Ocean Pines Developers Withdraw Request to Rezone after Public Hearing

SNOW HILL, Md. – Concerned residents of Ocean Pines cheered in a packed public hearing at the Worcester County Government Center today after developers decided to withdraw their request to rezone.

The request was to rezone 14 acres of land in a neighbourhood on the north side of Ocean Pines from a R-2 residential district to a R-3 multi-family residential district. The change would allow them to increase from 53 potential dwelling units to the ability to develop 87 town-home units.

Ocean Pines residents such as Brian Mostek were concerned on how this would affect the landscape of their town.

“When you come in and try and intensify the development and add, additional capacity, it changes the whole neighborhood.” Said Mostek. “And this neighborhood has been established for many years and has this very, kind of peaceful, setting to it.”

The concerns of residents include potential traffic issues, school overcrowding, and environmental impacts. John Latham is the President of the Ocean Pines Board of Directors, and expressed concern on how this rezoning could potentially encourage large future developments in the area.

“If we do this again and again, then next thing you know you got 4 or 5 communities, and you got several extra hundred houses that we have no, you know, infrastructure to support.” Said Latham.

Mostek and his wife Ashley worked to create a petition opposing the request to rezone, which he says, speaks on the level of care the town holds.

“Packing in a whole bunch of homes just for a developer’s profit is much different than this kind of neighborhood.” Said Mostek. “You can see, obviously, we got, over 900 people to sign a petition in just a matter of days because everyone feels very strongly about the community and the neighborhood.”

After several residents spoke on the issue at the public hearing, the developers decided to withdraw their request to rezone to R-3. However, they are still able to build dwellings on the plot under the current R-2 regulations.