OCEAN CITY, Md.- Hard to believe on a cold day, but soon it will be summer. Ocean City will be filled with seasonal visitors and seasonal employees, but will there be enough places for them to stay?
Currently city code requires businesses to have housing for short term workers on site or close by. The Ocean City Development Corporation says changing the code will address a current shortage.
The Ocean City Development Corporation's Executive Director Glenn Irwin said, "A lot of existing employee housing units will be converted to weekly rentals to be rented to summer tourists which is much more lucrative that actually decreased the amount of employee housing available and as presented some challenges to employers trying to find housing for their employees."
As the code stands now businesses must have employee housing on site in accessory to the business. The new code hopes to change that and to make its employment housing off site and non accessory. The OCDC hope this will help with employment housing all across the town and hopefully help with the shortage of employees in the on season.
Brandon Snyder who is a manager at Hoopers Crabhouse in Ocean City said the current code is difficult. He also said at Hoopers they've even hired a project manager to handle employee housing for the summer and he welcomes the possible change in code, "Definitely needs to happen with all the AirBnb's is going up around here people even just locals in general haven't been able to find good affordable housing. So I think something's definitely needs to be changed."
The next Planning Commission meeting to talk about the change of code will be Wednesday, February 22nd at City Hall.
