BY MADDY VITALE
Is a parking garage in Ocean City’s future? It could be a strong possibility.
Parking and traffic issues dominated a Second Ward community meeting hosted by Councilman Tom Rotondi along with Mayor Jay Gillian on Saturday. Both officials answered questions and listened to concerns during the meeting at the Ocean City Tabernacle.
In January, Gillian announced plans for Ocean City to have a consulting firm study potential locations for the construction of “one or more” parking garages on public property. A few months later, the study is close to being released, with officials hoping it will help alleviate the city’s parking shortage, especially during the height of the summer tourism season.
“Within a few weeks the city expects to unveil the results of a parking garage study,” City Business Administrator George Savastano said after the ward meeting.
The study was done at the prompting of some city officials, including Councilman Jody Levchuk. The parking garage study focused on Boardwalk lots and behind City Hall. The study lays out potential construction costs, operating costs and potential revenue for one or more garages in several possible locations.
Gillian said one area that would best suit the community for a parking garage would be in front of the high school.
“Everyone keeps talking about the parking garage,” he emphasized. “I said the best place in the city for the parking garage to go and take care of kids and other residents is in front of the high school, even at the tennis courts where there is parking. We could move the tennis courts.”
The area would be used year-round and provide a safe place for students to park, a place for the teachers to park and for the neighbors to use, he noted.
A resident was concerned about what a parking garage would look like in front of the school, on Atlantic Avenue between Fifth and Sixth streets.
Gillian explained that one idea would be to emulate the look of the high school, red brick, along with providing landscaping to beautify it further. It would look like an attractive building, not a parking garage, he said.
Ocean City’s Second Ward includes addresses from the south side of Fourth Street to the north side of 12th Street. The Second Ward encompasses several key areas of town, including the bayfront and Boardwalk commercial zone.
In addition to a parking garage, other issues discussed were the purchase of a swath of land for parking, truck traffic on Wesley Avenue and speeding along Wesley, Bay and Asbury avenues.
Kathy and Jay Hogan live on Wesley Avenue in the historic district. Kathy Hogan asked Gillian and Rotondi what they can do about truck traffic and speeding down their street. She asked if the speeders could be ticketed, or at the very least, issued warnings for the first offense.
“What can we do about truck traffic? It started with a truck barreling down the street at 5 at 6 a.m.,” she said.
Kathy Hogan also noted that she asked police what could be done about the speeding traffic.
“One Saturday there were five trucks, while I was sitting on my front porch, barreling down the road,” she said.
Bob Marceluk, another resident on Wesley Avenue, said that the street is a main route into Atlantic City for some motorists, and it can get busy. He added that the portable speed-detection signs that are placed on the roadways do little to slow drivers.
Gillian said the street is wide and speeding there is a problem. He urged the Hogans to call Police Chief Jay Prettyman to discuss their concerns.
Wesley Avenue residents Alan and Rose Richter also remarked that their street is nice and wide.
“I do think the speed on Wesley is an issue,” Rose said.
Some residents asked about lowering the speed limit, as was suggested early in the year by Gillian for some of the neighborhoods.
“The speed limit is from Chief Prettyman,” Gillian said. “We’ve had some horrific close calls. We had a horrific accident over a year ago on the north end.”
Addressing the speeding issue, Rotondi told residents that his house on Bay Avenue sometimes shakes when speeding traffic passes by.
Rotondi also told the residents that while he is a ward councilman and works on behalf of the 2nd ward, he wants what is best for the community as a whole and is interested in hearing from all residents who have concerns, ideas, or issues.
In another topic, Gillian mentioned that the city has interest in purchasing a lot for parking at what is supposed to be a condo-hotel site.
The Soleil Resort is a condo-hotel project proposed on an empty lot overlooking the Boardwalk at 11th Street and Ocean Avenue next to the historic Flanders Hotel.
The property has been used for parking for years.
“I’m hoping that the city can buy it for more parking,” Gillian said.
Soleil Resort would include 111 condo units in the proposed six-story building. The proposed luxury hotel has languished on the drawing board for more than 15 years. It received final approval from the Ocean City Planning Board in May 2021.
The two-acre Soleil property is listed for sale on the commercial real estate site LoopNet.com. Currently, no price is listed, but the site was on the market for $30 million in 2018.
