PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — There could be new life for the former site of the Wonderland Pier on the Ocean City, New Jersey boardwalk, after council voted Thursday to have the planning board evaluate the area for possible rezoning.
However, it doesn’t necessarily mean the property owner’s plans to put a hotel on the site will come to fruition.
The vote was a slim 4-3 to enlist the planning board for the next step in determining what comes after Wonderland Pier, which closed last October.
However, a much greater majority of the more than 80 speakers during the community input portion of Thursday night’s council meeting spoke in favor of involving the planning board.
Bob Waite was one of the residents in favor of redeveloping the Wonderland site into a hotel.
“We sit here and call ourselves a tourist town, but if you’re somebody that just wants to come down for two days, three days, there’s no place to stay,” Waite said.
“So I think it just makes good business sense.”
A hotel would be the preferred outcome for owner Eustice Mita. But the council’s actions merely task the planning board with considering the merits of rehabilitating and re-zoning the site to allow for something other than an amusement park.
Some residents oppose a high-rise hotel. Dave Hayes said a high-rise hotel would not benefit the community.
“Redevelopment hotels, they open the door to liquor,” Hayes explained.
“So once we get liquor and once we get high rises, it’s going to change the whole character of the town, and it’s just going to wreck it.”
Once the planning board decides, the issue returns to city council for their final say.