OCEAN PINES – The Ocean Pines Association board of directors last week decided to begin resolving the question of whether or not Carrollton Lane, which connects Yacht Club Drive to Ocean Parkway, should be a one way street.

As it currently stands, there is a sign delineating the street as one way, making the street inaccessible from Ocean Parkway and in effect doubling the traffic along Mumford Landing Road, to the dismay of the area’s residents.

Since it is not a county road, the decision about how to proceed falls to the board, which took the information about the history of the disagreement under advisement but didn’t debate the solution.

Helen Curley, who spoke in favor of the change, said that while she understood that the 17 members who lived long Carrollton Lane wanted to be exempt from the traffic the rest of the association dealt with, the notion was unfair. 

“These 17 people on Carrollton Lane don’t want a lot of traffic on their street,” she said. “Well, I’m sure the people in Mumford’s Landing don’t either but we all have to get out, don’t we?”

Curley pointed out that Carrollton Lane was 10 feet wider than Mumford’s Landing Road and better suited to both pedestrian and automotive traffic. She addressed the directors at the invitation of General Manager Bob Thompson after the two had had a discussion on the matter.

Frank Philippi, who represented the members who live in Colonial Village on Carrollton Lane, disagreed with Curley’s point of view. He told the directors that many of the people in Colonial Village had made there home purchases with the understanding that their homes were on a one way street.

More than that, however, he said that the amount of traffic generated as the boating season gets under way is significant.

“We’re sort of a pass through neighborhood,” he said. “We thought this thing had been settled years ago.”

Philippi also told the directors that in an effort to dissuade people from cutting through the developer had narrowed part of the road and that to open the road up would require some work.

In the end, the directors told Thompson to research the change process, whether and if the current one way sign is legal, and to compile the records of past debates over the matter. According to Thompson, various attorneys and county representatives have been at odds about who is responsible for deciding the rules of that particular road. 

Curley said that three days after the meeting an Ocean Pines police car was stationed at the road in question, ostensibly as a deterrent. She questioned whether or not the best use of Ocean Pines’ public safety resources was to station an officer at the corner.

“That’s a good use of our police department,” she said with some derision. “It’s really not fair.”

The directors will likely meet with representatives of each of the HOAs with the aim of discovering the dominant opinion about changing or leaving the road directional signs.