Committee debates drive-throughs, town-center strategy and how to recruit businesses to Wildwood

Wildwood'025—s Economic Development Committee devoted a major portion of Monday—s meeting to a wide-ranging discussion of the town center—s commercial character, whether the city should allow more drive-through uses, and how the city can improve business recruitment and retention.

Committee members heard an update on a five-page findings memo compiled by the city—s new economic communications manager summarizing dozens of conversations with local businesses. The manager told the committee businesses generally do not rank digital signage as the top need but said the topic is polarizing: some residents see digital signs as harming the city—s character while some small businesses said visibility is essential to compete.

Members debated whether Wildwood has the population density and traffic to attract national chains and noted the town—s market more commonly supports unique, small-to-medium specialty businesses (examples discussed included Good News Brewing, 3 French Hens, Singer—s Ice Cream and Mattress Dogs). Several council members said family-oriented attractions — for example recreation facilities or an all-ages playground tied to the Village Green — would bring more daytime visitors to town center and create demand that supports additional retail and dining.

The committee returned repeatedly to drive-throughs as a policy lever. Planning staff and several council members said the city previously considered allowing drive-throughs in the workplace district; that proposal was denied in prior planning-and-zoning action and later became a '2eceive and file'2 item at council per the mayor's agenda policy at the time. Committee members asked staff to revisit the topic and to coordinate a new effort with the updated administration, planning staff and the master-plan process. Staff said the matter could be re-opened for review and that the committee could add a drive-through policy review to the master-plan update so the rule would be considered as part of the city—s economic goals.

Staff also reviewed an occupancy report prepared for the committee that found Wildwood—s overall commercial occupancy rates are broadly comparable to surrounding jurisdictions, although a small number of large tenants (grocery and anchor stores) materially affect the aggregate statistics. Planning staff noted the city—s relatively low commercial square footage compared with neighboring municipalities makes percentage changes in occupancy appear larger.

Committee members asked staff to explore more formal recruitment strategies for targeted industries (committee members mentioned advanced manufacturing, bioscience, digital/IT and mobility/transportation as regional growth clusters) and to investigate major nearby employers that could supply daytime customers to town-center businesses (a committee member said he will tour a major local facility later in the week). Staff said it will prepare recommendations on industry-targeting, potential outreach campaigns and options for boosting Town Center foot traffic. No formal votes were taken on planning-policy changes during the meeting; members directed staff to return with draft master-plan language and to continue outreach and data collection.

Ending: Staff will update the committee at the June meeting with recommended next steps on drive-through policy review, a refreshed occupancy survey and a proposed outreach plan for targeted industry recruitment and town-center activation.