Big dumpsters like this one in front of a home construction project on Bay Avenue are a common sight in Ocean City.
Ocean City backed off Thursday from banning large construction dumpsters on local streets as a way to open up hundreds of parking spaces across town for regular traffic.
Responding to strong opposition from local contractors, City Council voted to table a proposed ordinance that would have banned dumpsters larger than 10 cubic yards in size and placed restrictions on construction trailers.
Council President Pete Madden said the ordinance is not dead. Rather, the city plans to talk with construction contractors to consider options for a revised dumpster ordinance, he pointed out.
“It’s to do exactly what happened here – listen to the pros and cons of what we’re trying to do and bring forth the best options. So our intent is to come back with something that’s better than what was presented,” Madden said in an interview after the Council meeting.
The dumpsters are part of a trend in Ocean City that also involves commercial vehicles and boat trailers monopolizing parking spaces on the local streets – this in a town where parking spots are at a premium, especially during the busy summer tourism season.
Without the construction dumpsters and trailers clogging the parking spots, hundreds of parking spaces would open up across the island for regular traffic, city officials said.
An overflow crowd of local construction contractors packs the Council chambers.However, local contractors packed the Council chambers Thursday to show their opposition to the ordinance. They lined up to sign a sheet allowing them to give public remarks during the meeting.
One by one, the contractors urged the Council members to table the ordinance to give more time for discussions between the city and the construction industry.
Ryan Price, who owns custom home builder Price Brothers Construction with his father, asked Council not to create “overbearing laws” that he said could cripple one of Ocean City’s most important industries.
Price predicted the ordinance would have far-reaching negative consequences, even on the contractors that already strictly follow Ocean City’s construction regulations to keep their job sites clean.
“This ordinance will negatively impact the entire construction industry – the good ones and the bad ones equally. I ask that you do not punish all of us because of the actions of some,” said Price, who also serves as a member of the city’s zoning board.
Scott Halliday, of Halliday-Leonard General Contractors in Ocean City, said the ordinance would have doubled or tripled the disposal costs for contractors as well as added to the length of time for construction projects.
“Do you really want to do that to the Ocean City taxpayers,” Halliday asked the Council members.
Contractor Kimberly Styer, owner of Coastal Marine, criticizes the ordinance while addressing Council.Another contractor, Kimberly Styer, owner of Coastal Marine, warned Council that the ordinance would have been a “nightmare” for construction companies.
“This is going to be more trouble than it’s worth,” Styer said.
Tony Wilson, a former Council member and local plumbing contractor, met with a handful of city officials last week to discuss the ordinance and complaints from the construction industry.
Wilson suggested that both sides sit down at a workshop to resolve their differences He offered to serve as a liaison between the city and the contractors.
“For now, I think there’s a knee-jerk reaction going on to a problem that we have the ability to correct within ourselves. We can work with Council; we can work with the residents. We can make it work. We can work together,” Wilson said.
Council introduced the ordinance on Dec. 5 and had scheduled a final vote Thursday after holding a public hearing. However, the governing body instead voted 7-0 to table it.
“To hear from everybody is very valuable,” Councilman Sean Barnes said after thanking the contractors for showing up to express their opinions about the ordinance.
In its original iteration, the ordinance called for banning dumpsters larger than 10 cubic yards from being placed on local streets, alleys and the public right-of-way.
Dumpsters 10 cubic yards and smaller would have been allowed to park on the streets during the day. However, they would have been prohibited from parking on the streets overnight, starting at 6 p.m.
The original ordinance also sought to ban construction trailers, commercial trailers and storage trailers of any type or size from being parked overnight, starting at 6 p.m.
City Council votes 7-0 to table the ordinance.
