Hoping for a Consensus on the Wonderland Site
Originally published in Cape May County Herald
by Bill Barlow
OCEAN CITY — Getting a plan approved for the former Wonderland Pier amusement park site at Sixth Street and the boardwalk will require compromise all around, City Council member Keith Hartzell said at a recent meeting.
He suggested the right plan could unite the council, which so far has not unanimously supported any step in the process of considering a proposed hotel for the property.
“We’re hoping to get a 7-0 vote. We’re hoping to work that closely together that this plan meets everybody’s needs in the community,” Hartzell said at the meeting. “That’s going to take some work. Give us time.”
Previous votes that have taken place, from whether to seek Planning Board input on designating the site as an area in need of rehabilitation last year to the approval of that designation in June, have passed with a divided vote on the council, which typically included Hartzell among the ‘no’ votes.
The hotel plans have also proven divisive in the community, with opponents rallying against the initial proposal for a 250-plus-room hotel with parking underneath and retail on the ground floor. Some said it was just too big, while others held out hope for a return to Wonderland, which closed at the end of the 2024 season.
The operator, Jay Gillian, said at the time that it was no longer a viable business. Gillian is also the community’s long-serving mayor, reelected to a fifth term in the spring. His family business faced foreclosure under the weight of millions of dollars in debt when developer and hotelier Eustace Mita stepped in with an influx of cash in 2021.
That left Mita holding the deed on the property, which he leased back to the amusement park for a few summers.
Mita has maintained that the property could never go back to being an amusement park, saying it would require a massive investment, and no amusement operator was interested. He asked the city to declare the site as being in need of rehabilitation, a route that could allow the use variance a hotel would need for the property.
In September, a section of wall on a structure in the back of the property collapsed. City officials said the cinder-block wall was inside the property, not somewhere where passersby could be endangered.
The collapse received extensive media attention, City Administrator George Savastano said at the same council meeting.
“Our construction official inspected the property, issued a notice of ‘unsafe structure,’ and directed the owner to provide an engineer’s report with a corrective plan of action to address the matter,” Savastano said. That report is expected in a couple of weeks, he said.
The notice was limited to the specific area below a deck in the rear of the property, he said, adding that the city has no involvement beyond that.
Mita has met with members of the City Council to discuss plans. He has said in previous interviews that he is willing to compromise, and that a new proposal would be smaller than what he initially brought forward.
As part of his original pitch, Mita has said he would preserve the iconic Ferris wheel and other rides, but more recently has said rehabbing the existing wheel would not be practical.
Because the site has been declared an area in need of rehabilitation, the council will have a vote on a rehabilitation plan. That puts the elected officials at the center of a planning process that would normally go to the Planning Board without council input.
Hartzell said he wants to see family-friendly entertainment at the property, and for Mita to be responsive to the residential neighborhood near the site.
“But we also need to address the fears and concerns of the public,” he said. “There’ll be no condo development at all, and there will be no sale of alcohol on the property. I can guarantee that.”
He cited the recommendations prepared by a subcommittee created last year to review zoning issues on the boardwalk, including the Wonderland property.
One unanimous vote, after an initial delay, accepted the recommendations of the subcommittee, which included three council members and members of the public.
“There’s clear guidelines in this as to what we would expect at 600 Boardwalk. And I think we’re all committed to those guidelines,” said Council member Dave Winslow, who led the subcommittee.
Those include a call for an entertainment component to any hotel construction and a proposal that would not overwhelm the neighborhood.
As part of his comments, Hartzell said people may not think it possible to reach consensus on a plan. But he pointed to the former Seaspray condominium on Bay Avenue, closed as unsafe over the past two summers.
There, too, the city declared an area in need of rehabilitation and the old structure is set for demolition, to be replaced with a new multiunit residential use.
Bill Merritt, a member of the group Ocean City 2050, which is suing the city over the rehabilitation designation for the Wonderland site, said at the meeting that a plan that could unite the City Council might also have a chance of uniting the city.
“There are diverse views on this council and … if you can find that common ground where all of you would agree, I actually think that’s going to be a great place for us to be as a community,” he said.
Marie Crawford, a neighbor, said the city was mourning the news that the Ferris wheel would come down, describing it as a light over Ocean City.
“People are grieving over that light going out,” she said. She called for the preservation of the Wonderland carousel, said to be a century old. The ride remains inside at the Wonderland site.
“It’s another sadness for our city to feel if that is allowed to sit in there and rot,” she said. “People feel like the joy is leaving Ocean City.”
Contact reporter Bill Barlow at bbarlow@cmcherald.com.
Article reprinted with permission of Cape May County Herald
