabilitation. The board will not discuss the hotel itself or any possible zoning change at the Wonderland property to accommodate the project, according to the meeting agenda posted on the city's website Wednesday.

Randall Scheule, the planning board’s professional planner, said the question of whether to grant rehabilitation status to the Wonderland site “would in no way serve as an endorsement or approval of any specific use or project, nor would it confer development rights.”

“Rather, the referral would be the first step in a public process to consider the best way to revitalize the Property,” Scheule wrote in a Dec. 23 memo to the planning board that is attached to the meeting agenda.

The board will review the condition of the Wonderland site and its impact on neighboring properties and the city in general while considering whether to declare it in need of rehabilitation, Scheule said.

It will make its recommendation “with respect to whether it is in the best interest of the citizens of the City or Ocean City to declare the Property to be an area in need of rehabilitation” and “to prevent further deterioration and promote overall development of the community,” he wrote in the memo.

If the planning board recommends rehabilitation status for the Wonderland site, the issue would later come back to City Council for a separate vote by the governing body. Later, Council would have to approve a formal redevelopment plan for the Wonderland property to allow the hotel.

    Hundreds of people packed the Music Pier auditorium during the Dec. 4 City Council meeting.
  

The Wonderland hotel proposal has bitterly divided the community for months. Council initially voted 6-1 in August not to ask the planning board to consider designating the property in need of rehabilitation. But Council reversed itself in the 4-3 vote on Dec. 4 following an intense lobbying campaign by the city’s business groups in favor of the hotel.

Hotel supporters believe the project is urgently needed to boost the Boardwalk and the entire city with more tourism and economic activity. Opponents of the project maintain that the hotel would overwhelm the surrounding neighborhoods and would not fit in with Ocean City’s family-friendly atmosphere.

Both hotel supporters and opponents are expected to turn out in force at the planning board meeting, which is why it has been moved to the Music Pier auditorium.

The anti-hotel group Ocean City 2050 has repeatedly raised the specter of a costly and lengthy legal battle to stop the project from ever being built.

In an email to its members in advance of the planning board meeting, Ocean City 2050 is questioning whether the city is being transparent with the public by seeking a rehabilitation designation for the Wonderland site instead of pursuing a “proper planning process.”

“Further, all of this will lead to litigation, which we are fully prepared to bring. This would be unfortunate as it could be avoided if the city kept its promises and engaged in the right processes that place compromise over conflict,” Ocean City 2050 said in the email.

    Wonderland Pier's landmark 140-foot-tall Ferris wheel now sits idle in the locked-up property.
  

Wonderland Pier had been owned by Mayor Jay Gillian’s family since the 1960s. Despite its history and iconic status, the amusement park closed in October 2024 following years of financial difficulties, leaving a vacant site at Sixth Street. Gillian recently filed for bankruptcy, citing nearly $6 million in personal debts.

Mita bought the Wonderland site in 2021 for a reported $14 million to save it from a sheriff’s sale after Gillian defaulted on an $8 million mortgage. He allowed Gillian to operate the amusement park until it shut down last year. When Wonderland closed, Mita proposed his hotel in place of the amusement park.