OCEAN CITY- With the redevelopment of the Baltimore Avenue corridor between North Division Street and 15th Street now in the design process, the public will get a chance to weigh in with workshop in the future.
The Mayor and Council on Monday got a look at some preliminary plans for the redevelopment of the Baltimore Avenue corridor, a major entry point to the resort. The plan calls for widening sidewalks and undergrounding utilities and other landscaping improvements.
The project was listed as a top priority in the recent capital improvement plan and will ultimately come with an estimated $20 million price tag funded through a future bond sale. In the fiscal year 2022 budget approved in the spring, $200,000 was included for preliminary design work, which will be refunded to the town when the next bond sale is complete.
On Monday, City Engineer Terry McGean presented some preliminary design options and requested a public workshop including property owners along the corridor be scheduled in the near future. The Mayor and Council reviewed the options and voted unanimously to move the project forward and schedule a future public workshop.
In recent years, a major renovation of the streetscape along the Baltimore Avenue corridor from North Division Street to 15th Street including undergrounding the utilities and widening the sidewalks, for example, has been on the town’s radar, but the issue is complicated. The state owns the actual roadway and the State Highway Administration (SHA) has been chomping at the bit to repave Baltimore Avenue and bring its sidewalks into Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance.
SHA was planning to repave and expand the sidewalks along that section of Baltimore Avenue at least two years ago. However, Ocean City at the time was considering a complete renovation of the Baltimore Avenue corridor, largely a gateway to the resort and a first impression of the town for many.
The major renovation of the corridor, marked by countless unsightly utility poles and overhead wires, has been a top priority for town officials, who asked SHA to put their repaving project on the backburner until a plan could be developed and way to pay for the project was developed.
The alternatives ranged from simply doing nothing and allowing SHA to come through and repave to corridor and make the requisite ADA improvements to a complete remodel of the corridor including undergrounding the utilities, thereby eliminating the often-unsightly poles and overhead power lines. The latter has been done successfully in other areas of town, but there is a significant cost associated with it.
Complicating the issue further is the existence of a long forgotten and underutilized right-of-way along the Baltimore Avenue corridor. Baltimore Avenue is somewhat unique in a variety of ways. For example, the original deeds show the right-of-way as 75 feet wide, but the current roadway only utilizes about 45 feet from curb to curb.
A review of the ancient deeds for Baltimore Avenue reveal a no man’s land of about 32 feet in some areas that could ultimately be deeded back to the property owners along the corridor or used to widen the roadway and its sidewalks. Over the decades, however, private property is steadily encroached on the original right-of-way platted over a century ago. For example, in some cases, private businesses along the corridor have signs in the old right-of-way, while others have parking areas. In some cases, the long-forgotten right-of-way is just covered with grass or landscaping and isn’t necessarily utilized by the private sector.
On Monday, McGean presented some preliminary design options for the reconstruction of the Baltimore Avenue corridor. One option showed eight-foot sidewalks on either side of Baltimore Avenue with the undergrounding of the utilities. The latter would have to be coordinated with the utility companies along the corridor, including Delmarva Power, for example.
The tentative plan also calls for a dedicated two-foot strip for other utility needs. The question remains what to do with the areas along the corridor that have essentially been taken over by private property owners over the decades. McGean said once the roadway is improved and the sidewalks widened, that roughly 33 feet of town-owned right-of-way could be conveyed to the private property owners.
“We’re talking about giving that 33 feet to the property owners once all of the town’s needs are met for the corridor,” he said. “We’re still going to need some utilities in the easement.”
The council unanimously approved moving the project forward and voted to schedule a public workshop to include residents and property owners in the decision-making process.
