33rd Street Property Rezoned

OCEAN CITY - Property located on 33^rd Street and Coastal Highway was officially rezoned from residential to commercial last week, as the City Council voted unanimously to make the change.

At a public hearing in early April regarding the parcel, the Planning and Zoning Commission agreed that the property should be rezoned, making a favorable recommendation to the Mayor and Council to rezone the area from R-2 residential to LC-1 commercial.

Zoning Administrator Blaine Smith explained the property, a strip of land lying north of Angelo's Restaurant, has been zoned residential since 1993, while the neighboring restaurant and bar have been zoned commercial. According to Smith, the property was rezoned in 1993 during comprehensive rezoning. The base zoning map at the time showed the lot to be much smaller than it was, as a result, not all of the area was zoned commercial.

'The Planning Commission can find no reason to divide the property into two different zoning classifications and believes the appropriate designation for the property in its entirety should have been LC-1 District. Traditionally, parcels located along the highway are zoned commercial in their entirety,' reads the Planning Commission's finding of fact.

'I agree with this, the property is tired. They've done the best they can do to maintain it,' said Councilman Jim Hall.

The council voted unanimously to accept the recommendation from the Planning Commission and to rezone the parcel. The vote was followed with first reading of the ordinance to amend the maps and rezone the property, which was also approved unanimously.