By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
The Ocean City Housing Authority is entering a critical phase in the next several months in its plan to develop a 60-unit project that will replace the aging Pecks Beach Village housing complex.
Jacqueline Jones, the housing authority’s executive director, described a series of key preliminary steps that are needed for the design, financing and construction of the estimated $22 million to $23 million project.
One of the first things the authority must do is to meet with a committee of the Ocean City Planning Board in early March to present the proposed designs for the project. Jones said the authority will likely bring the project before the full Planning Board in April for its consideration.
“We’re getting there. We’re getting really, really close,” Jones told the authority’s board members during their monthly meeting Tuesday.
Later, the authority will work with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, and the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency to line up the funding for the project. Ocean City will also contribute to the financing, Jones said.
After the financing is locked in, the authority will seek competitive bids from companies for the construction contract.
In an interview after the authority’s board meeting, Jones estimated that construction likely will start sometime in 2024 and take more than a year to complete.
Leading up to construction, the authority will meet with the residents of the existing Pecks Beach Village housing complex to show them the designs and other aspects of the project. The next meeting with residents is scheduled for early March, Jones said.
“I’m keeping residents up to date with what’s going on,” she said.
Dating to the 1960s, the Pecks Beach Village complex consisted of two parts – a 20-unit development of cottage-style housing for senior citizens and 40 units of affordable housing for families.
The 20 units of senior housing on the north side of Fourth Street were torn down last year to create room for the proposed project consisting of 60 units of housing for families.
The senior citizens who lived in the flood-prone, 20-unit complex were moved into the housing authority’s newly built $7 million, 32-unit Speitel Commons housing development at Sixth Street and West Avenue.
Meanwhile, the existing 40 units of family housing at Pecks Beach Village on the south side of Fourth Street will remain until the authority builds the new 60 units. Afterward, the 40-unit complex will be demolished.
The design of the new project will likely feature duplex-style housing units for the families living there. The authority has repeatedly said that it wants its housing developments to blend in with the surrounding neighborhoods.
The project will help Ocean City meet its state-mandated obligation to provide its “fair share” of affordable housing under a court settlement in 2018.
In 2019, City Council approved a $6.6 million bond ordinance to build or rehabilitate affordable housing sites for senior citizens and low-income families.
