Assessment of the Ocean City Boardwalk Sub-Committee Final Report, Prepared by OC2050, June 2026
Summary
The Boardwalk Subcommittee Final Report, presented to City Council on June 12, 2026, reflects the culmination of seven months of research and deliberation by a nine-member volunteer committee established by Council President Terry Crowley in the fall of 2025. The committee examined 11 data categories across physical, economic, social, and comparative dimensions, producing findings on hotel market conditions, parking revenue, beach tag trends, amusement industry challenges, stakeholder sentiment, and peer community benchmarks.
The report concludes that demographic shifts in travel behavior, the closure of Wonderland Pier, and outdated ON-BD zoning regulations have collectively weakened the boardwalk’s economic ecosystem, and that updating the zoning framework — particularly through conditional use provisions — is necessary to support long-term success. It makes ten formal recommendations ranging from implementing unfinished 2019 Master plan directives to dynamic parking pricing, to conditional use approvals for residential units above stores and right-sized hotel development at sites like 600 Boardwalk
What the Report Got Right
1. The report’s strong diagnostic work is strong.
It brings critical attention to the loss of entertainment options on our boardwalk, noting that amusement and entertainment, which have historically been the top draw for visitors and the primary economic engine for the area, now make up the smallest portion of boardwalk business (currently 55% of boardwalk businesses are food-related, 30% retail, and only 15% entertainment). The Subcommittee also correctly identifies that retail and food businesses depend on strong anchor attractions to generate foot traffic, and that Wonderland’s closure disrupted that ecosystem in ways that continue to reverberate.
2. The regulatory analysis identifies important legal and environmental considerations for development
Erosion Hazard Area
CAFRA Individual Permit requirements
Ocean City’s reclassification from a coastal regional center to an environmentally sensitive area
REAL Act flood elevation requirements
eight-to-setback restrictions.
The report also acknowledges that these site-specific factors directly affecting what can safely and legally be built, require further professional engineering analysis before any development proceeds.
3. The hotel market data supports a hotel, within reason.
Jersey Shore hotel room inventory and occupancy rates have been flat to slightly declining for a decade. While some of that is a shift from traditional hotel rooms to transient lodging like VRBO, the report notes a modest trend towards more upscale hotel accommodations. These findings support the argument that some additional lodging capacity, done right, could fill a genuine (but modest) market gap.
4. The committee’s findings note that visitors cite the unique character of their travel destination as a top draw.
The report finds that travelers seek authenticity, local character, and a sense of place they cannot find anywhere else — and that destinations that embrace their unique character outperform those that do not. Ocean City’s family-friendly vibe is exactly the type of authentic experience that can be leveraged.
5. The committee’s framing of 600 Boardwalk as a conditional use opportunity reflects sound planning and a meaningful departure from prior proposals to the site.
It recommends that any hotel development be required to preserve boardwalk character, avoid overwhelming adjacent residential neighborhoods, and include public-facing entertainment, dining, and retail components. The Subcommittee did not specify similar conditions for residential over retail on the rest of the boardwalk, but that is something that should be addressed going forward.
What Comes Next
The Subcommittee has provided a strong foundation, but several considerations for translating their findings into enforceable zoning standards warrant focused attention as this work moves forward.
1. Ensuring the proposed residential solutions help solve the Boardwalk entertainment problem.
The report’s central finding is that the boardwalk’s loss of entertainment is a primary economic concern, yet the two recommended conditional uses put forth in the report— residential above retail and hotel development — do not by themselves bring entertainment back to the boardwalk. But they can, if both uses carry binding, measurable entertainment requirements as conditions of approval.
Under N.J.S.A. 40:55D-67, conditional use standards may lawfully require minimum entertainment square footage, year-round public operating hours, specific use mandates such as arcade or performance space. The city may also include enforcement provisions that treat failure to operate entertainment components as a zoning violation affecting the entire approval.
Implementing zoning amendments that safeguard entertainment on the boardwalk is where the Subcommittee’s good ideas now need to become commitment to sustainable and smart growth for Ocean City.
2. Finishing an independent market study before making any zoning amendments.
The report wisely calls for a market study and other data collection related to customer preferences so that an informed decision can be made. However the report’s own recommendations have been drawn before any such study has happened.
It’s crucial that this now take place before any zoning amendments are considered. The study should address not only the economic viability of what is needed for a healthy boardwalk, but also the question the committee’s own research makes urgent: How important is the boardwalk’s low-rise, open, connected character to our identity and appeal? If Ocean City’s competitive advantage lies in its authenticity — as the report compellingly argues — then the market study must assess whether the proposed zoning changes, and their likely results, protect or weaken our city as an attractive destination.
3. Evaluating the urban design implications of residential above retail.
Part of what makes the Ocean City boardwalk special is its human scale and visual connection to the surrounding town. Buildings rising two and three stories above the current roofline could gradually create a canyon effect that separates the boardwalk from adjacent neighborhoods; turning what is now an open, connected promenade into something that begins to look like other over-developed American waterfronts. The Subcommittee notes that adequate “setbacks” of upper-story additions to buildings on the boardwalk may help minimize some of this detrimental impact, but doesn’t provide evidence to support this.
Professional three-dimensional modeling, made available for public review before any zoning amendment is considered, would allow the community to see what the visual impact of any zoning changes may be. The city should also consider whether residential-above-retail belongs throughout the ON-BD zone or only in selected locations.
4. Preserving and honor the planning process the committee endorses.
The Subcommittee explicitly says that the city should use existing Planning Board and Zoning Board processes to guide development of new projects in the ON-BD zone. This is one of the report's most important points. The Subcommittee defines a conditional use as one that “is not permitted by right but is allowed if it meets specific conditions stipulated in the zoning ordinance,” and recommends that 600 Boardwalk be evaluated through the normal Planning Board process, with every application evaluated on its own merits.
Conclusion
The committee’s insistence on following existing guidelines for planning, its respect for Ocean City’s family-friendly character, and its honest accounting of the boardwalk’s structural and economic challenges are a positive step forward. A diverse group of residents, business owners, council members, and planning professionals have helped to produce a data-driven, community-grounded framework that gives Ocean City a shared starting point for a conversation that we are optimistic can bring us back together over an issue that has too often generated more conflict than progress.
It’s now up to us and our city’s elected leadership to build on that work carefully and thoughtfully. We need to conduct a rigorous and independent market analysis, draft enforceable zoning standards supported by that data, and incorporate robust and honest public input as we move forward together on our vision for Ocean City.
Done well, that process will deliver what the committee set out to achieve: a boardwalk that is economically vital, authentically Ocean City, and built to last.
