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Old Ocean City Seeks to Recapture Past Charm
Glenn Irwin lets his mind meander through the decades, conjuring images of an old Ocean City frozen in fading black-and-white photos, yellowing postcards and the collective memories of generations.
He savors the mental snapshots, and he studies the details: Clapboard seaside cottages with gabled roofs, dormers and big wrap-around porches line the streets, giving downtown a distinctly Victorian feel. Vacationers flock to restaurants and soda fountains and stores whose glass facades evoke a thousand Main Streets. Pedestrians who stroll along wide walkways far outnumber cars on the downtown streets.
Irwin’s not on a mere nostalgia trip. He’s executive director of the Ocean City Development Corp., a non-profit corporation formed in 2000 to steer revitalization efforts in the once-thriving stretch from the Inlet to Fourth Street. Looking to the past, he finds inspiration and lessons for planning the future of a downtown core that has lost much of its luster to neglect, decay and largely uncontrolled, haphazard development.
Today, the 111-acre area - the birthplace of Ocean City and, to many, still its spiritual heart – is overshadowed by the Boardwalk and glitzy bay-side clubs and bypassed by most visitors. Untold numbers of architectural gems have been razed and replaced by parking lots. Vacant storefronts and empty diners appear with disturbing frequency. Seaside cottages, once impeccably maintained, have deteriorated into ramshackle dives.
"Old Ocean City has been neglected for so many years, and so many old buildings have been knocked down, there literally hasn’t been much reason to come down here for decades," Irwin says. "We’re trying to re-energize downtown by re-creating the feel of old Ocean City that had drawn generations of people here."
That view underlies OCDC’s long-term downtown revitalization strategy. To reverse decades of decline, to reclaim its place as a bustling magnet for visitors and merchants alike, OCDC suggests, old Ocean City must strive to recapture its traditional charm.
Back-to-the-Future Vision
In this back-to-the-future vision, new (and newly renovated) buildings, designed in classic Victorian or Queen Anne styles, would look as if they could be right out of an early 20th-century snapshot. Landscaped brick walkways lined with benches and old-time lampposts would connect the Boardwalk to streets decorated with sculptures, fountains and other public art.
Visitors seeking an alternative to the thronged Boardwalk would find choices aplenty downtown among shops, galleries, restaurants, night spots and public squares made for mingling. And construction of a long-overdue downtown parking garage would spare visitors the familiar ritual of driving around for a half hour in search of the elusive parking spot (and often giving up).
OCDC outlines its ambitious strategy in a series of detailed reports and guidelines designed to shape the downtown core for years to come. Key recommendations and goals include strict new zoning regulations, public-private development partnerships, publicly financed projects to provide stronger links between the Boardwalk and downtown, and financial incentives to encourage building improvements.
The success of an effort of such magnitude, of course, will depend on winning over lawmakers, influential property owners, developers and merchants. But broad support for downtown improvement plans has long proved elusive. Indeed, over the past two decades, a series of downtown rejuvenation plans have died largely because they have not unified, but divided often conflicting downtown interest groups and become mired in politics.
The latest effort differs from past attempts in one key respect: It is led not by politicians, but by an independent organization run by a planning professional and governed by a 15-member board that includes no elected officials. (OCDC receives $75,000 a year from the city, but is designed to be free of political influence.)
OCDC's Autonomy Called Crucial
Irwin, a former Davie, Fla., community development director with a reputation for turning around struggling areas, says OCDC’s independence is crucial to its success. "For successful downtown redevelopment to happen," he says, "you have to have to an independent organization to oversee it to take the politics out of the planning process."
Some longtime downtown business owners share that view. "You know what I like most about this plan is they finally got some people not tied to the government to run things," says Ed Braude, who with his wife, Lisa, owns Fat Daddy’s Sub Shop on Baltimore Avenue near Dorchester Street. "The politicians just would do what they’ve always done – bang their heads against each other and shove good ideas to the back burner."
OCDC’s strategy also contrasts markedly with late-1990s suggestions that pinned hopes for renewal on ideas like razing entire blocks of downtown for a themed, mega-resort hotel or bringing in costly, high-profile attractions like an IMAX theater, a science center or an aquarium.
As lawmakers debated one of these short-lived ideas, Ocean City Mayor James N. Mathias Jr. got a call from William Donald Schaefer, the former Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor who is now state comptroller. "I’ll never forget that call," Mathias remembers. "He said to me, ‘Listen, Jim, and remember this advice: Go with Ocean City’s strengths, and stick with them.’"
That means recognizing old Ocean City’s historical flavor as its chief asset, Mathias says, and ensuring it is not destroyed in the name of progress. It’s not only a matter of aesthetics, but a key to luring visitors’ thirst for history at a time when "heritage tourism" is one of the travel industry’s fastest-growing segments.
OCDC’s rapid progress in assembling key pieces of the revitalization puzzle has drawn widespread praise among downtown merchants. Many of them, frustrated by years of unrealized plans and dashed hopes, say they believe that this time it’s for real.
Perhaps nobody more eagerly awaits a downtown renaissance than the owners of struggling businesses along the streets and avenues between the Boardwalk and bay. They have suffered far too long, says Mayor Mathias, who blames political infighting and bureaucratic inertia for sinking earlier revitalization plans.
'Hole in the Middle Downtown'
The one-time owner of an arcade just off the boards, Mathias says he empathizes with off-Boardwalk business owners. "I know the realities of doing business in downtown Ocean City off the Boardwalk, and it’s tough, really tough," he says. "People are so oriented to going certain places. They go the beach. They go to the Boardwalk. They may find their way over to the bay. But it’s like we have this hole in the middle downtown."
OCDC’s first project aimed at filling that void, the new pedestrian walkway on Somerset Street, has yielded dramatic results. The landscaped brick walkway whose retro Victorian street lamps, signs and benches match those of the Boardwalk connects the boards to the downtown core not only physically, but visually.
Already, the long-neglected street that had served as a dead-end parking lot is abuzz with talk of outdoor cafes and live entertainment, and several owners plan to replace aging facades with the help of state grants that will pay half the cost.
OCDC planned the city-financed $225,000 Somerset conversion to serve as a model for turning other downtown streets into similar pedestrian walkways.
A block west, on Philadelphia Avenue, a planned 14-foot-wide walkway made of stamped concrete resembling the Boardwalk is expected to be completed next year. It won’t connect with the boards right away, but OCDC envisions eventually extending the Boardwalk from Inlet Park to link to the Philadelphia Avenue walkway and creating "Sunset Park" along a vacant bay-front stretch of South Division Street.
Such public projects help set the tone and provide all-important momentum for downtown renewal. But private interests own most of the downtown property, and OCDC is shifting more of its focus to regulating new development and redevelopment projects.
Strict New Zoning Urged
In a 72-page report sent to the city Office of Planning and Community Development, OCDC recommends strict new zoning requirements meant to ensure new downtown projects maintain the historical flavor.
Thus, for example, gabled or hipped roofs would be required; flat roofs, forbidden, and even larger hotels would have to maintain signature elements of Queen Anne or Victorian architectural styles. Clapboard and cedar shingles would be allowed; aluminum siding would not. And only "light and muted" colors would be permitted on almost everything but trim.
Building heights would be limited to five stories (and four stories for buildings not directly on the Boardwalk or bay). Sidewalks would have to be at least 10 feet wide on the avenues, the north-south arteries, and at least eight feet wide on streets, even when this requires a developer to expand existing setbacks for walkways. Other proposed regulations spell out specific requirements covering parking, lighting, use of signs.
As OCDC begins presenting its design recommendations publicly, some observers suggest its toughest challenge may be ahead. "When you’re talking about people who own lots of property, somebody’s not going to be able to just walk in and tell these people what they’re allowed to do with their property," says former Mayor Roland "Fish" Powell. "This group (OCDC) is certainly heading in the right direction, but they got their work cut out for them."
Irwin says he expects some initial opposition but believes the OCDC strategy will ultimately win widespread support.
"Once property owners see the bigger picture – the importance of the revitalization of downtown and how integral these design guidelines are to that revitalization – they’ll come around," he says. "Everybody has a big stake in downtown’s future, and everybody knows we can’t afford to lose old Ocean City."
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Comments from users:
| Stevie Connolly | Eldersburg,Maryland | | fpmermaid AT aol DOT com | |
I love "OLD OC" What GREAT MEMORIES...Have you considered selling engraved bricks to pave a portion of your great renovation...I know "our" family and friends would love to support the new/old"OC"...I bought 6 bricks for the Ravens Plaza for christmas gifts/2004...$80.00 each.
I know you would get the support...
Thanks!
Stevie Connolly..Senior Beach Week 1959!!!!!!! |
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