SITE/CIVIL ENGINEERING, LAND USE PERMITTING
HEAD START EDUCATION CENTER
Atlantic City, Atlantic County, New Jersey
Marathon Engineering & Environmental Services, Inc. (Marathon) was retained by Gateway Community Action Partnership (GCAP) to assist their development team with preparation of design plans, land use approval permit applications and construction documents for a new Head Start Education Center in Atlantic City. GCAP administers the Head Start charter for Atlantic County and had five (5) facilities in Atlantic City prior to Superstorm Sandy hitting the coast of New Jersey in October 2012. After the storm, they identified a need for a more resilient and consolidated location to provide the Head Start program. Application was made to the Federal Office of Head Start and GCAP received funding for the 40,000 square foot facility in the heart of Atlantic City to serve underprivileged children and families in town.
In addition to the main building site, which was challenged by the need to maximize space while adhering to local and state flood hazard prevention standards, there was also a need for development of offsite parking facilities adjacent to the main building site that was accomplished through a land swap/share agreement with GCAP, the City of Atlantic City and the neighboring Second Baptist Church. To further complicate the process, the main building site is located with the Tourism District of Atlantic City in which land use approvals are administered by the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) and the offsite parking facilities directly across Arctic Avenue were outside the Tourism District and under the purview of the Atlantic City Zoning Board for a use variance. Our team successfully navigated the required approval processes and the project broke ground in October 2015.
The land use approvals required for the project were as follows:
- Preliminary and Final Site Plan approval from the CRDA Land Use Department
- Use Variance and Preliminary and Final Site Plan approval from the AC Zoning Board
- Flood Hazard Area Control Act Permits from NJDEP
- Soil Erosion and Sediment Control Plan Certifications from the Cape Atlantic Conservation District
- General Stormwater Permit (5G3) from NJDEP
