The Worcester County Commissioners made a major decision this week in approving a text amendment creating a casino entertainment district. It will be a vote leading to the transformation of the Ocean Downs Casino property on Route 589. It will also be a vote referred to often in the future when attorneys bring similar overlay requests for other properties in the north end of the county.
Though the casino owners will still have some hoops to jump through at the state level, it’s clear this week’s 5-2 vote at the county level will allow them to proceed with developing the property further. A 100-plus room hotel is a given on the site and other amenities to attract visitors are expected as well.
The casino’s representatives said all the right things this week. They want to keep live horse racing no matter how the property is developed. There is no intention to take room nights away from Ocean City hoteliers. There is no goal to compete and take tourists out of Ocean City. They simply want to increase their income by bringing more gamblers to the casino. The casino will fund a traffic study for all of Route 589 once a development plan is decided upon.
These words are fine and well. It’s what they should say and was expected. The casino is also rightly amped to point to the positive economic impact it has on the county. It’s a major employer, offering more than 100 reliable year-round jobs, and is expected to provide annual impact grants of between $3 million and $5 million to the county including separate payments to Ocean City, Ocean Pines and Berlin. In fact, fiscal year 2020’s grant came to $3.4 million, down 23.6% from the previous year’s $4.4 million because of the pandemic. These figures are important to the governments who benefit from them, but they do little to minimize the potential impacts private businesses will face if room nights and amusement park trips are lost in the resort.
We worry the summation by Commission President Joe Mitrecic may be correct. Mitrecic, who opposed the decision, said, “I think down the road we’re going to be very sorry we did it.” We hope he’s wrong. It will be years before we know if it was a mistake because it will take time for the property to be developed. A key part in evaluating this decision over the long term will be whether the county fields similar requests in the future from property owners looking to maximize their land values without needing a rezoning. The precedent is now set.
