410-641-6029 www.oceanpinesprogress.com
April-Early May 2013
Vol. 9, No. 1
OPA breaks ground on new Yacht Club; pool demo begins The Ocean Pines Association in March embarked on several big-ticket projects at the Yacht Club campus, breaking ground on a new 20,000 square foot, $4.3 million Yacht Club and beginning demolition of the adjoining outdoor pool. Both projects have been given ambitious completion dates. OPA General Manager Bob Thompson has said he would like the new Yacht Club to be complete and open for a New Year’s Eve party, and he has said he would like the new pool to be open by Memorial Day weekend. ~ Page 12
Clarke, Thompson differ over Section 3 drainage impact Often viewing the world through different colored lenses, it’s perhaps not too surprising that Ocean Pines Association Director Marty Clarke and General Manager Bob Thompson have differing views on just how effective recent drainage improvements in Section 3 have been. This time, though, there’s a kind of role reversal. Thompson is sometimes accused of looking at the world through rose-colored glasses, emphasizing the positive and eschewing the negative, especially as it relates to matters under his supervision. ~ Page 22
Budget chairman urges curb on board spending authority
O
cean Pines Budget and Finance Committee chair Dennis Hudson and his panel is looking at the possibility of recommending that the Ocean Pines Association by-laws be amended to curb the board of directors’ power to authorize the spending of money without the approval of property owners in a referendum. Hudson told the Progress that he has been in touch with some members of the board to discuss his idea of changing the bylaws to curb the board’s spending authority and is finding some degree of support. ~ Page 6
THE OCEAN PINES JOURNAL OF NEWS & COMMENTARY COVER STORY
ROLLING THE DICE Bunting, Boggs clash over merits of expanded liquor sales at Ocean Downs Ocean Pines’ commissioners differ over merits of gaming legislation in Annapolis By TOM STAUSS Publisher t’s hardly the first time this has happened, but once again the two county commissioners that represent portions of Ocean Pines are differing on a major issue of importance to the community they serve together in Snow Hill. District 6 Commissioner Jim Bunting and District 5 Commissioner Judy Boggs differed on the merits of a proposed rezoning on Route 589 that would have facilitated the creation of a medical complex on a 30-acre parcel just south of Ocean Pines, adjoining parts of Section 10. The issue seems to be trending in favor of Boggs’ position, with a ruling by a visiting judge in late March voiding the rezoning and setting back plans by local developer Jack Burbage to develop a medical campus in tandem with Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin. Burbage will be appealing that decision to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. Boggs and Bunting recently have diverged over another issue, legislation that was working its way through the General Assembly in Annapolis in March and early April that would allow the Casino at Ocean Downs, located two miles south of Ocean Pines on Route 589, to sell liquor to its gaming clients until 4 a.m. every day. The legislation would trump current county practice, enforced by the Board of License Commissioners, which requires the casino, as well as all bars and restaurants in the county, to stop serving alcohol after 2 a.m. The proposed change has the support of a slim majority of county commissioners, with Bunting vigorously opposing any change in the alcohol policy at Ocean Downs while Boggs is in favor of it. Bunting is on the side of To Page 18
I
Burbage to appeal medical campus ruling Developer calls visiting judge ‘wrong’ in deciding there hasn’t been a substantial change in the neighborhood resulting from the establishment of a casino at Ocean Downs
By TOM STAUSS Publisher ocal developer Jack Burbage intends to appeal a ruling from a visiting circuit court judge in late March voiding a decision by the Worcester County Commissioners last year rezoning Burbage-owned property on Route 589 to accommodate an Atlantic General Hospital-affiliated medical campus. Visiting judge Raymond Beck, called in to hear an appeal of the commissioners’ rezoning decision filed late last year by a group of local residents, declared the commissioners had erred in rezoning the 31-acre parcel from A-1 agriculture to C-2 commercial. The commercial zoning would be a requirement if Burbage were to follow through on his vow to develop a medical campus on the site with AGH. Burbage is chairman of the hospital’s governing board of directors. The commissioners in a 4-3 vote had determined that a change in the neighborhood had justified their decision to rezone the property. The primary change cited in a finding of fact that accompanied the decision was the development of a casino on the site of Ocean Downs Raceway, about two miles south of Ocean Pines near Route 50. Beck, in announcing his ruling from the bench after presentations by competing attorneys, said the change in the neighborhood cited by the commissioners had not been substantial enough to justify rezoning. He said To Page 18
L