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OCEAN CITY – In a nearly three-hour meeting, Ocean City Council voted 5-2 Thursday evening to approve the former Wonderland Pier parcel as “an area in need of rehabilitation.”
It is a designation property owner Eustace Mita has been seeking as an initial step to build a 252-room hotel on the site, which is zoned for boardwalk amusements and does not permit hotels.
The vote came after 75 minutes of spirited public comment for and against the designation, twice prompting Third Ward City Councilman Jody Levchuk, a boardwalk businessman, to yell at speakers, asserting they were making false statements about him. (He lated apologized for his outbursts.)
The vote also came after Councilmen Sean Barnes and Keith Hartzell tried but failed to get the resolution tabled for three weeks – arguing they should wait until the new City Council is sworn in July 1.
Councilman-elect Jim Kelly, an opponent of the rehab designation, takes office July 1. Thursday night was the final meeting for At-Large Councilman Pete Madden, who has been an ardent supporter of Mita’s hotel plans.
Council first voted 5-2 against the tabling measure. Barnes and Hartzell were the only votes for tabling the measure. Later, they were the only votes against the rehab designation.
Council President Terry Crowley Jr., Vice President Madden, Fourth Ward Councilman Dave Winslow, Levchuk and At-large Councilman Tony Polcini all voted in favor of the rehab designation. They argued it is but the first step in making progress on the site at 600 Boardwalk, where Wonderland Pier amusement park operated for nearly 60 years before closing permanently in mid-October 2024. They said the designation actually gives council more control over what is built there. They said they want to follow the Boardwalk Subcommittee’s recommendations on the site, which calls for an upscale hotel that doesn’t overwhelm the nearby neighborhood or change the character of the boardwalk. Mita’s plan would have a seven-story hotel atop ground-level parking.
This is the third time City Council voted on the rehab designation.
In August 2025, council voted against sending the property to the Planning Board for its recommendation on whether it met the rehab criteria. Council reversed itself in December 2025, voting to get the Planning Board’s opinion. In January 2026 planners ended up in a 4-4 stalemate that let the rehab designation die.
The public comments followed the familiar pattern that dominated City Council and the Planning Board meeting for more than a year. Business interests pleaded with council to support the rehab designation to get something moving on the site, where the amusement rides have been quiet going into the second summer. Without the park as an attraction, business on that end of the boardwalk has suffered.
Opponents of the rehab designation have said Mita’s hotel proposal would change the character of the boardwalk and harm the neighborhood next door and brought up allegations of conflicts of interest with city officials, including Mayor Jay Gillian and city solicitor Dorothy McCrosson. They said Madden and Levchuk should recuse themselves.
Opponents also argued that council would lose faith with the public by rushing through a vote before the new councilman was seated and only two weeks after the subcommittee made its 85-page report public.
– STORY and PHOTO by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
At top, City Councilman Jody Levchuk, center, flanked by Councilman Dave Winslow, left, and Keith Hartzell.