(May 11, 2017) What, exactly, is going on with the proposed redevelopment of the Bay Club into a luxury campground is apparently a matter of some debate, but town officials said Monday there was no news and assured members of the public they would have a voice in any discussions.
Residents Cam Bunting and Carol Rose asked for an update on the project during the public comments portion of the Town Council meeting.
“I keep hearing that this is a done deal, which is really interesting,” Mayor Gee Williams said.
Williams said he called attorney Hugh Cropper, who represents Bay Club owners the Carl M. Freeman Companies, on Monday. He joked that he asked Cropper if he had heard about this “done deal.”
“He said, ‘what’?” Williams said. “The last time we talked to him was back in the first week of April.”
Williams has said he spoke with Cropper in April and asked him to postpone a meeting with the Worcester County Board of Zoning Appeals until Cropper could provide more information on the proposal during a public meeting in Berlin. Prior to that, Cropper spoke about the possible development during a Town Council meeting on Dec. 12.
Before the development could take place, it would require a special zoning exception from the county.
“They have a lot of ideas,” Williams said. “We asked for the postponement and they totally understood that we’re not an uninterested bystander. We are the community, literally, next door.”
He said town officials – and the public – had the right to know what the impact would be on the town, what the size of the campground would be, what the financial impact would be and what the effect would be on traffic.
The Bay Club is on Libertytown Road and residents in Berlin have speculated the addition of several hundred campers during the busy summer months would clog the roads in and around downtown.
Williams said he expected to hear more about the project soon and that anything is possible – from a large, luxury annexed campground, to nothing at all. If there is to annexation, however, Williams insisted it would involve would a formal public process.
“They would have to petition the mayor and council to be annexed. We would have to sit down with them if the mayor and council were even inclined to accept that [and] there would be a very extensive negotiation period,” Town Attorney David Gaskill said. “That itself could take months and months.”
Ironically, Gaskill said he also talked to Cropper on Monday, about another matter entirely, and Cropper told him he had not even met with Freeman officials since early April.
Rose said the citizens simply wanted to be included in the discussion.
“All we’re asking, and there’s many, many, many citizens that elected all of you, when there’s some sort of a presentation the public wants to know and they want to be here and they want to be able to voice their concern,” Rose said. “That’s all we’re asking.”
“Of course,” Williams said. “You’re not asking for anything that is not a normal part of the procedure.”
Williams again said there were many rumors about the potential development that suggested a deal has already been struck.
“Whoever is saying that doesn’t know what the hell they’re talking about,” he said.
Rose said she and others heard the same rumors and “were trying to put out the fires that our mayor and council will not do things without the public knowing.”
“Of course!” Williams said. “I put this up to … the craziness that is going on up in Washington, because nobody used to say we were like that. People just now assume that we’re all just out to screw everybody. Why?
“We haven’t changed. We’re the same people. We have the same hopes and dreams for this community and we want the community’s involvement in all major decisions,” Williams added. “There’s like this conspiracy [of] hidden government all out there in the dark somewhere – it’s just not there.”
Bunting and Rose both said they were against the development.
“The merchants I’ve talked to, nobody wants it if it’s a campground,” Bunting said.
“Number one, it’s a safety issue,” Rose said. “Anybody that drives down Broad Street and sees how narrow that is … if you don’t have sense enough with your own eyes to see how bad this would be, traffic-wise, then you need glasses because it would a disaster for this town to let a campground [in].”
Councilman Zack Tyndall asked residents to email their concerns to ztyndall@berlinmd.gov, and promised to share those with other members of the Town Council.
To view a full list of email addresses for elected officials in Berlin, visit www.berlinmd.gov/maryland-government/elected-officials.
Residents Cam Bunting and Carol Rose asked for an update on the project during the public comments portion of the Town Council meeting.
“I keep hearing that this is a done deal, which is really interesting,” Mayor Gee Williams said.
Williams said he called attorney Hugh Cropper, who represents Bay Club owners the Carl M. Freeman Companies, on Monday. He joked that he asked Cropper if he had heard about this “done deal.”
“He said, ‘what’?” Williams said. “The last time we talked to him was back in the first week of April.”
Williams has said he spoke with Cropper in April and asked him to postpone a meeting with the Worcester County Board of Zoning Appeals until Cropper could provide more information on the proposal during a public meeting in Berlin. Prior to that, Cropper spoke about the possible development during a Town Council meeting on Dec. 12.
Before the development could take place, it would require a special zoning exception from the county.
“They have a lot of ideas,” Williams said. “We asked for the postponement and they totally understood that we’re not an uninterested bystander. We are the community, literally, next door.”
He said town officials – and the public – had the right to know what the impact would be on the town, what the size of the campground would be, what the financial impact would be and what the effect would be on traffic.
The Bay Club is on Libertytown Road and residents in Berlin have speculated the addition of several hundred campers during the busy summer months would clog the roads in and around downtown.
Williams said he expected to hear more about the project soon and that anything is possible – from a large, luxury annexed campground, to nothing at all. If there is to annexation, however, Williams insisted it would involve would a formal public process.
“They would have to petition the mayor and council to be annexed. We would have to sit down with them if the mayor and council were even inclined to accept that [and] there would be a very extensive negotiation period,” Town Attorney David Gaskill said. “That itself could take months and months.”
Ironically, Gaskill said he also talked to Cropper on Monday, about another matter entirely, and Cropper told him he had not even met with Freeman officials since early April.
Rose said the citizens simply wanted to be included in the discussion.
“All we’re asking, and there’s many, many, many citizens that elected all of you, when there’s some sort of a presentation the public wants to know and they want to be here and they want to be able to voice their concern,” Rose said. “That’s all we’re asking.”
“Of course,” Williams said. “You’re not asking for anything that is not a normal part of the procedure.”
Williams again said there were many rumors about the potential development that suggested a deal has already been struck.
“Whoever is saying that doesn’t know what the hell they’re talking about,” he said.
Rose said she and others heard the same rumors and “were trying to put out the fires that our mayor and council will not do things without the public knowing.”
“Of course!” Williams said. “I put this up to … the craziness that is going on up in Washington, because nobody used to say we were like that. People just now assume that we’re all just out to screw everybody. Why?
“We haven’t changed. We’re the same people. We have the same hopes and dreams for this community and we want the community’s involvement in all major decisions,” Williams added. “There’s like this conspiracy [of] hidden government all out there in the dark somewhere – it’s just not there.”
Bunting and Rose both said they were against the development.
“The merchants I’ve talked to, nobody wants it if it’s a campground,” Bunting said.
“Number one, it’s a safety issue,” Rose said. “Anybody that drives down Broad Street and sees how narrow that is … if you don’t have sense enough with your own eyes to see how bad this would be, traffic-wise, then you need glasses because it would a disaster for this town to let a campground [in].”
Councilman Zack Tyndall asked residents to email their concerns to ztyndall@berlinmd.gov, and promised to share those with other members of the Town Council.
To view a full list of email addresses for elected officials in Berlin, visit www.berlinmd.gov/maryland-government/elected-officials.