Is it a residential community or will it be welcoming to tourists?
SOMERS POINT — Somers Point has an identity problem. Is it a residential seaside community or a tourist town?
That issue was at the heart of the debate June 12 when City Council voted 4-3 to extend the minimum stay at short-term rental properties from three to seven nights.
Those on one side spoke of wanting to maintain the city as a residential community, something they said having new neighbors as often as every three days did not promote.
During the meeting, city police officer Nick Wagner, who sits on the Board of Education, operates the Police Athletic and Activities League and coaches youth sports, said it is getting more difficult to field teams because fewer people are living in the city year-round.
“I really think the question is what type of city or community do we want? What is the direction we want to go? Do we want to be more like our neighbors of Linwood, Northfield and Egg Harbor Township or do we want to be like Ocean City?” he said. “We are not Ocean City, but I do recognize that is the tourist destination that everybody desires to come to.”
Homebuilder Paul Striefsky, who is chairman of the Planning Board, said the 2012 Master Plan re-examination noted the city is a tourist town with waterfront amenities. He said the city is currently undergoing another re-examination and through five meetings “no one from City Council ever spoke up about this rental situation.”
“We all came down to the shore at one point or another for vacation, and some of us couldn’t afford to be here for a week, a month, the season. We came down on the weekend. We stayed three days, went back home, came back again,” he said. “The Shore Starts Here is our logo and we spend thousands of dollars marketing to bring tourists here, and now you want to say ‘you can come but you have to stay seven days.’”
The city’s location along Great Egg Harbor Bay and its bridges leading into Ocean City — known as America’s Greatest Family Resort — have always made Somers Point a popular summer destination, as evidenced by its many bars and restaurants, but with the island’s real estate hitting record sale amounts and more people working remotely from their shore homes, it is even more popular than ever with visitors.
Owners of the rental properties, which said they stood to lose a vast majority of their business through the change, argued the city saw that ship sail away when it created its regulations and perhaps long before that.
According to Joe Brozetti of the Somers Point Hosts and Residents Coalition, polling from group members and national data from comparable coastal towns show that about 80 percent of short-term bookings are for fewer than seven night.
“That reflects how people travel today. Weekend getaways, family visits, quick escapes, people coming back to Somers Point that retired to Florida,” Brozetti said. “Not everyone has the time or budget for a full week’s stay.”
He said today’s issues with transient occupancy are the result of a larger trend following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Remote work, second-home ownership and flexible travel habits have changed who comes to Somers Point, why and how they engage with our community. These trends are not only well documented nationally, but they are echoed by our committees who affirmed our town’s evolution into a coastal destination,” he said.
In 2015, the Economic Development Advisory Commission started an advertising campaign aimed at buyers of second homes.
The same year, EDAC worked with Suasion Communications Group to create a video promoting home ownership. The video was distributed online and via email, and the campaign included print media and radio ads in local and Pennsylvania markets.
At the time, EDAC said prices on some local barrier islands were out of reach for many prospective homebuyers, making Somers Point more attractive for vacation or retirement homes.
During his run for City Council in 2016, Dennis Tapp, now the mayor, touted the city’s second-home campaign as a huge success, noting it helped turn 150 homes that were distressed into marketable properties to be used on a limited basis.
“When you have a foreclosed home and someone moves in and takes care of that property, it really brightens the neighborhood,” Tapp said at the time. “We have made an investment in rebranding and that has paid off.”
The city also has worked with Suasion and other advertising agencies on marketing the city to tourists.
In January 2024, Chuck Westcott, chairman of EDAC, provided City Council with an update on marketing efforts for 2023.
According to the data provided, online marketing via Facebook reached 171,225 people in 2023, a 31.2 percent increase over 2022, and 19,157 visit, a 131.8 percent increase.
The total of 293 posts was a 9.7 percent increase over 2022, for an average of 48.8 posts per month.
The city’s contracted marketing firm Performance Marketing drafted 86 scheduled social media posts in 2023, an average of 14.3 per month.
Performance Marketing also distributed seven news releases to local and regional media outlets, generating 44 media placements, an average of 6.2 placements per release.
The firm also created and launched a new eNewsletter for email sign-ups collected on the Somers Point website, visitsomerspoint.com/sign-up.
Westcott said City Councilman Charlie Haberkorn was instrumental in creating the forward momentum when he was co-chair of the EDAC.
“My role as chair is to keep the momentum going and take on some additional projects,” Westcott said Jan. 25.
Haberkorn cast the final vote, breaking the tie and extending the minimum length of stay at short-term rentals to seven days.
Lindsey Hresko-Staab, a member of the coalition, said the change would affect the livelihood of the business community.
“We are families, individuals, local entrepreneurs that have invested in to this town, not just with our money but with our time, our energy and our passion. We create jobs, we support local businesses and we bring visitors who spend money into this town,” she said.
– By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff