MARGATE – The Board of Commissioners Thursday, July 18 introduced a $3 million bond ordinance appropriating funds to create a parking lot at the old Liberty gas station on Ventnor Avenue. The introduction was approved with a vote of 2-1. Commissioner Maury Blumberg voted against the measure stating $3 million is too much for taxpayers to spend to create 30 parking spaces.
Blumberg motioned to pull introduction of Ordinance 15-2024, stating it will cost the average homeowner an additional $450 a year in taxes, and that seven out of 10 people he has spoken to are against spending money on the parking lot in its current form.
Blumberg said there has always been a parking problem in Margate’s commercial districts during the summer months, including the big three holiday weekends.
“Thirty spots and what I view as an asphalt jungle for three weekends out of the year, is a significant amount of money to spend,” Blumberg said.
Mayor Michael Collins is pushing the project because his business – the True Value Hardware Store a half-block away – will benefit, Blumberg alleged.
“If you don’t pull it, Mike, you need to recuse yourself from commenting and voting on this ordinance…because you and your family will benefit from the sale and design of this property,” Blumberg said.
Instead, the commissioners should hold a public hearing and ask voters to approve the expenditure in November. He said he has concerns about contamination at the site and how the lot will be used.
Blumberg said taxes are already slated to increase $400-$500 this year, not counting the county’s tax increase.
“We are going to saddle the average taxpayer on a half-million dollar home for years to come, and I think we should ask them if they want to invest in this,” he said.
Municipalities have until Aug. 9, 88 days before the November election, to submit a non-binding public question for the Atlantic County Clerk to get the question printed on the ballot.
Collins noted that the bond appropriating up to $3 million to cover the cost must be in place before accepting a $1 million land acquisition grant being offered through the NJ Economic Development Authority. The city has negotiated a $2.3 million purchase price with the owner.
Collins said Blumberg’s allegation that he and his family would benefit made “no sense.”
“We have the largest parking lot in town. No customer of ours is going to walk that distance,” he said.
Collins said when the Friends of Margate team, which included Blumberg and Commissioner Cathy Horn, campaigned before last year’s non-partisan election, residents asked for more parking in the commercial districts.
“The second most talked about complaint was parking in these areas. We are listing to the residents and trying to address it,” Collins said. “When I took office, the first thing I said when I met with our department heads was that I want to take a step back and observe and see how things work and what we have to address.”
The Police Department and Beach Patrol do not have male and female facilities and the senior center has a failing deck.
“There are a lot of things that need to be addressed. I thought it would be foolish of us to put Band-Aids on these buildings until we know what our long-term vision was,” Collins said. “This vision and the master plan will all tie into one another and the parking situation in both ends of town are part of that plan. I want the plan to look 20 years out.”
The purchase is part of a strategic plan to have public parking lots located in the north and south business districts with trolley service, perhaps an electric vehicle, shuttling shoppers in between.
Blumberg said a prior administration about 10 years ago rejected spending $650,000 to purchase the Burger Bus property to turn it into a parking lot with 16 spaces and open space amenities because they thought it was too much money.
Collins said the city also considered buying a lot near Johnny’s restaurant a few years ago but passed on it.
“They were missed opportunities by the city, and we don’t want to have another one in five years saying we should have done that,” Collins said. “This is not being done on a whim.”
Blumberg said there may be unknown costs to cleaning up the property, which has known contamination coming from underground fuel tanks.
However, Collins said that the city would be accepting the property after it is remediated by the prior owner.
“The best part of this situation is that Exxon Mobil is on the hook for the remediation so the city will have no costs for site cleanup. The benefit to this is we take a contaminated site and clean it up which helps the overall community,” Collins said.
Collins said the city will be taking the next year to develop a plan for the future, and he encourage residents to attend workshop meetings where they can learn about issues under consideration and to reach out to commissioners via email or telephone to address their concerns.
A public hearing on the bond ordinance will be held at 5 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 1 at City Hall, 1 S. Washington Ave.
In other business during the meeting, the board approved two other bond ordinances appropriating $600,000 for various general capital improvements and a $900,000 bond ordinance for water and sewer capital improvements.
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https://downbeach.com/news/2024/jun/05/margate-to-purchase-gas-station-for-public-parking/
https://downbeach.com/news/2024/mar/13/margate-introduces-budget-with-37-cent-tax-rate-in/
