Wildwood, North Wildwood mayors create "outdoor" initiative to assist dine-in establishments

Unprecedented times come with unprecedented challenges, often requiring creative, "outside the box" solutions.

Teamwork, cohesion and communication are equally important.

“In the situation we presently find ourselves in, with this pandemic, we are trying to be proactive, not reactive,” said Wildwood Mayor Pete Byron. “We have a long road ahead of us but we’re trying to stay ahead of the curve.

“And when I say ‘we,’ I’m not just talking about Wildwood. I’m talking about the entire island, coming together as one big community, working together for the good of all.”

Byron noted that he has been working particularly close with North Wildwood Mayor Patrick Rosenello, attempting to create a framework for recovery as businesses look toward a summer of great uncertainty.

Recently, Governor Phil Murphy floated the idea of a ‘50 percent’ capacity’ mandate once eat-in establishments are allowed to reopen, with tables spread apart to continue the practice of social distancing.

With this in mind, Byron said that he and Rosenello are working on introducing a resolution that would allow some bars and restaurants to “extend” onto other portions of their properties.

“The idea is, if you have an establishment and you have adjacent parking lot, we will not require you to use that as a parking lot,” Byron explained. “If you lose 10 tables inside your establishment and you have the ability to place 10 tables in that parking lot area, you’re going to be able to do that.”

“If you lose five tables, you can only add five tables. It’s a one-for-one, so you can’t go over what your original capacity would have been.”

This “al fresco dining,” concept comes with one caveat: The parking or additional lot areas must be adjacent (or attached) to the area. “They can’t be across the street or down the block,” Byron added.

“Now, we realize that not everyone is going to benefit from this. If you lose 25 tables in your establishment and you’re only able to fit, say, 10 in your parking area, at least you’ll be 10 to the good than you would have had before. 

“Not every establishment has that peripheral parking area. But, if we can help 75 percent of the businesses, then that’s 75 percent of the businesses we’ve helped.”

This plan will have more impact in-town, obviously, than it will on the Boardwalk, where establishments have little or no room to expand.

Restaurants on the east side of the Boardwalk may be able to extend onto privately-owned areas of the beach. Morey’s Piers, as private property, would have similar options with their offerings.

“On the west side, we’re trying to help some of the corner eating establishments, where you have the bump out at the street ends,” Byron said. “We would allow tables at those bump outs.”

Byron and Rosenello are working on these details now, with any official mandate from Governor Murphy likely still weeks away. Resolutions will be introduced at city meetings this week.

“If the governor doesn’t put some kind of mandate out there until, say, the end of May, and if we were to wait to start the resolution process until then, that could take six weeks from that point,” Byron explained. “By initiating this now, we’ll be ready to help these establishments when the time comes.”

Added Rosenello: “I was very happy to work with Mayor Byron on this initiative. We can’t see into the future and we do not know when the Governor will allow restaurants to reopen. But, we are focused on helping our businesses get through this situation with as little financial damage as possible.

“We believe this initiative could very well mean the difference between a restaurant making it through this season or going out of business.”