Following a four-hour hearing, a council majority this week supported an ordinance banning short-term rentals in single-family zoning districts beginning in 2027.
On Monday, the Ocean City Council voted 4-3 to support an amended ordinance that establishes a five-day minimum length of stay for short-term rentals in the R-1 residential and MH mobile home districts for the 2025 and 2026 season, and a 31-day minimum stay beginning in 2027. As the city code defines short-term rentals as 30 days or less, the ordinance approved this week would essentially ban short-term rentals in those districts in two years.
“I think it’s a difficult decision, but I think the motion that’s on the floor was well thought out,” Mayor Rick Meehan said this week. “After numerous hearings and listening to what the public has to say, I think it gets us moving in the right direction.”