Citing public concerns, Ocean City officials this week agreed to revisit the updated comprehensive plan at a future work session.
On Monday, the Ocean City Council held a public hearing on the draft 2025 comprehensive plan, the city’s primary long-range policy document guiding land use, infrastructure investments and legislative updates in the coming decade.
However, after hearing the public’s opposition to some of the language used in the planning document, officials voted unanimously to move the matter to a future work session, rather than voting to approve it on first reading.
“I do think there is work that needs to be done,” Councilwoman Carol Proctor said this week, “and I don’t think that we’re in a position where this is the final version and that we should be voting on it.”
During Monday’s public hearing, residents came before the City Council to share their thoughts on the topic of short-term rentals, which they say was addressed at least 17 times in the updated comprehensive plan. For his part, Teal Drive resident Gordon Kretser said the topic’s inclusion was nothing new, as it had been featured in previous plans.
“The misconception is that somehow this was just brought up out of thin air amongst the ‘good ‘ole boys network’ or something to that effect, and that is just not the case,” he said. “This is very methodical planning, and there’s an issue that is something that needs to be addressed that could be a big problem in the future.”
However, resident and former council member Vince Gisriel took issue with use of the word “adverse” when the comprehensive plan referenced the impacts short-term rentals had on residential neighborhoods.