OCEAN CITY — A local citizens group is questioning Ocean City Council’s “lack of leadership” on the future of the former Wonderland Pier amusement park property on the boardwalk and threatening possible legal action.
Friends of OCNJ History & Culture believes council should not vote next week on a resolution asking the city’s Planning Board for a recommendation on whether the property at Sixth Street and Boardwalk should be designated “an area in need of rehabilitation.”
Council President Terry Crowley Jr. announced late afternoon Aug. 14 that council would vote at its 6 p.m. Aug. 21 meeting on a resolution to that effect, but that developer Eustace Mita, who owns the site, would not be making a presentation at the meeting on his proposal for a 252-room, eight-story hotel and retail complex at the site. (See related story, page A1.)
Bill Merritt, president and co-founder of the Friends group, said City Council is being led by Mita rather than charting its own course and is using the wrong template for its action.
Merritt said the city “claims this vote has nothing to do with what’s proposed for the site, but the developer himself asked for the vote. So it has everything to do with that. But even if you take the city at its word — that this vote has nothing to do with what Mita has proposed — then why the vote? Why are you granting this status? Why are you spending this time and money? Where are you headed?”
In the press release, Crowley said the vote was only about the status of the property and not about any particular project or about changing the zoning, that any project there would have to go before the city’s Planning and Zoning boards. High-rise hotels are not permitted uses on the boardwalk.
The advocacy group Ocean City 2050, which is separate but related to the Friends group, has proposed its own idea for the site — a mixed use with four components: a smaller amusement park mainly for children, a digital entertainment center, public attractions including a band shell and playground, and low-rise, high-end lodging.
Merritt said when citizens ask council about the future of the Wonderland site “you hear crickets. The lack of leadership on this issue is astounding.
“The city needs to do the right thing here and it is not rocket science,” Merritt said. “First, don’t take a vote or vote it down. Every single council person is on record as being against a high-rise on the boardwalk.”
Merritt also pointed to a survey by Rutgers University on behalf of Ocean City 2050 that showed that nearly 80 percent of residents want family-friendly amusements on the boardwalk instead of a high-rise hotel.
“The Aug. 21 vote is the first step in the journey to the wrong place — a high rise. Council needs to stick to their promise and say no. And that’s where all good negotiations start anyway,” Merritt said.
He also said the city is using the Seaspray Condominiums at 34th Street and Bay Avenue as a template for Wonderland. At the Aug. 7 council meeting, members voted to refer that property to the Planning Board as an area in need of rehabilitation.
Merritt pointed out the Seaspray “is an abandoned, condemned, structurally unsound building. And the plan, which council has seen and commented on, is to basically replace condos with condos.”
Seaspray has been closed since May 2023 and is currently surrounded by fencing. There is an ongoing fight among condo owners at Seaspray, some wanting the building fixed up and others who want it sold.
Merritt said that property is contrasted with Wonderland, which is open with a coffee shop, pizza shop and an arcade.
Mita redid the exterior of the main Wonderland Pier building facing the boardwalk and reopened the pizza shop and has a bike rental shop there as well as an arcade.
He said he didn’t want that northern end of the boardwalk to face a closed building. However, the amusement park with all of its remaining rides has not reopened.
Merritt noted that while Seaspray is replacing condos with condos, what is proposed at Wonderland is not similar.
“Rehabilitation simply doesn’t apply here. You don’t rehab a knee into an elbow. The city is wrong to use it here and will be sued for doing so,” Merritt said.
“Then the city should conduct a comprehensive review of the city, or at least the entire boardwalk, before deciding if and how to tinker with the boardwalk zoning, or leave it alone. It’s a critical asset. The fact that they have no plan, nor have they started a study to develop one, is indefensible,” Merritt said. “Then they need to finally push back on the developer, tell them what might be acceptable, based on that comprehensive review, and see whether he would comply … or if he would just sell. There are buyers who would do the right thing. That’s leadership. What we are seeing is how to be led.”
Mita has said he would be willing to sell the property for $25 million — what he has invested since buying it in early 2021 to help the owner stave off foreclosure. The amusement park closed permanently in October 2024.
– By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff