<body><div><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=0YYz1t_1H1TAbbl00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=0YYz1t_1H1TAbbl00" width="1000" height="622" >Letter to editor. Ventnor City’s draft master plan could use far more detail on the looming real estate downturn. A glut of new construction is about to hit the market. The number of full-time residents keeps dropping.Who should be author of the Master Plan draft? A long-term Ventnor resident would be best suited, don’t ya think?Some thoughts to consider:Unnecessary tax abatements shift the burden onto homeowners who play by the rules. Cheap money inflated home values. Valuations may be inaccurate. A re-valuation is coming. Who gets hit hardest? The families who stayed.Meanwhile, non-compliant short-term rentals go unchecked. Short-term rental problem. Too many STRs operate out of compliance, skipping registration, inspections, and the rules everyone else follows. Every home converted into a part-time investment property is one less house for a year-round family. Investors cash in while neighbors absorb the noise, the parking headaches, and the lost sense of community. Enforcement shouldn’t be optional. If the city won’t enforce its own rules, why have them?Even the businesses that stay open can’t find help. Local workers can’t afford to live in Ventnor anymore, and the housing stock is increasingly tied up in investor-owned rentals. Restaurants cut hours. Shops can’t staff the counter. Employers are forced to recruit from farther and farther away, and a town without local workers is a town losing its backbone.Now consider who benefits from inflated home values. Higher valuations mean higher tax bills for homeowners, and higher revenue for local officials to spend. When assessments climb on paper, the city collects more without ever having to make the case for a tax increase. Families on fixed incomes feel every dollar. Cheap money pushed values up, valuations may be inaccurate, and a revaluation is coming. Taxpayers should ask: where is all that extra revenue going, and what are we getting for it?Families are being priced and pushed out so modest family homes can be torn down and replaced with oversized McMansions. Many of them sit empty most of the year, and most of the week even in summer. Dark windows in January. Quiet driveways on a Tuesday in July. A house with no one living in it doesn’t buy groceries, fill a classroom, coach a team, or keep a Main Street shop open. We are trading neighbors for square footage.Who benefits from inflated home values. Higher valuations mean higher tax bills for homeowners, and higher revenue for local officials to spend. When assessments climb on paper, the city collects more without ever having to make the case for a tax increase. Families on fixed incomes feel every dollar. Cheap money pushed values up, valuations may be inaccurate, and a revaluation is coming. Taxpayers should ask: where is all that extra revenue going, and what are we getting for it?Residents deserve honest answers, and that starts with transparency at City Hall. The video system is already installed, and it works great for regular commission meetings. So why doesn’t Mayor Kriebel and Commissioners Landgraf and Mento turn it on for planning and zoning meetings? There’s no new equipment to buy and no big cost to justify. Where major decisions about development, zoning, and the master plan are made, residents should be able to watch from home, not just those who can show up on a weeknight. Open government shouldn’t depend on who has the time to attend.That goes double for second homeowners. They pay the lion’s share of the tax burden, yet they have no vote in Ventnor elections. They can’t weigh in at the ballot box, and most can’t make a night meeting from out of town. The least they deserve is the ability to watch how their money is being spent. Live video is a small gesture of respect for the people who fund so much of this city.If it isn’t, rethink it.Ventnor has an excellent team for business supported events.Needs a stronger voice for local business. Is there an organization that acts as a business lobby, giving merchants a unified seat at the table in City Hall? If not, we need one.Small businesses are the backbone of a year-round community, and they shouldn’t have to fight City Hall alone.Ventnor’s future is being written right now. Taxpayers, families, and business owners deserve a say in itTaxpayers, small business and year-round families should pay attention.</div></body>

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Letter to editor. Ventnor City’s draft master plan could use far more detail on the looming real estate downturn. A glut of new construction is about to hit the market. The number of full-time residents keeps dropping. Who should be author of the Master Plan draft? A long-term Ventnor...

Ventnor Deserves Master Plan That Faces Reality

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Letter to editor. Ventnor City’s draft master plan could use far more detail on the looming real estate downturn. A glut of new construction is about to hi

Ventnor Deserves Master Plan That Faces Reality

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