OC hearing on weekly rentals draws horror stories

• A big house in a tony neighborhood went from quiet family home to a noisy weekly rental.
• Those concerns led to a public hearing on how to tackle rentals in traditional family neighborhoods.
• Ocean City officials will weigh the input and consider what to do next.

The house at the center of a weekly rental controversy in Ocean City is being advertised as a property that sleeps 17 people, even though Ocean City's rules on renting a single-family home limit occupancy to no more than four unrelated people.

The home at 1501 Teal Drive is listed on the website for Central Reservations, a property rental business in Ocean City, as having six bedrooms (including eight beds) and four bathrooms, and available to rent at $1,800 to $5,500 a week. Teal Drive's year-round residents have come to resort officials to complaint that the home's nuisance renters have plagued their neighborhood with excess noise and trash this summer.

In response, Ocean City's Planning and Zoning Commission on Aug. 19 held a public hearing to consider overall restrictions on renting single-family homes. Planning and Zoning Commission members will form a recommendation to send to the mayor and Town Council for a final vote.

At the standing-room-only meeting, it was Teal Drive resident Phil Houck, who lives across the street from that nuisance property, who told the commission that he'd seen on Aug. 14 as many as seven cars outside the house.

"When they left, I counted 22 people at that house," said Houck, who also owns Ocean City's Bull on the Beach restaurant. "My question is, what is the family code on a single family home? I think we need to limit the number of people in a (rental) house. If it were four or six, we wouldn't have any problems."

Zoning Administrator Blaine Smith at the hearing said the town's rules are clear: if renters of single-family homes are not related by blood or marriage, then renters may not exceed a group of not more than four unrelated persons.

Smith called that rule, in place since the 1970s, a "safeguard," not only against over-occupancy in residential neighborhoods, but a means to maintain the character of single-family home neighborhoods. The distinction also includes mobile home neighborhoods.

Others at the hearing shared their horror stories about renters.

Joanne Cuomo lives on Artic Avenue. Last summer, she said a neighboring house had as many as 35 people staying there at once, and would keep her and her husband awake until 3 a.m. with their noise. Cuomo, a nurse, and she ended up changing over to an 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. work shift, "because I couldn't sleep," she said. "This is an ongoing problem. Last year it was unbelievable."

John Adkins, a resident of the Little Salisbury neighborhood (located off 94th Street) since 1987, told the commission "last year was the worst year I have ever had.

"The property next to me had at least nine cars. How many people, I can't tell you, but there was a lot. This year, the house is under foreclosure, it's not been occupied. My neighbors and I were tickled," he said.

Adkins also said he's noticing that many property owners near his home seem to be renting out their places on their own, without using a rental office or a real estate agent as the middleman.

"There's no permits, there's no nothing," he said. "Once suggestion would be that R1 districts have to be rented by a real estate agent, and I don't know that would do it, but at least they have the right to go in and inspect that property."

Brad Maunz owns a home on North Heron Gull Court. He said he's been renting the place for the last six years, advertises exclusively to families, and he takes that responsibility as a landlord "very seriously."

He doesn't favor any new laws to crack down on renters, but instead want to see better teeth put into enforcement of the current regulations.

"I strongly believe the single-family residences adds to the appeal of Ocean City," Maunz said, "and I am also in favor of strong enforcement to ensure the rights of the property owners. I believe that restricting rentals of single-families is akin to treating a rash through amputation."

Many real estate agents showed up to the hearing. One of them was Chris Jett, who said Ocean City needn't tamper with the status quo, because homeowners rely on booking weekly vacationers to offset the cost of home ownership.

"In the absence of rental potential, the values of these homes may decrease, and the pool of potential buyers may also shrink," said Jett, a past president of the Coastal Association of Realtors. "If the negative publicity continues tourists may choose to take their business elsewhere."

bshane@dmg.gannett.com

410-213-9442, ext. 17

On Twitter @bwshane

BY THE NUMBERS

3,845 parcels included in R1 districts, either single family or mobile homes

276 homes licensed as rentals licensed, in both zones

In last 19 months, Ocean City has received complaints from 13 properties. That's 4 percent of licensed rentals.