On Aug. 23, the Margate City Planning Board spent time amending the Master Plan. Unfortunately, we were unable to find the agenda online. See Margate Master Plan below.
Margate Commissioners introduced a resolution back on July 5, to amend current zoning rules regulations. This could allow for development of condo / boutique hotels.
Margate Commissioners could vote to adopt zoning changes at Sept. 6 meeting.
Properties affected include Island House, Margate Towers, 9600 Atlantic Avenue and Ventura’s Greenhouse. All could one day take advantage of these changes, if so desired.
If passed, a condo in this area could make available 20% of it’s units as daily or weekly hotel rentals.
Being a new concept, there’s still plenty of confusion over how to allow boutique condo hotels. The idea would presumably attract more short term visitors, over-nighters, weekenders, weeklies. That should bode well for mid week visitation and retail business.
An overlay zone would accommodate potential, boutique condo hotels in Margate.
- Sue Hirsch Rubin: I assume Margate Homeowners have read the Master Plan. (see below) It pretty much lays out how Margate sees itself going forward. Ocean City / Wildwood seems the direction.
- Janice Leaman: I posted the same message. The locals attacked viciously.
- Jay Weintraub: We addressed this recently. Some locals were brutal. The Chairman of the Margate Planning Board chairman was flat out nasty to anyone with a differing point of view. There was no indication that they cared for what homeowners shared publicly. No open minds at those meetings.
NJ Senator Jeff Van Drew is strongly against 2nd homeowners having a vote in local elections.
Margate Commissioner Amodeo makes a surprise, guest appearance. Amodeo says Margate once had plenty of hotel motel units, but over the years, most were converted into condos. The lure of big money was too much to ignore.
Margate City leaders, as well as other Jersey towns, allowed this to happen. Many believe this was short-sighted. The move increased the tax ratable base, but it also killed mid-week business. Many shore towns are virtually empty Monday thru Thursdays during the summer.
Existing Margate ordinances prohibit short term rentals. This allowed 3rd party services like Air BnB to thrive, with limited municipal oversight and regulation.
Reaction to these moves has caused a stir in the community.
- Representatives from the Margate Homeowners Association: Could Margate’s officials make it any more clear? 2nd homeowners are 2nd class citizens?
- What happened to our ‘residential community by the sea’? Boardwalks, Congo Falls Golf, 50,000 sq ft aqua parks, & now this? WTF?
- VOTING RESIDENTS OF MARGATE (& second home owners) need to SHOW UP at EVERY COMMiSSION & PLANNING BOARD MEETING
- Our town will be VERY different in the next few years.
- Others have commented: this is ‘Spot Zoning’ for a Margate deal that’s been waiting in the wings. Ventnor commissioners lead by Lance Landgraf have also been accused of inappropriate ‘spot zoning’.
- If you give the Margate commissioners & planning board an inch, they’ll take a mile.
Condo hotel Hybrid: 20% of units devoted to short term, hotel like rentals. ex: daily rentals.
Other discussions connected to this proposed, Margate hotel overlay zone:
CAFRA has made some changes. Coastal Area Facility Review Act. This could allow development on the beach, between the bulkhead and the dune.
- One parking space for each hotel room
- Instead of 5 parking spots for each seat, restaurants would only be required to have one spot for every 10 seats.
Margate Commissioners will cast their vote to adopt these changes at the upcoming, Sept. 6 meeting.
The next Margate Planning Board meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 27th at 6p.
The next Margate school board meeting is September 12, 5:45p.
Join the Margate Homeowners Association here.
This “plan” seems awful sloppy. Was this created just for Margate, or was it pulled off the shelf and tweaked a little?
What person with an advanced degree (i.e., an engineer) does not know the difference between “Principle” and “Principal”? What Margate person doesn’t appreciate the distinction between “Marven Gardens”, a legendary Margate neighborhood and “Marvin Gardens”, a square on the Monopoly board?
Let’s get real about Margate and hotels. Margate is the city that it is right now, and has the tax base to afford “nice things”, because wealthy people pay big money for homes where they and their families feel safe and where they have privacy. From their perspective, visitors to Margate stay with family or friends. Everyone else can get a room uptown, 5 miles away. If Margate becomes a city of strangers, they will probably choose a different town to invest in. And don’t expect “boutique hotels”. What you’ll get is condo complexes past their prime renting out rooms, with accompanying maintenance and security issues. We know that some day and week rentals are happening on the sly, but at least we have the code to lean on if it becomes a nuisance. Once a complex is a “partial hotel”, there’s little incentive for people to buy the remaining units at their historic prices. Which begs the question, who gains from this (let’s name and shame)?
Here are a few other things about the plan that make me scratch my head:
There’s a lot of hand-wringing about the loss of full time population? Yet I see nothing in the plan that encourages the city to make itself more attractive to young families and retirees. What about zoning for smaller starter homes or bungalows for empty nesters? Or promoting Margate as a place where you can have a high quality of life as a kid or when you no longer drive?
Concern was raised over lack of parking. How about working with business owners to pool parking? For example, Wawa can agree to let Congo Falls customers use their lot (for some consideration). Or encouraging people to leave their cars at home and walk.
There was a statement about making Ventnor Avenue noticeable and attractive to “the motoring public”. This makes sense when you’re on a road like Black Horse pike and people are whizzing by at 50 MPH. You want people to see what you have to offer. People are doing 25-30 on Ventnor and it’s not even the main road through the island. And people walk and bike to Ventnor Avenue. So Ventnor Avenue’s audience is “the public”, period.
Based on this draft, it looks like the plan needs a lot, lot more work and way more public discussion.
Best regards.
I think it’s a great idea being an owner of a condo in margate towers we need more tax revenue !