By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(April 5, 2018) If you’re not an Ocean Pines homeowner or resident, annual parking passes at the association beach club just got much more expensive.

Homeowners and residents pay $150 for an annual parking pass at the facility, on 4901 Coastal Highway in Ocean City, open from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

The Ocean Pines Board, during a regular board meeting last Thursday, voted 6-0 to set the nonmember fee at $2,800. One director, Slobodan Trendic, abstained from the vote.

Association President Doug Parks said the cost was “in line with other public parking lots in the area” and created at the advice of an Ocean Pines attorney. He said the rate was calculated by averaging $25 per day over the roughly four-month season.

A year ago, those who did not own property or live in Ocean Pines could buy an associate membership for $250 that would allow an entire household access to amenity passes at the same rate as homeowners. However, the associate membership was discontinued during budget deliberations this year.

“In the original budget … we took everything on the rate chart and up-charged it 30 percent to come to a difference between what we would charge an association member and a non-association member,” Parks said. “Upon further investigation, we felt with all the contention for parking [in Ocean City] some might find that, for $225 a year, they would just go ahead and buy a parking place. And that’s going to put a detriment to the association.

“The idea is, if you want to use this Ocean Pines amenity and you’re a nonresident, you’re going to pay for it,” Parks added.

Trendic questioned the logic of charging $2,800 to park at a facility that’s closed more than six months out of the year.

“Nobody is going to park there in December,” Trendic said. “Anybody that parks at the beach [club] is going to park from May through September.”

He wondered aloud if Ocean Pines would be accused of price gouging.

“I hope so!” someone in the audience said.

Trendic asked General Manager John Bailey to review the entire fee structure at the beach club, but Parks countered the board already reviewed and approved a budget based on fees that were already set – with the exception of an annual, nonmember pass.

“The intent of this motion was to make sure that we protected … the asset we call the beach club parking lot, for our members,” Parks said. “I’m not really going to worry about a nonmember getting upset that they have to pay $2,800 to park in our lot.”