(Feb. 9, 2017) The Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors, in three separate votes on Monday, approved fee changes related to beach club parking, aquatics and associate memberships.
In a 6-0 vote, with Director Slobodan Trendic absent during the meeting, the directors agreed to increase the rate for an annual beach club parking-pass from $175 to $200.
Interim General Manager Brett Hill said the additional $25 would support aquatics, increasing the overall subsidy from the beach club to that amenity to $53 per permit sold.
He said the practice of “open passes” would be discontinued. Current parking memberships come with four passes to the beach club pool, good for the season, which were unassigned to any specific person. Under the new rules, an annual pass would come with a family membership to the beach club pool.
“For all of our owners that want to buy a beach club parking permit, they would have a membership for their household … to the beach club pool,” Hill said. “What this discourages is the habits that have formed of landlords or real-estate agents purchasing a permit and then renting that permit out to circumvent our weekly pass structure. We have Ocean Pines revenue that should be, really, coming back to Ocean Pines going into a limited sector of our owners who rent their property out.”
Hill said he worked with local real estate agents to develop a Realtor/renter bundle that would offer the same parking and pool availability, but would better distribute revenues to Ocean Pines.
A six-week package of beach club parking and pool memberships would cost $600, and a 12-week package would cost $1,000. The 12-week packages are extendable, with any additional weeks proposed to cost $80 each, Hill said.
Those packages would include one parking permit and four pool passes per week, sold exclusively to real estate agents and homeowner landlords.
“At the price point in our discussions with the Realtors, we felt that even if it’s a three-night rental or a four-night rental for the long weekends, it’s still more economical than if they were coming in and purchasing the three-day [membership] from us,” Hill said. “There’s still room for the Realtors to make money, which is what they’re in business to do, and Ocean Pines is able to capture the weekly revenue directly from those tenants.”
Board Vice President Dave Stevens argued the reason for the price increases was less about eliminating abuse by rental agents and more about the obvious demand – and limited supply – of beach club parking spaces.
“The reason we’re doing it, I know Brett’s skirting around it, but this is an age-old answer,” he said. “We’re oversold and we’re doing it because we can. Why don’t we just make that perfectly clear? We can add more revenues [and] we think we can continue to oversell the beach club passes.”
Aquatics Director Colby Phillips, however, disputed at least part of that notion. She said the beach club pool had 25,000 visitors last year, 22,000 of which used passes associated to parking memberships. She said revenues there were about $6,000 and that overcrowding was a constant issue.
The Mumford’s Landing pool, on the other hand, had 20,000 visitors and brought in $85,000.
“Anyone can get into that pool [at the beach club],” she said. “There has to be a way to eliminate the overuse of just anyone coming in. There’s no accountability to those cards.”
Director Cheryl Jacobs agreed.
“To me, this is simply treating the beach club pool like we treat every other pool. It was an abuse of the beach club pool,” she said. “I think this makes sense.”
The directors also approved a $1 increase in daily passes to all pools for nonresidents. Adults 18 and over will now pay $10, and youth passes, for those ages 5-17, will cost $8.
Hill said budget projections related to aquatics for fiscal year 2018 would not be changed because of the fee increases, calling any increase in revenues merely speculative. Instead, he said any additional profits would be placed into reserves.
The directors voted 5-0, with Stevens abstaining, to “create an alternate assessment class” of associate memberships. For an annual $250 fee that covers a single household, associate members can have access to discounted rates at Ocean Pines amenities on the same level as homeowners. A weekly associate membership will cost $10.
In a 6-0 vote, with Director Slobodan Trendic absent during the meeting, the directors agreed to increase the rate for an annual beach club parking-pass from $175 to $200.
Interim General Manager Brett Hill said the additional $25 would support aquatics, increasing the overall subsidy from the beach club to that amenity to $53 per permit sold.
He said the practice of “open passes” would be discontinued. Current parking memberships come with four passes to the beach club pool, good for the season, which were unassigned to any specific person. Under the new rules, an annual pass would come with a family membership to the beach club pool.
“For all of our owners that want to buy a beach club parking permit, they would have a membership for their household … to the beach club pool,” Hill said. “What this discourages is the habits that have formed of landlords or real-estate agents purchasing a permit and then renting that permit out to circumvent our weekly pass structure. We have Ocean Pines revenue that should be, really, coming back to Ocean Pines going into a limited sector of our owners who rent their property out.”
Hill said he worked with local real estate agents to develop a Realtor/renter bundle that would offer the same parking and pool availability, but would better distribute revenues to Ocean Pines.
A six-week package of beach club parking and pool memberships would cost $600, and a 12-week package would cost $1,000. The 12-week packages are extendable, with any additional weeks proposed to cost $80 each, Hill said.
Those packages would include one parking permit and four pool passes per week, sold exclusively to real estate agents and homeowner landlords.
“At the price point in our discussions with the Realtors, we felt that even if it’s a three-night rental or a four-night rental for the long weekends, it’s still more economical than if they were coming in and purchasing the three-day [membership] from us,” Hill said. “There’s still room for the Realtors to make money, which is what they’re in business to do, and Ocean Pines is able to capture the weekly revenue directly from those tenants.”
Board Vice President Dave Stevens argued the reason for the price increases was less about eliminating abuse by rental agents and more about the obvious demand – and limited supply – of beach club parking spaces.
“The reason we’re doing it, I know Brett’s skirting around it, but this is an age-old answer,” he said. “We’re oversold and we’re doing it because we can. Why don’t we just make that perfectly clear? We can add more revenues [and] we think we can continue to oversell the beach club passes.”
Aquatics Director Colby Phillips, however, disputed at least part of that notion. She said the beach club pool had 25,000 visitors last year, 22,000 of which used passes associated to parking memberships. She said revenues there were about $6,000 and that overcrowding was a constant issue.
The Mumford’s Landing pool, on the other hand, had 20,000 visitors and brought in $85,000.
“Anyone can get into that pool [at the beach club],” she said. “There has to be a way to eliminate the overuse of just anyone coming in. There’s no accountability to those cards.”
Director Cheryl Jacobs agreed.
“To me, this is simply treating the beach club pool like we treat every other pool. It was an abuse of the beach club pool,” she said. “I think this makes sense.”
The directors also approved a $1 increase in daily passes to all pools for nonresidents. Adults 18 and over will now pay $10, and youth passes, for those ages 5-17, will cost $8.
Hill said budget projections related to aquatics for fiscal year 2018 would not be changed because of the fee increases, calling any increase in revenues merely speculative. Instead, he said any additional profits would be placed into reserves.
The directors voted 5-0, with Stevens abstaining, to “create an alternate assessment class” of associate memberships. For an annual $250 fee that covers a single household, associate members can have access to discounted rates at Ocean Pines amenities on the same level as homeowners. A weekly associate membership will cost $10.