SEASIDE HEIGHTS, N.J. (AP) - A New Jersey municipality adopted a zoning ordinance that will ban new bars, nightclubs and amusement rides from a section of its boardwalk.
The Seaside Heights Borough Council voted Wednesday to rezone the northern end of the boardwalk between Sheridan and Hiering avenues, the Asbury Park Press reports. The ordinance also bans live music at restaurants and requires them to close by midnight, as well as restricting how big their bar areas can be.
Mayor Anthony Vaz says the rezoning is intended to maintain the quality of life that residents in the northern end of town enjoy.
Several business owners on the boardwalk opposed the ordinance, saying it would discourage new attractions and cut into the profits of existing businesses. Shake Shoppe Arcade owner Patty Hershey says her properties lost value with the “stroke of a pen.”
Vaz hopes the ordinance will help the borough tamp down on what he termed “the bar atmosphere” in the borough that he said was fueled by the fact that members of the cast of the reality TV show “Jersey Shore” frequented nightclubs there.
“We are not the place of MTV and all that nonsense,” Sampson Avenue resident Peter Carlino said referencing the MTV show. “That gave us a lot of notoriety as the scum of the Shore towns.”
Vaz said he wants to see two nightclubs that are scheduled to be sold in a bankruptcy liquidation - the Bamboo Bar and Karma - replaced with retail stores, restaurants, a hotel, or condominiums.
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