Overview
- In a 4–3 vote late Thursday, the council sent a proposed rezoning for the former Wonderland Pier site to the Planning Board, reversing an August rejection.
- Icona Resorts’ concept calls for a roughly seven- to eight-story hotel with 252 rooms on the shuttered boardwalk property.
- The vote does not rezone the land; any hotel would still require Planning Board review followed by a subsequent council decision.
- A packed hearing featured dozens of speakers both supporting economic revival and opposing scale and traffic concerns, with a Rutgers poll finding most residents against the hotel.
- Hours before the vote, Mayor Jay Gillian announced a personal bankruptcy, citing prolonged financial strain, and said Ocean City’s budget, operations and credit will not be affected.