OCEAN CITY — The Worcester County Commission voted this week to turn over a roughly six-acre parcel of land located in Ocean City to the town for “recreational uses,” which could include enhancing the town’s skate park and new accommodations for tall ships.
The vote was unanimous, though it was noted that the county is deeding over the last property that it unconditionally owns in Ocean City, not counting other properties that are long-term leased or deeded with conditions.
The parcel of land, which is located between 3rd and 4th streets in Ocean City, has been owned by the county since 1967 when the Board of Education deeded the site to Worcester. Due to Ocean City looking to expand some services near the area, the Mayor and Council approached the commission this winter with a request to have the parcel turned over to the resort.
“Also, residents of both Ocean City and West Ocean City have publically supported improvements to the skate park and recreation area between 3rd and 4th streets in Ocean City,” wrote Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan in February. “The town retained a planning consultant in 2007 to develop a new master plan for the park and construction documents have been completed for the skate park and improvements to the block between St. Louis Avenue and the Chicago Avenue boardwalk.”
Besides improvements to the skate park and the surrounding area, Ocean City is looking to extend tall ship displays for residents and visitors.
“In addition, the town anticipates and is planning for specific capital improvements to expand the berthing area for larger tall ship displays,” wrote Meehan, “and attractions along the Chicago Avenue bulkhead and boardwalk.”
The total cost of the improvement project is estimated by the town to come in at around $3 million. The only way for it to proceed, according to Meehan, is with the county deeding the land to Ocean City. It will be a similar setup to agreements already in place between Worcester and the town for other resort properties except reversed. In those other cases, it’s Ocean City that owns the land and has leased or deeded it to the county. For example, the town deeded over land at 100th Street to the county for use as a library and is leasing property at 41st Street to Worcester for use as a senior center.
There is a “reverter clause” included in the arrangement for the 3rd Street property that would have it return to county ownership if Ocean City failed to use it for recreational purposes. Similar clauses are part of the agreements for the library and senior center, both of which would revert to the town if used for anything other than their current designations.
This clause was a sufficient safety net for the commission for deeding over 3rd Street property. However, Commissioner Virgil Shockley did draw attention to the fact that in deeding over the land the county no longer unconditionally owns any property within Ocean City limits.
“Basically, once we did what we did today that leaves the county without owning any property in Ocean City,” he explained, “owning it, not being by lease or anything else.”
It was a question that Shockley asked when the topic was broached during a meeting last month. At that time, there was some uncertainty regarding whether any other locations in the town actually fell under total county ownership.
The land in Ocean City is likely to increase in value down the road, Shockley continued, admitting some hesitation to do something now that a future commission might find conflict with. But he did vote along with the other commissioners unanimously Tuesday to approve the contract between the county and town to deed over the land.
“Whether we did right or wrong, 50 years from now somebody might be sitting up in that chair cussing us,” Shockley said. “But I understand what [Ocean City] wants to do with [3rd Street] and I have no objection to that. At the end of the day I didn’t object to what they were trying to do. I thought that it would be a benefit to the county and a benefit to the town.”