In Sea Isle City, citizens get their say on Master Plan

SEA ISLE CITY, N.J. - When Kathy Maguire heard that Sea Isle City is holding an all-day session next Saturday for the public to learn about - and ultimately offer input into - a process to update the Jersey Shore municipality's Master Plan, the full-time resident of the Cape May County resort wasn't surprised by the opportunity.

"This is a very inclusive community," said Maguire, one of about 2,100 year-round Sea Isle residents. The population of the barrier-island municipality swells to more than 10 times that during the summer.

"So I think it's a really good idea for the town to want to get the input of the residents as [it] moves forward with development and planning for the future," Maguire said.

Hearing ideas and comments from the public about zoning, planning, traffic, economic development, density, commercial development, storm resiliency, and other issues, is precisely the thinking behind holding the "Master Plan Re-Examination Workshop" scheduled for Oct. 24, said Mayor Leonard Desiderio.

"The Master Plan Re-examination is a community-wide project, in which we will be expecting and accepting suggestions and ideas from the public," Desiderio said. "This is not a project that will be worked on only by elected officials; we are actively seeking the public's comment."

Desiderio said the municipality is required only to have a public hearing on the Master Plan when it is completed, but the town prefers to have an "open, all-inclusive government" so all residents can have input.

"There are no bad suggestions or bad questions," Desiderio said. "We are welcoming everyone to come out and take part in this workshop."

Sea Isle last updated its Master Plan in 2007 and Desiderio said it would take the city about 14 months to complete the new plan.

As many as 25,000 people pack the 2.1-square-mile town during the summer.

That kind of density is the result of development spurred after the famous 1962 nor'easter that leveled much of the previous development there. The town is filled with mostly duplexes, triplexes, and a few single-family homes.

Since then, Sea Isle has been considered a resort catering to the middle class.

Desiderio said issues the town would attempt to tackle in the new Master Plan include parking - that, he says, is always at a premium - and the size of new homes to be built.

In New Jersey, the state requires municipalities to create Master Plan documents to guide land use in a manner that protects public health and safety and promotes the general welfare of the community. It helps form a blueprint on which decisions and regulations regarding property-development zoning regulations are based.

In places with little development or need for zoning changes, Master Plans are revised on average every 10 years or so. But in dynamic development areas such as the Jersey Shore - where economics, commercialism, and the weather often drives drastic and sometimes very quick changes in the landscape - the documents may need retooling more often, said Michael Busler, a planning expert and professor of finance at Stockton University in Galloway Township.

"Generally, Master Plans drive just about everything, in terms of development, in a town," Busler said. "So that means that in a place where something has been happening - whether that is economically or even because of a storm - those changes can have a dramatic effect on the future. Often a town needs firm guidelines on what to do next."

And Busler said that since every municipality is unique, there is no one-size-fits-all plan.

"We can especially see that uniqueness at the Shore, where each of the towns along the coast seems to have a character all its own," Busler said. "Clearly, what might work in neighboring Avalon wouldn't necessarily work for Sea Isle.

"For example, Avalon and Stone Harbor seem to have had a strong push in recent years to turning multifamily dwelling units - like duplexes - into single-family properties. But that hasn't been the strategy for Sea Isle."

Busler said that along the Shore, Master Plans are the "ultimate balancing act" between the needs of year-round residents and those who live elsewhere but own second homes in beach towns.

"The Master Plans must find a balance between these two groups, and that isn't necessarily an easy thing to do," Busler said. "Local people often like the fact that a town has a certain personality and they want to preserve that personality, while businesses and vacation homeowners who rent their properties rely on summer traffic. So the towns are constantly looking for a balance that will keep local people happy about where they live but not create an overbuilt condition that caters more toward visitors."

To do that, municipalities along the Shore are now more apt to follow a trend to seek input from the very people that populate the barrier island instead of only the opinions of planning experts, said Stewart Farrell, founder and director of Stockton University's Coastal Research Center.

"This is certainly a growing phenomenon in New Jersey," Farrell said. "Of course, there have always been public hearings on Master Plans before they are approved. But an opportunity for the public - the actual stakeholders - to provide such broad input is a growing trend."

Farrell said that while such sessions often "net a variety of opinions from the sublime to the ridiculous," what is obtained by town fathers during such events can "generally be distilled down into some very useful information."

"Those who actually live in a place can tell us about things the experts may have completely overlooked," said Farrell, noting public input after major storms like Hurricane Sandy about environmental issues is especially helpful to planners. Residents can offer insights about things like flooding and wind damage that are especially important when considerations are being made for storm resiliency, he said.

Sea Isle's Master Plan forum will take place at the Welcome Center Community Lodge, 300 JFK Blvd., from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Residents, business owners, and visitors are invited to the session to share ideas about zoning, commercial density, sizes of residential structures, parking, bicycle traffic, vehicular traffic circulation, parks, and recreation areas. Planners will also welcome input on proposed reuses of public buildings such as the former public school site on Park Road, the former fire house on West Jersey Avenue, and the marina property along 42d Place.

At noon, city representatives will present a summary of the ideas discussed with the public at the various "focus stations" that will be set up for the event.

jurgo@phillynews.com

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@JacquelineUrgo