OCEAN CITY — Six years after passing an ordinance requiring non-conforming business signs in the downtown area to be brought into compliance, resort officials last week extended the deadline for a variety of reasons.
During the Sept. 29 joint meeting between the Mayor and Council and the Planning Commission, the issue was discussed. The ordinance requires all business signs in the downtown area that are non-conforming to be brought into compliance by November.
The signs in question are not code compliant for a variety of reasons. Some do not meet the code in terms of height or size, while others infringe on roadway rights-of-way. The issue is further complicated by the pending redevelopment of the Baltimore Avenue corridor from North Division Street to 15th Street, an area where some of the non-compliant signs are located.
As part of that project, the town is in the process of abandoning and conveying an unused portion of the Baltimore Avenue right-of-way to the private sector property owners along the corridor. The original deeds show the right-of-way at 75 feet, but the current roadway only utilizes about 45 feet from curb to curb. That leaves an area of about 21 feet in some cases that has been utilized to the property owners over the years for various purposes, including signs, for example.
With the town now in the process of conveying that no man’s land area to adjacent property owners, the non-conforming sign question has become an issue again with the November deadline for compliance looming. Planning and Community Development Director Bill Neville said the issue needed to be addressed with the deadline coming in about six weeks.
“We need some direction on this,” he said. “There is a deadline connected to it and it’s coming up.”
Neville explained the background on the non-conforming sign issue and reminded the council some of the affected non-complaint signs are in the project area.
“In 2016, an ordinance passed that all non-conforming signs in the downtown area need to be brought into compliance by November 2022,” he said. “What is the desire in terms of maintaining non-conformity? Keep in mind we have the Baltimore Avenue project coming up.”
Mayor Rick Meehan suggested the deadline be extended considering the upcoming Baltimore Avenue project.
“Wouldn’t we want the November deadline to coincide with the redevelopment of Baltimore Avenue?” he said. “We wouldn’t want to make them do something twice. Maybe that should be extended.”
City Manager Terry McGean pointed out the non-conforming sign ordinance was not strictly related to the proposed project area.
“This just doesn’t cover Baltimore Avenue,” he said. This covers the entire downtown overlay district. They’ve had six years to do this.”
The Ocean City Development Corporation (OCDC) weighed in on the issue in the form of a letter to the Mayor and Council and recommended extending the deadline for one year.
“Knowing that the Baltimore Avenue streetscape project would address many of these nonconforming signs and that this project could be delayed, OCDC recommends that this November 22 amortization deadline be delayed one year in order to allow time for more consistent compliance,” the letter reads. “Now that property owners can request abandonment of unneeded Baltimore Avenue right-of-way, it will allow them to better plan for permanent sign location and compliance.”
While the OCDC letter referenced the pending Baltimore Avenue project, it recommended extending the deadline for signs throughout downtown.
“We are recommending this one-year extension to be applied to the full downtown area under the design standards requirements for consistency and fairness,” the letter reads. “Such time should allow the town of Ocean City to inform property owners throughout these design districts of their sign nonconformity and the need for compliance.”
