(Aug. 18, 2016) One of the first items facing the new Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors when it meets for the first time next week, might be what to do with the comprehensive plan.
Earlier this year, the comprehensive planning committee had a disastrous meeting with the previous board. That led to the termination of a contract with Salisbury University group BEACON, which had been hired to develop the plan, installing Frank Daly as the new chairman and adding Ocean City Planning and Zoning Director Bill Neville to the committee.
Daly, who narrowly missed election to the board last week, will return to lead the committee and will seek the directors’ approval to conduct a community survey.
At the committee’s Aug. 11 meeting, its members appeared to finalize a series of 40 questions, broken up into 14 chapters, for the survey. Since regrouping, the members have approved a basic outline for a comprehensive plan, and the questionnaire was designed to fill in gaps in data.
A draft of the survey provided during the last meeting included questions about growth in the community, stormwater management and drainage, whether the OPA should continue to run its own police force, capital planning and reserves, infrastructure, amenities, demographics and the role of governance.
At times, Facilities Manager Jerry Aveta, who is the staff liaison to the committee, worried that the survey was asking questions that were “too obvious.” He used a question about whether the board should provide an assessment report of critical infrastructure as an example.
“It’s not that people don’t recognize the importance of things. What they agonize over every year is the prioritization of what we do,” he said. “Why have the bridges been deferred for 20 years and we built a brand-new yacht club? Somebody made the priority decision that that was more important than to fix the bridges.”
He later added that none of the bridges in Ocean Pines were unsafe “in the sense that you’re going to drive over them and it’s going to collapse and you’re going to die.”
Daly countered that the information did not have to be “any more complicated than the bridges all passed the state inspection.”
“We’re asking the wrong question,” Aveta said, adding, “What does that get you?”
“Why don’t you ask the community what’s their priority? That is important information,” Aveta said. “You’ve got to say, ‘here are the issues, what do you think?’ You’ve got to educate them on what the needs are, or at least give them choices of the needs so that they can give you the feedback.”
Aveta used the reserve study as an example, calling it a “wonderful tool,” but saying it was so complex that it was difficult to decipher.
“I think you’ve got to make it simple [and] you have to give them a choice about what is urgent in people’s minds. List some needs and say … what do you think is important,” he said.
In an email follow-up on Tuesday, Daly confirmed the survey questions had been finalized and probably would be posted on the Ocean Pines website this week.
“When we meet next, we will discuss how to conduct the survey itself and the issues related to that, such as recommending issuing a request for proposals to outside marketing groups, whether to limit the survey to lot owner’s, and [conducting the survey] online versus mailing a hard copy,” he said. “Once that is complete we will put together a presentation for the new board, review it as a team, and see when they want to meet.”
Earlier this year, the comprehensive planning committee had a disastrous meeting with the previous board. That led to the termination of a contract with Salisbury University group BEACON, which had been hired to develop the plan, installing Frank Daly as the new chairman and adding Ocean City Planning and Zoning Director Bill Neville to the committee.
Daly, who narrowly missed election to the board last week, will return to lead the committee and will seek the directors’ approval to conduct a community survey.
At the committee’s Aug. 11 meeting, its members appeared to finalize a series of 40 questions, broken up into 14 chapters, for the survey. Since regrouping, the members have approved a basic outline for a comprehensive plan, and the questionnaire was designed to fill in gaps in data.
A draft of the survey provided during the last meeting included questions about growth in the community, stormwater management and drainage, whether the OPA should continue to run its own police force, capital planning and reserves, infrastructure, amenities, demographics and the role of governance.
At times, Facilities Manager Jerry Aveta, who is the staff liaison to the committee, worried that the survey was asking questions that were “too obvious.” He used a question about whether the board should provide an assessment report of critical infrastructure as an example.
“It’s not that people don’t recognize the importance of things. What they agonize over every year is the prioritization of what we do,” he said. “Why have the bridges been deferred for 20 years and we built a brand-new yacht club? Somebody made the priority decision that that was more important than to fix the bridges.”
He later added that none of the bridges in Ocean Pines were unsafe “in the sense that you’re going to drive over them and it’s going to collapse and you’re going to die.”
Daly countered that the information did not have to be “any more complicated than the bridges all passed the state inspection.”
“We’re asking the wrong question,” Aveta said, adding, “What does that get you?”
“Why don’t you ask the community what’s their priority? That is important information,” Aveta said. “You’ve got to say, ‘here are the issues, what do you think?’ You’ve got to educate them on what the needs are, or at least give them choices of the needs so that they can give you the feedback.”
Aveta used the reserve study as an example, calling it a “wonderful tool,” but saying it was so complex that it was difficult to decipher.
“I think you’ve got to make it simple [and] you have to give them a choice about what is urgent in people’s minds. List some needs and say … what do you think is important,” he said.
In an email follow-up on Tuesday, Daly confirmed the survey questions had been finalized and probably would be posted on the Ocean Pines website this week.
“When we meet next, we will discuss how to conduct the survey itself and the issues related to that, such as recommending issuing a request for proposals to outside marketing groups, whether to limit the survey to lot owner’s, and [conducting the survey] online versus mailing a hard copy,” he said. “Once that is complete we will put together a presentation for the new board, review it as a team, and see when they want to meet.”