Events slated for upcoming summer and fall

event.

Beach Patrol staff said they will support the races as they have in the past. However, they let the organizer know that they will not be fully staffed at the time and will have less help available. The staff report said the shortage makes closing the beach to water activities difficult, so the organizer will need to supplement with event staff.

The staff report said Beach Patrol members also previously provided watercraft assistance for the event, but they will not have them deployed for this year and will not be able to help. The organizer will need to employ a private company to meet the need.

The organizer must pay the town $350 in private event fees.

Custom car display

Members of the Ocean City Development Corporation will host a custom car display event series in partnership with the Ocean City Cruzers Organization on select Sundays in June, July, August and Sep- tember.

According to a staff report, the classic vehicle display events are set from 2:30-6 p.m. on June 11 and 25, July 9 and 23, Aug. 6 and 20, and Sept. 10 and 24 at Somerset Plaza downtown.

The car owners will supervise and educate the public on their vehicles and musical entertainment will be provided.

The organizer will move the public benches on the plaza to accommodate the vehicles and place them back following each event. The organizer will also cone off the west end of the plaza at Baltimore Avenue to ensure cars not affiliated with the event do not drive into the area.

The fire marshal requires all of the tents used to be secured with weights or water barrels only, and for any tents larger than 10 by 10 feet, a permit must be obtained.

The staff report said the police will monitor the event series with shift officers.

The organizer will pay the town $525 in private event fees, according to the report.

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Ocean City tax rate unchanged

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One of the biggest focuses in budget discussions was staffing with 3 percent step increases for general employees and cost-of-living boosts for police and firefighters, as detailed in their union contracts. Staff members also managed to find money to hire 12 new full-time firefighters/emergency medical technicians, at the request of council members.

Tuesday’s vote included approval of the fiscal 2024 tax rate, as well, which remained at the same level as the current fiscal year.

Each year, City Council members set the property tax rate and decide whether to leave it as is or raise or lower it to the constant yield.

The constant yield is the tax rate that would produce the same revenues as the prior year based on assessment estimates. For fiscal 2024, the constant yield is 44.76 cents per $100 of assessed value, which is down from the existing rate of 45.26 cents per $100.

Staff members suggested, and council members agreed, to keep the existing rate. How that affects property owners will depend on the as- sessed value of their properties, but minimal impact is expected. cial exceptions for parking capacity.

The anticipated revenue from the real property taxes is more than $43.2 million, or just over $478,000 more than the fiscal 2023 total. According to a staff report, that income will cover 41 percent of the general fund, with the remainder deriving from tourism revenues.

The report said capital projects have been funded at $3.4 million as well. The expenses include $1.8 million for street paving, $1.5 million for the capital maintenance fund, and $100,000 for Boardwalk re- decking.

Projects approved as “pay-as-yougo” in the capital improvement plan, or CIP, will be covered by existing capital maintenance funds. The projects include street paving at $1.1 million, canal dredging at $200,000, storm drain cleaning at $100,000, repairs to the Ocean Bowl Skatepark for $100,000, and new City Watch surveillance cameras for $80,000.

Council members also opted to move money for improvements to Baltimore Avenue and property acquisition for a planned county sports complex to next fiscal year during fiscal 2024 budget discussions.

The second recommendation, which was based on a City Council concern, makes it so supplemental regulations apply to new employee housing projects when employee housing incentives are used.

This clarification is intended to prevent non-employee housing projects from taking advantage of employee housing-related incentives.

Recommendation four sets the minimum age of all onsite employee housing managers at 21 and older.

The fifth recommendation states that any bedroom with an exterior wall must have at least one window, which is based on a May 2 comment from Glenn Irwin, the former executive director of the Ocean City Development Corporation.

Neville also conceived of a new idea to help settle concerns raised about employee housing proximity to existing residential zones.

Planning commissioner Palmer Gillis reiterated worries that the draft’s parking code, and potential exceptions permitted by the BZA, may cause disturbances to spill over into residential districts.

Employee housing is not allowed in R-1 single-family residential districts, but homes there could be near or next to employee housing.

Gillis noted that 76 percent of the island would be affected by the code and floated the idea of eliminating R2 medium residential districts and R3 general residential districts from the plan with the possibility of adding them as potential employee housing locations later on.

“I hate impacting our existing residents,” Gillis said.

Commission Chairperson Joe Wilson disagreed, stating that there are some R-2 and R-3 districts that don’t touch R-1 districts, and worried that such a change would defeat the purpose of incentivizing developers.

“I think trying to streamline a process for potential developers is the way to go and limiting them is not,” Wilson said.

Neville offered the idea that maybe the R-2 districts should only allow tier 1 projects, then R-3 could only allow tier 1 and tier 2, and the largest projects would only be able to go into districts rated higher than R-3.

“R-2 can be kind of the buffer zone, but still going to protect the R-2 people too, so anything beyond that (would be) more of a conditional use,” said Commissioner Janet Hough.

The draft presented on May 2, included a tier system that provided avenues for approval based on the number of occupants in employee housing.

Tier 1 included employee housing with 16 or fewer residents and would require only a building permit and rental license process. Tier 2 included housing with 60 or fewer residents and would require a site plan approval on top of the building permit and rental license. Tier 3, housing with more than 60 residents, would have to go through the zoning code’s conditional use process along with all other processes required in Tier 2.

In the final vote, it was decided that only tier one employee housing would be allowed in R-2 and R-2A low-density multiple-family residential districts, and R-3 districts would allow tier 1 and tier 2 housing.

Tier 3 housing would only be allowed in LC-1 local commercial districts and other commercial districts.

The commissioners also changed tier 2 housing to hold 16-40 residents rather than 16-60 and added conditional use (the applicant must adhere to certain specific requirements) to the process of approval on top of siteplan approval, building permit and rental license.