Now that Bader Field is closed, Atlantic City casinos can be built much higher. But will plans to make Pacific Avenue ever get off the ground? From the AC Press:
The Atlantic City of the future will include taller casinos, resort development on Atlantic Avenue and a one-way Pacific Avenue.
At least, those are some of the highlights of the new master plan that is expected next month, city Planning Director Bill Crane said.
At this point, the city and planners Karabashian Eddington Planning Group are working on the final details. The firm has worked on the plan since council approved its $300,000 contract in March 2005.
Partner Thomas Eddington did not return a call seeking comment.
Casino height restrictions are a holdover from Bader Field, which closed in September. Although the historic airport was too small for all but recreational prop planes, some of those planes on final approach flew through the Boardwalk casino zone; therefore, heights in the Boardwalk-front Resort Commercial Development zone were limited to 385 feet.
Crane said the new limits would be between 700 and 800 feet, or about double the old restrictions.
The first building to benefit will apparently be a planned condominium complex next to Boardwalk Hall on Florida Avenue.
At last week’s Planning Board meeting, SOSH Architects said the 43-story complex would rise about 630 feet. The city’s redevelopment plan for the site said the maximum height would be capped at 700 feet.
Others have already crashed through the ceiling.
In March, the city passed an ordinance that would set heights in the Southeast Inlet’s Revel Redevelopment Area at 800 feet.
Revel Entertainment is currently building a casino on land bounded by the Boardwalk and New Jersey, Oriental and Connecticut avenues. Morgan Stanley subsidiary Ventura AC LLC owns the land.
Casinos in the marina district have long had more generous height restrictions than Boardwalk-front buildings. The city passed an ordinance in March 2006 that lifted the maximum height to 560 feet. Both Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa and Harrah’s Atlantic City are building towers there.
Plan has casinos going higher
I’m all for higher buildings, but making Pacific Avenue one-way is an awful idea. What they should do is widen it in places with cut-aways for jitney stops and the like. Making it one-way is just going to make traffic worse, and make getting to casinos even harder than it is.
I say, let’s wait another 100 years on Pacific Avenue, and if we even still have automobiles then, give it a fair hearing.