Coastal Cottage Concept Gets Thumbs Down at 4th Ward Meeting

At a sparsely attended Fourth Ward meeting held Saturday morning (June 15), Councilman Pete Guinosso revealed the next initiatives on his agenda and invited his constituents to weigh in with their concerns.

Guinosso said some of his long-term projects are: to “resurrect the Ethics Committee” that was disbanded earlier this year; to pursue an exemption for vehicles that bear New Jersey veterans license plates from parking meter fees; and to gather more information and input on the Coastal Cottage concept proposed for a downtown zone before the matter comes before council for a final reading and vote on June 27. Guinosso cast the lone dissenting vote on the matter at the May 22 council meeting.

The Coastal Cottage concept permits two single-family homes to be built on single lots with one home facing the street and the other the alley. A proposed ordinance before council would allow the small single-family homes as a conditional use within the city's Drive-In Business (DB) Zone. 

The city's Master Plan singled out a half-block (bay side) of Haven Avenue between 12th and 13th streets as a place where the new zoning might be appropriate for the construction of 18 two-and-a-half-story homes on the 115- by 370-foot tract known as the Coggins property.

“We’ve overbuilt the island, we’ve over-developed the island,” Guinosso said. “Why are we going to double down?”

Four of the 12 people in attendance at the 90-minute meeting, held in the social hall of Our Lady of Good Counsel Church on 40th Street, voiced objections to the plan for various reasons.

“The Coastal Cottage concept is not just for that specific plot of land,” Sally-Jo DeLussa said. “They can put it anywhere in town.”

As the owner of a 1,860-square-foot single-family home on a 40- by 115-foot lot in the 3000 block of Bay Avenue, DeLussa said she could very easily visualize the lack of setbacks and permeable ground coverage that would be created in accommodating two homes on the same size lot as her own.

She also pointed out the proposed location for the planned development is prone to flooding, to which Guinosso said he couldn’t imagine any family permitting a child to ride a bike or play on the grounds in a neighborhood awash in storm waters.

Bob Dubil, a resident of the 2800 block of Haven Avenue, asked why the lot sizes are so small. He suggested larger lots and fewer homes in the same area.

“Because of declining home values and declining real estate values, I think we’re missing an opportunity here to build more traditional single-family homes,” said Eric Sauder, a resident of the 2900 block of Central Avenue.

In other topics, Guinosso tackled the city budget, capital improvement projects and building heights. He questioned the practice of the city continuing to employ highly paid firefighters to work as EMTs rather than hiring paramedics to work at a fraction of that cost.

He suggested the city locate a new firehouse at 35th Street to service the south end of the island rather than replace the Sandy-damaged one at 29th Street, consolidating the city’s fire services into two locations instead of the current three. These moves would help to counteract the loss of $1.5 billion in ratables and a tax rate that has risen almost 14 percent in the last two years, he said.

Also discussed were the status of the road repaving project in Merion Park that was scheduled for December 2012 and has been delayed twice more since, and the heights to which new construction is climbing as federal and city building codes go into effect.

In addressing that subject, Frank Walicki, a resident of the 100 block of Victoria Lane, demanded to know why the city did not adopt the 1988 NAVD datum for its building standard in the last 25 years. There is a difference of 15 inches between the new datum and the 1929 NGVD datum, which means almost every home in the city is 1.3 feet lower in elevation than its certificate indicates.

“This city did not commit to the new benchmark,” said Walicki, whose home was constructed in 2003 to the 1929 code. “It continued to build to the old benchmark. Where are the people in the city administration who are supposed to pay attention to this?”

While he did not have an answer, Guinosso said, “I’m having a hard time believing the architects didn’t know” about the new datum, and DeLussa added, “I’m having a hard time believing the surveyors who do the elevation certificates didn’t know.”

Those in attendance also stated their disapproval of the city’s subsidizing a private, for-profit entity in rehabilitating Dan’s Dockside Marina at 10th Street and the bay.

Ocean City's Fourth Ward includes all addresses south of 26th Street and the Ocean Reef community off Tennessee Avenue.