Bethany Hooper

Associate Editor

(Feb. 26, 2026) The Town of Ocean City will explore other locations for a sports complex following recent backlash from nearby residents regarding a proposal to build the facility on a 95-acre site located next to Stephen Decatur High School.

Following a contentious community meeting earlier this month, and a letter from Berlin’s mayor and council asking Ocean City to remove the site from its consideration, it appears the Mayor and City Council will not be moving forward with the project on a parcel of land – owned by the Harrison family — located north of Flower Street and west of Seahawk Road.

While sharing the city’s commitment to developing a facility in the future, Council President Matt James said in a statement Wednesday that the city is exploring other options.

“This has been a long and extensive process,” he said. “In response to recent community feedback, additional options are being explored at this time; the exhaustive search continues.”

In a contentious community meeting earlier this month, members of the Flower Street neighborhood and other nearby communities were quick to share their objections to the city’s plans for an indoor-outdoor complex at the site.

From the outset, they argued the proposed location would generate more traffic in an already congested area and create additional burden on Berlin’s fire and EMS services, among other things. Many also talked about the way the Flower Street community had been marginalized, highlighting the landfill placed along their road and the Route 113 highway that cut off their access to downtown Berlin.

Berlin’s mayor and town council took it one step further in the days that followed, issuing a letter to the Town of Ocean City with a request to abandon its consideration of the site. Berlin Mayor Zack Tyndall said the community’s message was clear.

“What I heard was the public said this site is a no-go; however, we’re not opposed to a sports complex per se,” he said last week. “It’s just not a good fit here.”

The Ocean City Council met behind closed doors for more than an hour Tuesday night to discuss property acquisition for the sports complex. In an open session that followed, council members voted to allow dedicated advertising funds generated through room tax revenues to also be used for a future sports complex, wherever that may be.

“This is not site specific on a sports complex,” Council Secretary Will Savage clarified this week. “This is setting aside money for the concept.”