They tell city council to work together with developer on boardwalk property
OCEAN CITY — A former council president and business representatives implored Ocean City Council last week to keep moving the city forward.
The resort has been mired in controversy over what to do with the former Wonderland Pier amusement park property that has sat mostly silent since it closed in mid-October 2024 after nearly 60 years at 600 Boardwalk.
The property anchors the north end of the business section of the boardwalk, but traffic there and to nearby businesses has dropped significantly since the amusement park closed.
Owner Eustace Mita has proposed building a 252-room, seven-story hotel atop parking on the property, which is not zoned for hotels. Neighbors and citizens groups have been fighting the hotel plan.
City Council vacillated on what to do there until designating the property “an area in need of rehabilitation” back in late June, while councilmen stated they will not support a hotel of the scope developer and hotelier Mita proposed. Citizens groups have sued to reverse the rehab designation.
During public comment at the Sept. 10 council meeting, boardwalk businessman Wes Kazmarck, businesswoman Janet Galante and former councilman and council president Pete Madden spoke in favor of moving the city forward.
Kazmarck said he was speaking as a member of the Boardwalk Subcommittee that studied the boardwalk and came up with recommendations, and on behalf of boardwalk merchants.
He urged council members to negotiate with Mita and to ignore the negative noise against the developer and his plans, saying it doesn’t represent Ocean City as a whole. He said from the beginning, the business community has said the project is what it wants.
As for the lawsuit, he said it is a select few who are costing the rest of the city’s taxpayers a lot of time and money.
“Keep working together,” he urged. “Keep negotiating.”
Galante, a local businesswoman, resident and member of the Ocean City Regional Chamber of Commerce, said it has taken the resort time to become successful.
“We have so many positive things to be thankful for. We live on a beautiful resort island with beaches, boardwalk, schools, recreation facilities and most importantly, spectacular, vibrant and diverse business districts,” Galante said.
“It has not always been this way and it has taken decades of planning, investing and reinvesting in the evolutionary process of creating what we have on the boardwalk, downtown and other areas today,” she added, saying visitors and residents have all benefited from the planning.
“The planning and creating that we have witnessed over the years has been a process. The process of progress, creation and improvement will never stop in a vibrant town unless you let it stop,” Galante said. “I’m asking you to do your job as council and for our community to see the process through to a positive end.”
Madden, who served as a councilman for 12 years before an unsuccessful run for mayor in May, said the city has to get away from litigation and move to negotiating.
“Since 1879, Ocean City has moved forward by working together. We built the Tabernacle, the boardwalk, City Hall, the Music Pier and the Ninth Street bridge. We built strong schools, successful businesses and a community generations can be proud of,” he said.
“We didn’t do it because we always agreed. We did it because we found a way forward. The future of Ocean City is ours to steward, not ours to plant flags in and fight over.”
He said he supported Mita’s plan to build a hotel at the Wonderland site. (Madden made that clear while he served on council and while running for mayor.)
“I believe it can bring new investment, support our boardwalk and downtown businesses, create jobs and add something valuable to Ocean City, but we are not going to get there from opposite sides of a courtroom,” he said.
“It’s time to stop spending taxpayer dollars fighting and return to the negotiation table. Nearly two years into this fight, what do we have to show for it? An empty lot, legal bills and the same disagreement. We’re better than that,” Madden said.
“I’m asking City Council to sit down, put the issues on the table, find where there is room to compromise, and keep talking until there is a deal that works for Ocean City.
“We can honor what Wonderland meant without leaving that end of our boardwalk empty,” Madden said. “We can protect Ocean City’s character while investing in our future. Generations before us found a way. Now it’s our turn.”
– By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff