Worcester County officials this week stopped short of tweaking the zoning code in order to prevent an offshore wind developer from legally operating as a public utility in the West Ocean City fishing harbor.
The county’s Board of Commissioners at its Feb. 18 meeting considered a bill that would make immediate zoning changes to the Commercial Marine District, where the harbor lies.
One section of text would be changed to prohibit any “portside infrastructure or associated facilities that are intended to support offshore energy production.” Another bans “public utility structure” as a permitted use.
The zoning zinger aims to stymie developer US Wind, who plans to build an operations and maintenance facility at the mouth of the harbor that would service a planned 114-turbine wind farm located about 11 miles offshore.
Faced with legal uncertainty, however, the commissioners instead decided to table the vote following a public hearing for further deliberation and legal review.
“I don’t know that we need to move forward with this today,” said Commissioner Joe Mitrecic (District 7, Ocean City), who moved to postpone the vote for a future meeting. “I’m telling you right now that this is, to me, to protect our commercial fishing harbor moving forward.”
Bank account audits are in order