Developers, realtors harming the quality of life in resort
August 2023 Google Street View of St. Charles Place and Atlantic Avenue, Ocean City, New Jersey
Originally published in the Ocean City Sentinel
by Linda Young
To the Editor:
If you have lived on St. Charles Place for more than five decades, you probably called the beautiful green house in the middle of the block "Mrs. Foster's house." It was green and sat in the middle of two building lots with a driveway on the side that led to a detached garage. It had a shaded backyard with a clothesline and a flag pole out front. Ocean City charm at its finest. It lasted a long, long time, but met its demise in the past few years.
Where there once was a house with four bedrooms there are now two enormous duplexes with a total of 20 bedrooms. Then there are the three enormous duplexes built on Atlantic Avenue on land once owned by the church, and where there were no bedrooms, there are now 30 bedrooms. That's a total of 50 bedrooms where there was once just a handful.
The difference in the quality of life here is noticeable; too many people, too many cars, too much trash (not to mention rodents). Unsustainability has hit us right here on the north end. Summer residents like us can't vote and so our city fathers just keep building and building.
I can't help but think that if we could vote, the zoning would be a lot less aggressive. But as it is, developers and realtors just keep grinding out more and more, bigger and bigger. I don't know what the answer is, but the future we all feared is here on the corner of St. Charles and Atlantic Avenue.
Linda Young
Ocean City
