OCEAN CITY – On the same day they advanced a proposed downtown project including a minimum of 25 beds for seasonal town employee housing, resort officials opposed workforce housing at the proposed midtown firehouse replacement.
The Ocean City Fire Department’s existing Station 3 firehouse at 74th Street has fallen into disrepair and become functionally obsolete, and the plan is to construct a state-of-the-art firehouse at 65th Street in the front lot of the Public Safety Building. In the many months since the project was first proposed, an acute need for seasonal workforce housing for town employees has been identified, and resort officials have been trying to add beds here and there through different projects, both in the public and private sectors.
The original plan was for a stand-alone midtown fire station, but City Manager Terry McGean explained on Tuesday there were other options that could add seasonal workforce housing elements to the project by adding one or two stories to the fire station. Naturally, adding stories to the firehouse original design would substantially increase the cost of the project. After considerable debate on Tuesday, the council agreed to forego the addition of workforce housing and move forward with the firehouse design as a stand-along facility.
The firehouse debate was part of a recurring theme on Tuesday’s work session agenda. Also on the agenda was a request to move forward with a proposed Ocean City Development Corporation (OCDC) project downtown at Somerset Street that will include a minimum of 25 seasonal workforce housing beds for town employees. McGean explained he has been working with various department heads in an attempt to nail down the need for more seasonal workforce housing beds for town employees, which is why he included the proposed options for the firehouse.
“The next two items are somewhat related,” he said. “I did reach out to the department heads about what our Ocean City government employee housing demands are. I reached out to the beach patrol, the police department, the fire department and public works. In a recent beach patrol survey, 37% said they would take advantage of employee housing if it was available.”
25 is better than nada….put 5 infront of 25 and now we are talking of helping OUR failing hospitality industry. Do it know before it gets worse 5 yrs from now. Strategic capital planning that helps ALL of us.