OCEAN CITY — Ocean City Council had one of its shortest meetings in recent memory, under 30 minutes and a far cry from the marathons in recent months, but one topic continued to prevail in public comment — Wonderland Pier.
Meeting Jan. 8, the evening after the Ocean City Planning Board split 4-4 and failed to advance a recommendation on the 600 Boardwalk property that it is “an area in need of rehabilitation,” six citizens spoke out again about it.
It was not on the agenda and City Council took no action on the planners’ vote.
Five citizens, including some who presented a petition with more than 400 signatures, opposed Eustace Mita’s proposal for a 252-room, eight-story hotel replacing the former amusement park that closed in October 2024 after nearly 60 years in business.
One woman spoke in favor.
Heather Neville, who said she doesn’t live in the resort but has two businesses here, one on the boardwalk and the other on Asbury Avenue, said opposing the hotel was “insane.”
Noting she was “in a room full of people” who opposed the project, Neville said she was 100 percent for it and that the reason others weren’t there was because “we’re all working.”
She said her businesses are down 18 percent since the closure of Wonderland and others were down more. Neville said the boardwalk needs an anchor at the north end of the business stretch, which is from Sixth to 14th streets.
Wonderland Pier was an anchor, Neville said. She related it to a mall and how malls go downhill after they lose anchor stores.
She said no one is looking to build another amusement park there, but Mita is willing to provide an anchor.
Without it, she said, there would be more stores or condos that aren’t the same type of draw.
“That’s going to change every single business on the boardwalk. It will change everything about Ocean City,” Neville said.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I think it’s absolutely insane that you guys are not 100 percent in support of this. If someone wants to build something great, why would you want to stop them?”
She said that end of the boardwalk needs something “luxurious and grand” and if council “loves” the city, they will rethink it.
Neville was the last to speak, hence her reference to the other speakers, who did indeed implore council not to move forward with the rehabilitation designation that Mita said he needs and if he doesn’t get, will sell the property.
Husband and wife Dave and Marie Hayes, who have been outspoken at multiple meetings, pointed to how they successfully fought off another hotel, the Soleil project proposed for the lot adjacent to the Flanders Hotel.
Dave Hayes said the rehabilitation designation was a “gross abuse of the law” and an abuse of the the public process for an individual to gain more wealth.
“It’s time to move on,” he said.
Marie Hayes thanked planners for “doing the right thing” and said the designation amounted to spot zoning that would allow other boardwalk property owners to do the same thing.
She said council took an oath to work for the betterment of the entire community and should not cater to any developer, that they should listen to constituents and also “do the right thing.”
“We stopped a high-rise before and we’ll do it again,” she said.
Jacqueline Murphy, who lives nearby and would be directly impacted, said there is no room for that type of hotel and no room on the beach for the people who stay at the hotel.
“Where will these people go? We’re sitting on top of one another now,” she said.
The city, Murphy said, needs something for children and teens, not rich adults.
Susan Cracovaner presented council with the petition and spoke on behalf of the advocacy group Ocean City 2050.
She said residents were urging planners and City Council not to make “a rushed and ill-advised” decision declaring the Wonderland property an area in need of rehabilitation.
She said the designation was not supported by the facts and would usher in a massive transformation of the site in scale and character.
Cracovaner said the rehab label would strip away public safeguards, open the city to longterm policy and legal risks and set a dangerous precedent for the boardwalk as a whole, allowing property owners to use intentional deterioration and neglect as a pathway.
She encouraged the council to stick with its initiative with a subcommittee studying the entire boardwalk because it would be fact-driven and equitable for residents. It should not be bypassed, she said, “for a single property owner or a financially connected owner.”
Earlier in the meeting, Fourth Ward City Councilman Dave Winslow, who is heading up the subcommittee, said work has continued apace. He said a public meeting has been set for 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 7, in the Chris Maloney Lecture Hall at the Ocean City Free Public Library.
Winslow said the meeting is intended to provide an overview of data collected and share the information gleaned so far in their work. He said there would be no recommendations, just what has been found so far.
He noted something “will surprise” everyone.
Jim Kelly of the Ocean City 2050 group called on City Council to continue providing leadership on the issue.
He said the Planning Board vote was close, but the key point is that council asked for planners’ judgment and that it must be given weight.
The petition, he said, urged council to put the rehab idea “out to pasture” and continue with the subcommittee. He said it wasn’t about not wanting any change or development, but for the right process to guide change.
“We’ve all looked at Wonderland as a crisis. It’s time to think about it as an opportunity,” he said.
He blamed the council and mayor for “driving division,” that the issue was on a constructive path after the Aug. 21 City Council meeting when members voted 6-1 against referring it to the Planning Board.
Kelly said there were no new facts to reverse course, only pressure from the developer.
That, he said, led to people in town locking horns with some saying how bad the boardwalk is, that it was falling apart and people were losing money and how the city “needed a savior.”
“It’s not and we don’t need a savior,” Kelly said.
After the August meeting, all of the city’s merchants associations and individual business and property owners came out in force to talk about the decline in business with the loss of Wonderland as an attraction and heavily lobbied council to change its decision, which it did in a 4-3 vote in early December that sent the rehab appraisal to the Planning Board.
“The cycle needs to stop,” Kelly said. “We need to change the conversation. We need to harness the talent in this town and make our wonderful boardwalk even better.”
He told council “real leadership” is allowing the subcommittee to complete its work, engage constructively and transparently with the developer, not succumbing to his threats, and working toward a solution that serves the entire community.
“The light will reduce the angst. The darkness will fuel it,” Kelly said. “It means driving a true activation program for the north end of the boardwalk for 2026. That is what leadership looks like.”
– By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
