OCEAN PINES – After more than three decades of being off-limits to children, the adults-only pool at the Ocean Pines Yacht Club is now open to everyone.
On Monday, the Ocean Pines Association (OPA) announced that the board of directors voted unanimously in closed session Sunday to allow children and adults to use the pool in an effort to ensure compliance with state and federal laws.
“It’s compliance with what we believe to be proper,” said Tom Herrick, president of the board. “The board is looking out for the best interests of the community as a whole.”
According to the OPA, during a closed session July 9 the board approved a motion from Brett Hill, a board member and the association’s acting general manager, that was drafted with assistance from attorney Jeremy Tucker of Lerch, Early & Brewer. The motion removed the prohibition of children at the Yacht Club pool.
“The decision agreed to yesterday was the recommendation of counsel, which was approved unanimously by the board,” Hill said Monday. “As far as a timeframe, the board took prompt action upon receiving the legal opinion, but is still exploring other avenues to accommodate a facility of similar operations if legally permissible in some manner for the association.”
Hill said those under the age of 18 had been restricted from using the pool for more than 30 years. The decision to remove the restriction was only made after “exhaustive” research by Lerch, Early & Brewer.
“They searched for every reasonable alternative, but at this time, have been unable to find any,” Hill said.
Herrick said the board was simply following the advice of its attorney in removing the age restriction.
“The board decided it was prudent to suspend that restriction temporarily,” he said. “We’re trying to investigate all avenues. At this point the initial advice was to allow everyone to use the pool.”
The Yacht Club pool, which has long been advertised as the community’s adults-only pool, became a topic of public interest this spring when Hill proposed moving the pool’s family fun night from Wednesday to Sunday. Numerous community members attended a special board meeting on the topic to oppose increasing family use of the pool. Many argued that of the association’s five pools, it was the only one not open to children.
“It was the greatest turnout I’ve ever witnessed in Ocean Pines for a meeting,” board member Cheryl Jacobs said.
While the concept of a Sunday family fun night was scrapped, Jacobs says it was the attention the debate brought to the pool that led officials to question the legality of the prohibition of children at the pool. Several residents shared concerns regarding the prohibition and the Fair Housing Act in posts on OPA’s online forum.
After consulting with the association’s attorney, the board decided this week to temporarily remove the prohibition on children at the pool.
“The law firm is continuing to look at the issue,” Jacobs said.
She’s not sure what response the change will generate from residents.
“We have four other pools that are family oriented,” she said. “It’s hard to say what people might do.”
Hill said Monday some concern had already been expressed by the pool’s regular users.
“There has been some initial resistance from regular users of the adult pool, however this was a matter of complying with the laws of the state of Maryland, and the Fair Housing Act, which supersede the authority of a board,” he said.
