6.7.25 Seth Grossman WPG Radio: NJ Zoning Laws Make Every Improvement A Violation of Something — Including New Icona Hotel for Ocean City.

Seth Grossman is guest on WPG Radio. Eustace Mita Struggles To Get Permits To Replace Closed Amusement Park With Much Needed Icona Hotel in Ocean City. Teachable Moment: Liberty and Democracy Are NOT The Same. They Are Opposites. Liberty Creates Prosperity. We All Benefit When Creative and Talented People Are Free To Use Their Time, Money, and Ambition To Create, Build and Produce. Democracy Only Works When Constitutions Limit The Power of Government So It Can't Destroy That Freedom. Without Those Limits Democracy Rewards Those Who Produce Nothing. It Lets Them Control, Discourage, and Punish Those Who Invent, Create, Build and Produce. That Is Why We Have High Prices and Stagnation In New Jersey Today. Hotel developer Eustace Mita calls in. Above Image: Eustace Mita at his Avalon Icona Hotel - Photo by sevenmiletimes.com Eustice Mita built several successful class Icona resort hotels in Avalon, the Wildwoods and Cape May. Last year, Mita bought the site of the closed Wonderland Amusement Park at 6th Street and the Boardwalk in Ocean City. The Gillian family was forced to close Wonderland after years of losing money.  Last February, Mita submitted plans to build a first class 325 room Icona Hotel there. However, many community leaders and citizen groups oppose him. They are urging city officials to block the project by denying needing permits.  During the past few months, Mita has been forced to spend enormous amounts of time and money to win political support for his project. Why? Why does a property owner need government permission to replace one resort commercial business with another in a resort commercial zone? When America was great, no such permission was needed. They could easily change the use or property from one business to another to quickly give tourists what they wanted. If an amusement park on property was losing money, they could replace it with a hotel. If a hotel was losing money, they could tear it down and built an amusement park. This is how Atlantic City grew from an empty sandbar in 1854 to the World's Playground in less than 50 years. Tourists pay to get what they want, and if they don't get what they want in one place, they go somewhere else. Right now, a number of "community leaders" in Ocean City claim that a new Icon Hotel on the site of the closed Wonderland Amusement Park would "destroy the character" of Ocean City. Imagine what these same "leaders" would do if there were already a hotel on the site that was losing money. Imagine what they would say if the owner wanted to tear down that hotel and build an amusement park. Wouldn't those same "leaders" claim that putting an amusement park on the site of a hotel would "destroy the character" of Ocean City. For years, owners of properties in resort commercial zones did not need special government permits or approvals to do this. They simply had to show that the new buildings were safe, and did not disturb neighbors from enjoying their properties. All that changed in New Jersey since the 1960s. Ocean City, like most New Jersey towns adopted comprehensive "master plans" and zoning laws.  For many reasons, most of the new zoning laws made it illegal for any business owner to build almost any new building anywhere. If a business owner wanted to build almost any new project, he or she had to persuade city officials to approve a special new zoning plan for his or her property. This could be done through a zoning "variance" or the creation of a "redevelopment zone.  These special zoning plans are very expensive and take a very long time. They also require political support.  That means business owners are usually forced to donate to the "right" political campaign, hire the "right" architects, lawyers, engineers and consultants. This process often takes years. Often, their applications are denied. America was never like this in the past. In 1900, Henry Leeds bought the old wooden Chalfonte Hotel at North C...